ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Theresa May has appeared to suggest Britain is preparing to leave the single market during Brexit.

The Prime Minister insisted the UK will not try to "keep bits of membership" of the EU as she was asked about Britain's future in the single market.

Speaking on Sky News, Mrs May insisted she will be able to secure control over immigration to the UK as well as favourable trading terms with the EU during Brexit negotiations.

She also denied claims the government is crippled by "muddled thinking" over the issue of Britain's future relationship with the EU

She said: "Often people talk in terms as if somehow we are leaving the EU but we still want to kind of keep bits of membership of the EU.

"We are leaving. We are coming out. We are not going to be a member of the EU any longer.

"So the question is what is the right relationship for the UK to have with the European Union when we are outside.

"We will be able to have control of our borders, control of our laws.

"This is what people were voting for on June 23. But of course we still want the best possible deal for us, companies to be able to trade, UK companies to be able to trade in and operate within the European Union and also European companies to be able to trade with the UK and operate within the UK."

The potential shape of the UK's Brexit deal has dominated the domestic political landscape since the UK voted to the leave the European Union on June 23 last year.

Critics believe it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the Government to secure access to the single market while also demanding full control of the UK's borders.

But Mrs May said: "It's wrong to look at this as just a binary issue as to either you have control of immigration or you have a good trade deal.

"I don't see it as a binary issue. We will outside the European Union be able to have control of immigration and be able to set our rules for people coming to the UK from member states of the European Union but we also as part of that Brexit deal will be working to get the best possible deal in the trading relationship with the European Union."

Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK's former top EU diplomat, shocked Westminster and Brussels with his resignation from the role on Tuesday.

Mrs May was asked during her interview on the Sophy Ridge On Sunday show if Sir Ivan's assessment, set out in an email to staff, that there was "muddled thinking" over Brexit was accurate.

She said: "Not at all and if I can just come back to the last point just to reiterate this last point because I think it's very important.

"Anybody who looks at this question of free movement and trade as a sort of zero sum game is approaching it in the wrong way.

"I'm ambitious for what we can get for the UK in terms of our relationship with the European Union because I also think that's going to be good for the European Union.

"Our thinking on this isn't muddled at all.”

Mrs May said she was concentrating on "not the means to the end but what the outcome is" as she looks ahead to negotiating the UK's divorce from Brussels.