Dominic Raab demands EU get serious about striking a Brexit deal this autumn
BRITAIN will secure a Brexit deal with the EU this autumn if the EU gets serious about it, Dominic Raab has promised.
The Brexit Secretary insisted he was "confident" that a deal was on the cards in the coming weeks, but that it was "always going to be tough" at the end.
He told MPs in the Commons that we are likely to get a deal soon - but didn't commit to the October deadline that ministers are supposed to be still working towards.
"We expect the EU to move in our position and to secure a deal," he said.
And he repeated comments that no new regulatory checks would be able to be introduced in Northern Ireland without the approval from the executive at Stormont - but the Government hasn't been running there for almost two years.
Mr Raab insisted there would "categorically not" be a situation where Britain would stay in a customs union with the European Union for an unlimited period, which Brexiteers fear could happen to solve the Northern Ireland border deadlock.
And he ruled out a free trade deal which Brexiteers including David Davis and Steve Baker are advocating - saying the EU "aren't offering us Canada, Super Canada or FTA".
"We are in the best position to make the very best of Brexit," he insisted this afternoon.
Yet he refused to say that Brussels would see Mrs May's plans for Northern Ireland ahead of the crunch October meeting - only that he "hoped to make progress" during talks there.
Negotiators are "closing in on workable solutions on the remaining issues", he added.
His comments come just hours after David Davis warned that Theresa May's hated Chequers Brexit plans could lose the Tories the next election.
The former Brexit boss said the "electoral consequences could be dire" if the Prime Minister refuses to change tack and deliver a proper clean break from the EU.
He wrote to Tory MPs today to warn them what is at stake if they don't deliver on Britain's historic 2016 referendum result.
Mr Davis, who quit government over the soft-Brexit Chequers plans, said: "If we stay on our current trajectory, we will go into the next election with the government having delivered none of the benefits of Brexit, with the country reduced to being a rule-taker from Brussels, and having failed to deliver on a number of promises in the manifesto....
"It will be very obvious to the electorate... the electoral consequences could be dire."
Meanwhile, an ex-minister said the PM has turned Brexit into a Tarantino film as everyone's afraid of being shot.
Ex-Brexit minister Steve Baker said ordinary members of the public were ";understandably bewildered" by the current state of British politics.
In a series of videos yesterday he said the PM's Chequers plan just wouldn't work and demanded a "clean" break from the bloc with a free trade agreement - like the EU has suggested could work.
He said: "With British politics starting to resemble the closing scene of a Tarantino movie, and debate often descending into mere politics combined with ill-informed pub chat, understandably bewildering ordinary members of the public."
And he said this morning that there are dozens which wouldn't accept it, telling Radio 4: "there are at least 40 colleagues who will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit.
"The EU is not entitled to split the UK," he added.
The comments come as Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab updated MPs today on how our EU exit talks with Brussels are going - after the bloc slapped down Mrs May's Chequers plans during the Salzburg summit last month.
Today even one of Mrs May's loyal allies, former immigration minister Mark Harper, urged her to "chuck" her current proposals in favour of a Canada-style deal with the bloc.
The Forest of Dean MP said getting Labour MPs to back Chequers wouldn't work, saying: "We are going to have to carry this deal on our own benches. If you’re the Prime Minister you do have to listen to colleagues."
With just days left to go for Mrs May to get a deal with the bloc, there was hope at the end of last week that an agreement was "close".
However, Mrs May put on the brakes yesterday, accusing the EU of blocking progress.
“Big issues” still remain to be resolved and that still “requires movement on the EU side”, No10 insisted.
There's no time for a second referendum without delaying Brexit, experts declare
ANOTHER referendum Brexit deal is not possible without pushing back our official exit from the bloc, experts have said.
A fresh report out from academics at the UCL Constitution Unit says that preparations for another vote would take at LEAST 22 weeks.
Which would mean Britain would have to secure an extension to Article 50 to make it work.
The country is set to officially leave the EU on March 29 next year, when a transition agreement is set to kick in.
The boffins at UCL say there are several points another referendum could happen - but it won't be able to happen until at least May 2019.
Any chance of another vote to delay our exit will infuriate Brexiteers - and the 17 million Brits who opted to quit the bloc back in the historic 2016 referendum.
There's still the possibility that a deal can't be reached between Brussels at the UK.
Today the International Monetary Fund demanded that Philip Hammond loosen the purse strings and get spending in the event that happens.
The IMF said: "At a time of heightened uncertainty, monetary policy should remain flexible in response to changing conditions associated with the Brexit negotiation."
The guidance from the fund contradicts what the Chancellor has told the rest of the cabinet - that there isn't much he can do to stop the fall out if we were to leave the bloc without an agreement.
Mrs May is holding out for “a precise future framework” from Brussels over the shape of the UK-EU trade deal to avoid a ‘blind Brexit’.
She needs to get an agreement by next week's European Council Summit to try and get the deal signed off by all the other EU nations in time for our official exit in March 2019.
But an emergency summit has already been pencilled in for next month in case the details can't be ironed out.
The thorny issue of the Northern Irish border after Brexit is causing the biggest headaches - as ministers try to ensure there is no hard border, but also allow Northern Ireland to leave the EU too.
What is the Northern Ireland border and how is it holding up Brexit talks?
Currently the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is open with no checks on goods or people.
Ireland and the UK are in a "common travel area" of passport-free movement.
And as they are both in the EU single market, there is no restriction on goods and no tariffs.
Leaders in London, Belfast, Dublin and Brussels are keen to avoid a "hard border" after Brexit — when the UK has vowed to leave the single market and customs union.
This would mean border checks being reintroduced to monitor movement between jurisdictions operating under the two different regulatory systems.
There were fears this could have jeopardised the Good Friday Agreement peace deal.
But putting Northern Ireland under a similar regime to the rest of Ireland would split the North up from the UK.
The DUP - Theresa May's close allies - won't stand for this and would withdraw their support for her government if she abandoned them.
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Today Mrs May's Northern Irish allies, the DUP, travel to Brussels to meet the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier for further talks on how to resolve the impasse.
They won't accept anything which involves new checks and splits them up from the rests of the UK and puts a virtual border in the Irish sea.
"The United Kingdom single market must be protected with no new borders between Northern Ireland and Great Britain being created," she said last night. "From day one this has been the DUP's only red line."
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