Renewed fears of a hard Brexit has sent the pound sterling sliding in early trading on Monday morning. The UK currency is currently trading just below £0.87 against the euro – its weakest value relative to the European currency since November. Sterling is faring even worse against the US dollar as it dipped below $1.22 for the first time since October.

This latest retreat in sterling comes after Prime Minister Theresa May gave her strongest indication to date that the UK would leave the EU single market. In an interview over the weekend, Theresa May warned that the UK would not be keeping “bits of membership” of the EU.

“Often people talk in terms as if somehow we are leaving the EU but we still want to kind of keep bits of membership of the EU. We are leaving. We are coming out. We are not going to be a member of the EU any longer,” said May.

“We will be able to have control of our borders, control of our laws. Anybody who looks at this question of free movement and trade as a sort of zero sum game is approaching it in the wrong way,” she said.