...and similarly, many leading members of the leave campaign argued that we would not leave the single market. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other if you look at the speculative arguments put forward during the referendum campaign.
On the other hand, it is a stonewall fact that the single market and EU are separate entities - Norway and others clearly demonstrate this. It is also a fact that the Conservatives ran their election campaignon the basis of a hard Brexit, leaving the single market etc, and promptly lost their majority.
As a country, we've spent the last six decades or so getting by by taking the middle road - neither the socialised economies ran by large chunks of mainland Europe, but equally with a much stronger safety net than you find across the pond. Infrastructure and management that are not particularly good compared to German standards, but generally at least well utilised compared with the empty airports and roads to nowhere you find Spain, etc etc. The idea that we should be interpreting the result of a 52/48 refendum (which opinion polls say would now go the other way) as meaning we should take the most extreme option available from the winning side was always ridiculous, self-harming and frankly un-British considering our values of moderation and sensible compromise. Thankfully, it now seems like a mixture of our weak negotiating position and there being a handful of Tory MPs happy to put country before party means that hard Brexit is pretty much dead. Good riddance.
Incidentally, two of the key warnings of the remain campaign were of economic damage and the fact that we would have a weak hand in negotiations. On the first, we've gone from being the fastest growing member of the G8 to the slowest. Our economy is barely moving forward at a time when most of the world (including the Eurozone!) is steaming along. On the second, well, look at the terms of that exit deal. Every time the press report that we have 'reached an agreement', it can be roughly translated as us having capitulated to the demands of the EU, because they hold all the cards. It's humiliating, but hey, us remoaners never promised it would be anything other than that.