May vows 'maximum possible access' to EU market after Brexit

Britain will seek "maximum possible access" to the European market once it leaves the EU, Theresa May has said.

But the Prime Minister stressed the 23 June vote also meant "we should control the movement of people from the EU into the UK".

In the first Prime Minister's Questions since the Conservatives and Labour held their party conferences, Mrs May and Jeremy Corbyn traded barbs, mostly over Brexit.

"What we are going to do is be ambitious in our negotiation, to negotiate the best deal for the British people and that will include the maximum possible access to the European market for firms to trade with and operate within," Mrs May told the Commons.

"I'm also clear that the vote of the British people said we should control the movement of people from the EU into the UK, and ... we believe we should deliver on what the British people want."

In Berlin, a spokesman for Angela Merkel reiterated the German Chancellor's long-standing position on the issue of access to the single market.

"A key assertion of the Chancellor in the last months has … always been that full participation in the EU internal market means that the country that wants such participation must also fully subscribe to the free movement of people", said Steffen Seibert.

Mrs May also denied that a Government plan to make companies list foreign workers was a case of "naming and shaming".

But she came under repeated attack by Mr Corbyn, with the Opposition leader at one point saying she risks a "shambolic Tory Brexit" to appease her backbenchers.

"This is a Government which drew up no plans for Brexit, that now has no strategy for negotiating Brexit and offers no clarity, no transparency and no chance of scrutiny of the process for developing a strategy," he said.

The Brexit minister, David Davis, has said Britain is not yet in a position to give details of what it wants from the negotiations beyond its "overarching aims".

"The overarching aims are these: bringing back control of laws to parliament, bringing back control over decisions of immigration to the UK, maintaining the strong security cooperation that we have with the European Union and establishing the freest possible market in goods and services with the European Union and the rest of the world," he said.

Mrs May has granted MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) greater scrutiny over the Brexit process to try to quell a rebellion by Tory backbenchers.

"Parliament is going to have every opportunity to debate this issue," she said.

However, Mrs May has ruled out a vote in Parliament over the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which marks the start of two years of formal negotiations with Brussels.

Earlier, Labour MP Pat McFadden, of the Open Britain campaign, urged MPs to "push for a vote on the Government's negotiating terms".