A lot of Remainers, myself included, would have been happy enough with a Norway- or Switzerland-style model. And the EU did offer the UK various flavours of "a

A lot of Remainers, myself included, would have been happy enough with a Norway- or Switzerland-style model. And the EU did offer the UK various flavours of "a non-EU country with common market access and freedom of movement etc.", according to the news in the UK at the time. Those were all turned down by the UK government. What you're describing was called by many a "soft Brexit". As you may recall, there were many voices demanding a "hard Brexit" instead. In the end, the hard-Brexiters won by political strategy. I don't think they were even in the majority. So I don't think it can be said correctly that "they never intended to leave the common market". The UK wanted some trade benefits of the common market, but they also wanted something they could sell politically as a "hard Brexit". That meant a lot of things had to be seen to be changed, and also it required "freedom of movement will end" - that is, the UK in the end insisted that it be nothing like the Norway or Switzerland models.