The European Union's former chief Brexit negotiator has warned Britain it cannot pick and choose which parts of the single market it wants, as the Government prepares for a summit with Brussels later this month.

Michel Barnier, who led the EU side in the Brexit talks between 2016 and 2021 and later served briefly as France's prime minister, said there was no "single market a la carte" on offer to London. Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said any British return to the single market would require acceptance of all four of its founding freedoms: the movement of goods, services, capital and people.

"There will be no possibility to have one freedom and not the other," he said. "The four freedoms are clearly the four conditions to be inside a single market."

Mr Barnier added that the "door is open" for Britain to rejoin the EU as a full member.

The warning comes ahead of the second UK-EU summit, in Brussels on 20 November, where the two sides hope to agree deals on food standards, youth mobility and linking British industry to the EU's carbon trading scheme.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July, has said he wants to explore closer ties with Europe after the summit, including the option of rejoining the bloc, and has suggested the choices could eventually be put to the public.

He has ruled out major changes before the next election, and has said he would not restore free movement of people without a referendum, a position Downing Street has since clarified.

Free movement remains the most politically sensitive of the four freedoms, having been a central issue in the 2016 referendum.

[Source: theoldhamtimes.co.uk](https://www.theoldhamtimes.co.uk/news/national/26708887.former-eu-negotiator-warns-uk-will-not-able-pick-choose-trade-rules/) | [Source: europesays.com](https://www.europesays.com/europe/176383/)