UK will retain access to single market, says Boris Johnson

Former mayor of London says Britain will always be part of Europe despite Brexit

Britain will continue to have access to the European Union's single market despite voting to leave the bloc, leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson said in a newspaper article on Sunday.

Mr Johnson, the favourite to become the country’s next prime minister, said Britain could now forge a relationship with the EU based on free trade and partnership rather than a federal system, and that Britain would also be able to do free trade deals with growth economies outside the EU.

"There will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market," Mr Johnson wrote in a regular column for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, adding that there was "no great rush" for Britain to extricate itself from the EU.

He continued: "I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be.

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“There will still be intense and intensifying European cooperation and partnership in a huge number of fields: the arts, the sciences, the universities, and on improving the environment.”

Mr Johnson said Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who came under fire from some Leave campaigners ahead of the referendum for flagging the risks of leaving the union, should continue in his job.

“The economy is in good hands,” he said. “Most sensible people can see that Bank of England governor Mark Carney has done a superb job – and now that the referendum is over, he will be able to continue his work without being in the political firing-line.”

He also said he did not detect "any real appetite" for another Scottish independence referendum, despite the country's first minister Nicola Sturgeon saying it was highly likely if it was the best option to keep Scotland in the bloc.

Scotland voted to stay in the EU by 62 to 38 per cent in Thursday's referendum, putting it at odds with the United Kingdom as a whole, which voted by 52 to 48 per cent in favour of an exit from the bloc.

Reuters