Birmingham: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May has called for patience as her government negotiates its exit from the European Union, which she says will formally begin by the end of March 2017.
Mrs May announced the timing as the 2016 Tory party conference opened in Birmingham in England's West Midlands on Sunday and gave a strong indication she would back a so-called hard Brexit where Britain would leave the single market and control its migrant intake from the EU.
The announcement is seen as the Prime Minister's first tangible progress since the country voted to leave in June.
Mrs May, who has been under pressure to say what Brexit means, said her government would not be able to provide a "blow-by-blow" account of the negotiations because she didn't want them to be compromised by "hyped media reports."
"History is littered with negotiations that failed when the interlocutors predicted the outcome in detail and in advance," she told delegates
"Every stray word and every hyped up media report is going to make it harder for us to get the right deal for Britain.
"So we have to stay patient, but when there are things to say – as there are today – we will keep the public informed and up to date."
She also promised a Great Repeal Bill would be put to Parliament soon to void all European laws.
"And its effect will be clear: our laws will be made not in Brussels but in Westminster," she said, picking up on a common refrain of the Vote Leave campaign.
Mrs May's speech did not offer much detail on key questions surrounding Britain's exit, including whether or not Britain will look to stay in the single market.
She said Britain would control its own immigration, and foreshadowed an arrangement where British and European businesses enjoyed "maximum freedom to trade with and operate in the single market."
But she drew a red line under Britain being subjected to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
"Let me be clear: we are not leaving the European Union only to give up control of immigration again," she said. "And we are not leaving only to return to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice."
Mrs May scoffed at suggestions of a "hard" or "soft" Brexit, saying it was a false dichotomy propagated by those who had not accepted the referendum result.
She lauded Britain's place in the world and said the island nation did not need to punch above its weight "because our weight is substantial enough already."
The Prime Minister cited initial scoping work that had ben done with Australia and New Zealand to form free trade agreements as evidence Britain could "stand tall…[and] forge an ambitious and optimistic new role in the world."
Once Article 50 is triggered, Britain has two years to negotiate its exit from the EU, meaning any negative effects would jolt the economy just one year before the next election is scheduled for 2020.
Meanwhile, former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is due to make an appearance at the conference on Monday to discuss Britain's opportunities post-Brexit during an event hosted by the conservative magazine The Spectator.
He will also tell a UK-Australian business group in London that there should be free movement for British and Australians between the two countries, and that Australia and Britain should negotiate an "open-slather" agreement that would be ready to come into force the day Britain leaves.
