'First you exit then you talk'
EU tells UK over trade negotiations; Theresa May ahead as Gove makes his case to replace Cameron 11
Crisis deepened yesterday as UK and EU politicians have given very different accounts of how the UK's Brexit negotiations should proceed.
The EU's Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, says the UK cannot begin negotiating trade terms with the bloc until after it has left.
"First you exit then you negotiate," she told BBC Newsnight.
But one of the candidates to be next UK PM, Liam Fox, called that stance "bizarre and stupid", saying the Brexit talks would include trade.
At the EU summit this week the 27 government leaders - without the UK - agreed Brexit "divorce" talks should begin and end before any talks on a new settlement for the UK. Brussels sources told BBC there was a real determination among the leaders not to mix the two.
In Britain, support grew yesterday for British interior minister Theresa May's bid to succeed premier David Cameron and lead the country out of the EU, after Boris Johnson's shock withdrawal from the race.
Dozens of Conservative MPs have backed her bid to take over from Cameron, who announced his resignation after losing a referendum last week in which 52 percent of Britons voted to quit the EU.
May supported the "Remain" campaign but has assured "Leave" supporters she will proceed with Brexit although she said she would not begin formal talks with the EU before the end of the year.
Justice minister Michael Gove, a top Brexit campaigner who torpedoed former London mayor Johnson's chances by announcing his own candidacy on Thursday, is seen as May's main rival.
"This country voted for change and I am going to deliver it," he said in a speech in which he repeatedly stressed May's support for "Remain".
"The best person to lead Britain out of the European Union is someone who argued to get Britain out of the European Union," he said, adding that he would clamp down on immigration if he becomes leader.
Cameron, who promised the referendum in what was seen as an effort to see off a challenge from the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP), has said he will leave it to his successor to start formal exit talks.