The Prime Minister told his Cabinet in a conference call on Sunday there is still a “significant amount of work” to do to get a Brexit deal. While briefing senior ministers on progress in the negotiations in Brussels, he added President of the European Council Donald Tusk has given him 48 hours until Tuesday to reach a deal, according to The Sun’s Political Editor Tom Newton Dunn. A Number 10 spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister updated Cabinet on the current progress being made in ongoing Brexit negotiations, reiterating that a pathway to a deal could be seen but that there is still a significant amount of work to get there and we must remain prepared to leave on October 31.
“The Prime Minister said there was a way forward for a deal that could secure all our interests, respect the Good Friday Agreement, get rid of the backstop and get Brexit done by October 31 so we can push on with domestic agenda, investing in our NHS, tackling violent crime, and dealing with the cost of living.”
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds also warned ministers that any return to Theresa May’s thrice-failed plan to resolve the issue of the Irish border would not be acceptable to his party.
His words came after reports from Brussels suggested Mr Johnson was trying to revive a proposal by Mrs May for Northern Ireland to remain politically in a customs union with the EU, but it would be administered by the UK.
The plan would avoid the need for customs controls on the island of Ireland – something the EU is adamantly opposed to.
But Mr Dodds told the Italian La Repubblica newspaper that Northern Ireland “must stay in a full UK customs union, full stop”.
He said: “It cannot work because Northern Ireland has to remain fully part of the UK customs union.”
Meanwhile, Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg has issued an appeal to Brexiteers to trust Boris Johnson as negotiations on a deal with Brussels enter a critical stage this week.
He even hinted he may even have to “eat my words” and support a plan close to one put forward by Theresa May which he previously described as “completely cretinous”.
Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I think that he is somebody who even the arch Eurosceptics, even a member of the Brexit Party, can trust and have confidence in.”
