EU leaders urge May to begin post-Brexit talks... as Cameron packs his bags

'We will have difficult negotiations with Britain, it will not be easy'

A removal van loaded with cardboard boxes is inspected by police before entering Downing Street (Getty Images)

Theresa May has been urged to get on with resolving the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the EU as quickly as possible.

Angela Merkel has lead a series of European leaders in calls for Britain's Prime Minister-elect to begin negotiations with EU countries to avert any paralysis across the continent.

The German chancellor has said the UK should clarify quickly how it wants to shape its future relationship with the European Union and warned that the forthcoming Brexit talks will “not be easy”.

It comes as Ms May and the Chancellor, George Osborne, led tributes to the Prime Minister as he bid farewell to his top team by chairing an "emotional" final Cabinet meeting.

The new Tory leader posed for photos as she arrived at 10 Downing Street - as removal vans began the process of moving out Mr Cameron.

May has reiterated her stance at her victory speech that “Brexit means Brexit” and there will be no attempts to stay within the EU.

“There will be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to re-join it by the back door, and no second referendum. The country voted to leave the European Union and as Prime Minister I will make sure that we leave the European Union," Ms May said.

“The Brexit vote was also a message that we need to bring control to free movement. Free movement cannot continue as it has up to now”.

On Tuesday, the eurozone's top official, Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, told Mrs May to "find solutions for the Brexit which has been causing a lot of problems particularly for the UK, but also for Europe."

Ahead of a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels, he said that the "sooner we can sort out this problematic situation, the better."

The comments indicate that the EU is still willing to play hardball with Britain over the Brexit negotiations, which will be at the top of the new PM's list when she enters No 10.

The German Chancellor has warned that there can be no “cherry picking” of what it wants to keep from its EU membership while jettisoning aspects of the relationship it does not like. “We will have difficult negotiations with Britain, it will not be easy,” Merkel told conservative supporters in eastern Germany on Monday.

“But of course the EU and the remaining 27 member states also have to protect their interests,” Ms Merkel said during a speech at the annual diplomatic corps reception in Meseberg, north of Berlin.

And despite suggestions from senior British politicians that access to the tariff-free market could continue alongside curbing migration from the bloc, Ms Merkel said: “For example, whoever would like to have free access to the European internal market will also have to accept all basic freedoms in return, including the free movement of people.”

In an interview with the ZDF TV channel, the German Chancellor added: “The decision has been taken . . . and the next step is — and Britain will do this only when they have a new prime minister — to invoke Article 50,” she said. “I expect that to happen. I deal with reality and I firmly expect that application will be made.”

Ms Merkel added: “We have spoken to Britain and made clear there will be no negotiations with Britain until they have made their application, and there will be no cherry picking.”

Donald Tusk, the European Council President, has previously warned that Britain must accept the EU’s four freedoms – people, goods, capital and services – to retain access to the tariff-free single market. He added that there will be no formal negotiations until the British prime minister has triggered Article 50.

After the Leave campaign won on a promise to cut immigration, the new Prime Minister will be under great pressure to get a deal that does not include acquiescence to freedom of movement rules. But Theresa May, so far, has failed to outline how she will negotiate this relaxation of the EU’s four freedoms in the face of such vocal opposition from the 27 other EU member states.

“We wish UK as close partner. Access to the single market means acceptance of all four freedoms. No single market à la carte… many expect Europe to do better. Europe brought hope for decades. Our responsibility to return that,” Mr Tusk added.

Mr Cameron had been planning to use the G20 summit in China in early September as his keynote signing-off point from the gallery of global leaders, but it will now mark Mrs May's introduction to such set-piece international gatherings instead.

With the Tory leadership race timetabled to climax on September 9, Mr Cameron had expected to attend the meeting of the leaders of the world's 20 most significant economies, and then return home for a final Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons on September 7.

Mr Cameron will now complete his final set-piece parliamentary duty at PMQs on Wednesday before formally resigning during an audience with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.