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Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said he was “utterly disappointed” but unsurprised by Theresa May's Brexit speech .

The Prime Minister vowed to leave the single market to curb immigration and signalled she was ready to quit the customs union.

But the Tory leader pledged to give Parliament a vote on the final deal she strikes with Brussels.

Mr Farron accused her of giving up on reforming the single market.

“If you have any confidence in your strength as a negotiator you don't give up, you go and argue for membership of the single market on your terms. It seems to me this is a waving of the white flag,” he said.

“This is the day Theresa May clearly becomes the prisoner of the protectionist right of her party and gives up on any pretence of the Tory Party being a friend of business.”

(Image: Daily Mirror / Adam Gerrard)

He taunted Mrs May for being in hock to her party's extreme wing, likening her position to that of Jeremy Corbyn with Labour's Momentum faction.

He added: “Is she in power or is she a prisoner of Tory Momentum, the fact the Conservative Party now belongs to a bunch of Conservative right-wingers rather than a bunch of pragmatic, pro-business people?

“If you're a business large or small and you're giving a penny to the Tory Party you are funding your own funeral.”

Premier Xi Jingping of communist China, visiting the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, was more committed to free trade than Mrs May and incoming US President Donald Trump, indicated Mr Farron.

(Image: Getty)

“The world has gone topsy-turvy when the leader of the world's largest, most populous country, therefore the most important remaining communist country, is going to Davos to lecture everybody else on free trade,” he said.

“That is the madness of the protectionist right that we have found ourselves in on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Mr Farron called for the public to be given a second referendum on the terms of the final EU-UK deal .

“You're going to allow the partially-elected Parliament the final say but ignore the British people who will probably disagree with the deal,” he rapped.

“That is a theft of democracy. She's basically taken the 51.9% who voted to leave last June and assumed they all bought Farage's line.

(Image: Daily Mirror/Ian Vogler)

“We wait seven months for a plan – she's given us a plan but it's UKIP's.”

He believed Parliament rejecting the final pact could mean Britain staying in the EU rather than leaving without a deal.

But he added: “Judges and parliament have no right to prevent Brexit .

“However, British people should not be carved out from the final say on the deal.”

Mr Farron also hit out the PM's warning to the EU not to punish the UK, claiming it was an “unwise negotiating tactic”.