THERESA May yesterday admitted that Brexit might not be the success she’s previously claimed it would be.

In a speech, highly anticipated in Europe, in which the Prime Minister had promised to flesh out what Britain’s future relationship with the EU might look like, she admitted that it was unlikely the UK would have the exact same access to the single market that it does at the moment.

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Britain would have to face up to “hard facts,” she said, Brexit would be difficult, but if there was “pragmatic common sense” there could still be a broad and deep trade deal.

May told the audience in London’s Mansion House: “We are leaving the single market. Life is going to be different. In certain ways, our access to each other’s markets will be less than it is now.

“How could the EU’s structure of rights and obligations be sustained, if the UK – or any country – were allowed to enjoy all the benefits without all of the obligations?”

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That contradicted a promise made by May last year, when, in an interview with the BBC she said that despite a “different relationship” the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and the EU would “have the same benefits in terms of that free access to trade.”

The Prime Minister also used her speech to strongly reject EU claims that what the UK wanted in a free trade deal amounted to is “cherry-picking”.

That came as she called for a free trade agreement, that would go further than the deal signed between the EU and Canada, but short of Norway which is a member of the European Economic Area.

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“We need to strike a new balance. but we will not accept the rights of Canada and the obligations of Norway,” she said.

She said every country with a free trade agreement with the EU has “varying market access depending on the respective interests of the countries involved”.

“If this is cherry-picking, then every trade arrangement is cherry-picking,” she argued.

May added: “What would be cherry-picking would be if we were to seek a deal where our rights and obligations were not held in balance. And I have been categorically clear that is not what we are going to do.”

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In another climbdown, the Tory leader also admitted that EU legal decisions would continue to affect the UK after Brexit.

“Even after we have left the jurisdiction of the [European Court of Justice], EU law and the decisions of the ECJ will continue to affect us.

“For a start, the ECJ determines whether agreements the EU has struck are legal under the EU’s own law – as the US found when the ECJ declared the safe harbor framework for data sharing invalid.

“When we leave the EU, the Withdrawal Bill will bring EU law into UK law. That means cases will be determined in our courts. But, where appropriate, our courts will continue to look at the ECJ’s judgments, as they do for the appropriate jurisprudence of other countries’ courts.”

Last year, in her Lancaster House speech, May had promised that the Brexit would mean taking “back control of our laws” and “bringing an end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in Britain.”

In 2016, she had told the Tory party conference: “Our laws will be made not in Brussels but in Westminster.

“The judges interpreting those laws will sit not in Luxembourg but in courts in this country. The authority of EU law in Britain will end ... [We] are not leaving only to return to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.”

While May also reaffirmed her commitment to no hard border in Ireland, she didn’t set out detail on how this would be possible, but promised that she would work to find a solution, and said firmly that the UK had a responsibility to not just shirk off the complexities of Ireland because it didn’t suit Brexit.

“It is not good enough to say ‘we won’t introduce a hard border; if the EU forces Ireland to do it, that’s down to them’.

“We chose to leave; we have a responsibility to help find a solution. But we can’t do it on our own. It is for all of us to work together.”

Other key passages from the speech including a promise to accept “binding commitments” on some EU regulations and exploring options to staying part of the European Medicines Agency, the European Chemicals Agency, and the European Aviation Safety Agency after Brexit, even though this would mean “abiding by the rules of those agencies and making an appropriate financial contribution.”

The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 but it wants a transition period lasting around two years after that, intended to smooth the way to the future post-Brexit relatioship between the UK and the EU.