Brexit: May to outline vision for 'deepest' EU trade deal

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Theresa May is promising to tell an impatient European Union on Friday what Britain is prepared to give and what it wants to take in a post-Brexit trade deal with the bloc.

In a speech aimed at answering critics who accuse Britain of failing to grasp the tough realities of leaving the EU, May will call for "the broadest and deepest possible agreement -- covering more sectors and co-operating more fully than any free trade agreement anywhere in the world today."

May's office says she will say Britain wants to maintain "high standards" of regulation, like the EU's, while having the right to diverge from EU rules over time.

She will say that Britain's joint aims are "a bold and comprehensive economic partnership with our neighbours in the EU, and reaching out beyond to foster trade agreements with nations across the globe."

That could be seen by the EU as cherry-picking benefits of membership, something it insists Britain can't do.

The U.K. is due to leave the EU in March 2019, but the two sides have yet to negotiate new arrangements for trade, security, aviation and a host of other fields.

EU leaders have warned that May's insistence on leaving the EU's single market and customs union makes the close ties she is seeking impossible.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, an opponent of Brexit, said May could no longer get away with "vacuous, meaningless rhetoric."

Sturgeon tweeted that May's speech "must set out exactly HOW she intends to achieve her (seemingly contradictory and unachievable if we leave single market/customs union) objectives."

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