Britain yesterday got its first taste of a future outside the EU as Europe’s leaders met without premier David Cameron and warned London must accept EU migrants to win access to the bloc’s free trade zone.
European leaders gathering without a British representative for the first time in 40 years poured cold water on the chance of Britain gaining no-strings-attached access to the huge EU single market of 500mn people.
“Leaders made it crystal clear today that access to the single market requires acceptance of all four freedoms, including freedom of movement,” EU president Donald Tusk told a news conference.
The statement was a blow to “Brexit” campaigners, who promised to restrict large-scale EU migration to Britain while assuring British companies would still be able to easily sell goods and services to the continent.
It came as the domestic tremors from the referendum shock continued, with Cameron urging the embattled head of the opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, to step down, saying “for heaven’s sake man, go”.
Cameron, who himself is under pressure to quickly initiate divorce proceedings by formally telling the EU Britain wants to leave, attended his last EU summit in Brussels Tuesday.
French President Francois Hollande echoed Tusk’s position after yesterday’s meeting of the 27 other EU members.
“If Britain wants to have common market access, like Norway for example, then the UK will have to respect...the free movement of goods, capital, people and services,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also warned that London cannot not “cherry-pick” the terms of the exit negotiations.
Cameron has resisted pressure to immediately activate the Article 50 mechanism to leave the EU, saying he is leaving it to his successor, who will not be named until September 9.
EU leaders say that until this notification is made, no talks can begin — formally or informally — on resetting Britain’s ties with the EU, a process meant to last two years.
After meeting Cameron on Tuesday  afternoon. EU leaders expressed some understanding for his predicament, but European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stressed that Britain cannot “meditate for months”.
Some in Brussels are concerned that giving Britain favourable divorce terms will spark a domino effect of others leaving the EU, with euroscepticism growing in many member states.
In an effort to tackle this, the leaders agreed yesterday they need to do more to battle what a final joint statement called “dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.”
“Europeans expect us to do better when it comes to providing security, jobs and growth, as well as hope for a better future,” they said, announcing a “political reflection to give an impulse to further reforms”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile said on Tuesday that the “very complicated divorce” that is Brexit might never happen.
Asked if he thought the decision to leave the EU could be “walked back” and if so how, Kerry said, without elaborating: “I think there are a number of ways.”