Ireland will 'never accept' deal allowing UK to end backstop alone, minister warns Dominic Raab

Brexit deal will be agreed within three weeks, Dominic Raab tells MPs

Ireland has made clear it will "never accept" a Brexit deal that allows the UK to unilaterally end a Northern Ireland "backstop".

On his Twitter account, Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, said a "time-limited backstop" to the Irish border that could be ended unilaterally by the UK "would never be agreed to" by the Republic of Ireland or the EU.

It comes following reports that Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EU's proposed backstop after just three months.

On Monday, Theresa May also held a phone call with Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, who said he was open to a "review" mechanism for the backstop.

Ms May told her counterpart she was still committed to a full backstop, despite Mr Raab’s comments.

Speaking earlier in Dublin Mr Varadkar had said a time-limited backstop as suggested by Mr Raab would not be worth the paper it was written on.

“As a government we’re working very hard to get an agreement, ideally by the end of the year, but you know one thing we can’t countenance is any idea that there’d be a three-month limit on the backstop,” he told the Irish media.

See how the day in Westminster unfolded below

Key Points

• Johnson calls PM's proposed Brext deal an 'absolute stinker'
• Top lawyers call on May to give voters a final say on Brexit deal
• Banks 'contradicted his own evidence' over £8m Leave funding

[5 November 2018 10:42 · Ashley Cowburn]

[5 November 2018 10:43 · Ashley Cowburn]

[5 November 2018 10:46 · Ashley Cowburn]

Welcome to The Independent's politics live blog - we'll be bringing you all the latest updates from Westminster throughout the day.

[5 November 2018 10:49 · Ashley Cowburn]

[5 November 2018 10:58 · Ashley Cowburn]

This is from Sabine Weyand, the deputy chief Brexit negotiator at the European Commission.

[5 November 2018 11:18 · Ashley Cowburn]

[5 November 2018 11:49 · Ashley Cowburn]

Remain-backing Conservative MP Dominic Grieve said reported proposals for the UK to remain in a customs union following EU withdrawal made clear that the whole Brexit process was "questionable".

The former attorney general told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "At the end of the day it highlights why the entire enterprise is questionable, because in fact what we are likely to end up with is leaving the EU but staying in a relationship of sufficient dependency on it without influence as to call into question the whole project."

"I don't accept that rejecting the deal would necessarily mean it is no deal at all," said Mr Grieve. "Of course it would provoke a political crisis ... but there comes a point where you have to look to the long term.

"If the long term is that we are simply going to be continuing this argument long after we've left the EU on March 29 next year as to what our future relationship with it is going to be, then, quite frankly, it would be better to have that argument now and let the public decide what they want and if they are content with the arrangements the Government has come up with."

[5 November 2018 11:55 · Ashley Cowburn]

[5 November 2018 12:31 · Ashley Cowburn]

Theresa May’s spokesman has refused to say whether the UK has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EU's proposed Irish backstop after just three months.

He also declined to recognise an unofficial deadline of this week to make progress in the talks – before hopes of a special summit this month to agree a deal have to be abandoned.

Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, has angered the Irish government by saying the UK must have the unilateral right to pull the plug on the backstop – the guarantee of no return to a hard border – and, apparently, put the demand in a letter to Theresa May.

Asked about the reports, the spokesman said he “would not comment on any private correspondence between the prime minister and ministers”.

And, on the right to end the backstop after as little as three months, he said only: “We don’t want the backstop to be in place indefinitely and are looking for a mechanism to achieve that.”

The Cabinet will discuss Brexit tomorrow, but it appears unlikely that any key decisions will be reached that would clear the way for the prime minister to strike a deal by the end of the week.

No 10 insists that whether the EU calls a special summit in November is a “decision for them” – saying only that the UK wants to reach an agreement “as soon as we can”.

[5 November 2018 12:32 · Ashley Cowburn]