UK's May says her plans mean Britain cannot remain in EU single market

[January 17, 2017]    LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said her plans for Britain's exit from the European Union mean that it could no longer remain in the single market but she would seek a deal that would take in some aspects of membership.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a speech on leaving the European Union at Lancaster House in London, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool

"What I am proposing cannot mean membership of the single market," she said in a speech in London, adding that would mean not leaving the bloc at all.

"Instead we seek the greatest possible access to it though a new comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement. That agreement may take in elements of current single-market arrangements in certain areas."

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)

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