'Contradictory' government position on Brexit means UK heading for 'painful collison with reality', says Nick Clegg

Former deputy prime minister says Theresa May's position being influenced by 'a lot of very zealous people' in Conservative Party

Theresa May’s “contradictory” position on Brexit means the Government is on course for a “painful collision with reality”, Nick Clegg has said.

The former Deputy Prime Minister said the Prime Minister was wrong to try to take Britain out of the single market and was following the wishes of “a lot of very zealous people in her own party”.

Mr Clegg, who was leader of the Liberal Democrats until 2015, also suggested the Government is still in a “honeymoon period” and predicted much worse is to come.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “This is now very early days. This is the easy bit where the Government sets out its stall. What will now happen is there will be a collision – in my view possibly quite a painful collision – with reality, with negotiating with 27 governments and parliaments and also a collision with the contradiction of the Government’s own position.

“You can’t, for instance, on the one hand espouse free trade and then yank yourselves out of the world’s most successful free trading area - the single market.”

Speaking days after Theresa May laid out her 12-point plan for taking Britain out of the EU, including withdrawal from the single market and customs union, Mr Clegg suggested the Prime Minister risked sacrificing the national interest for the sake of appeasing her own MPs.

He said: “Theresa May basically has one of two options: she will either have to compromise with the rest of the European Union, which I hope she does in the national interest, but in doing so she will aggravate and annoy a lot of very zealous people in her own party.

“Or she will have to stick with what she’s got, dig her heels in, and that will be very bad for the country.”

The Sheffield Hallam MP said that claims Britain's withdrawal from the single market could be compensated for through new trade deals with Commonwealth countries were untrue.

“No trade agreement with America, however ambitious, can replace or match what we are potentially going to lose on our own doorstep in Europe”, he said.

“Even doubling UK trade with the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India would not match current trading with the EU.”

As Jeremy Corbyn confirmed his party would not attempt to block the triggering of Article 50, Mr Clegg accused Labour of having “suffered a catastrophic loss of nerve on the European issue”.

He said: “There is a very real prospect that the fate that occurred to the Labour Party north of the border will now, in one shape or form, happen south of the border.

“The Labour Party is in danger of being cannibalised by Ukip at one end and the Liberal Democrats at the other.

The party was “dithering rather helplessly in the middle of the road” on Brexit and has shown “an absolute lack of clarity about the biggest issue of our times”, he added.

Mr Clegg also predicted the British public will begin having “some doubts” about Brexit once it becomes clear the UK will still have to abide by some of the single market’s rules.