Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said Britain cannot "have its cake and eat it", as the government in London distanced itself from a memo including the aim to have the best of both worlds from Brexit.

"They want to have their cake, eat it, and get a smile from the baker, but not the other things," Bettel told AFP in an interview on Monday evening in his office in Luxembourg. "There are European values which cannot be separated. No cherry-picking."