Grayling warns of no-deal Brexit unless EU soften Irish position

Cabinet minister Chris Grayling warned that a no-deal Brexit was on the cards if the European Union did not soften its position regarding the Irish border.

His comments were triggered by the EU’s decision on Thursday to reject Theresa May’s Chequers plan at the Salzburg summit. EU chief Donald Tusk said that the plan “will not work” in its current form.

Both sides hope to have an agreement by November but the Irish border issue is proving to be tricky. The EU and the UK agree that there cannot be a hard border in the island but cannot agree how to avoid it.

Transport Secretary Grayling told BBC that Chequers was the only “right solution” for the Irish border.

"At the moment what the European Union is asking in and around Northern Ireland is simply impossible for any UK government to accept. And actually if they stick with that position, there will be no deal," he said.

"No UK government, certainly not this one - and the Labour Party have said the same - could possibly accept any border in the Irish Sea, between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK."

He also said that “tough language” would be needed for the UK to stand its ground. Grayling is still hopeful that a deal will be reached some time soon.

The pound fell 0.3% against the dollar and euro to 1.3229 and 1.1234 respectively by 0915 BST on Monday.

With the PM's trip to Salzburg being decried as a "humiliation" across newspapers on Friday, senior pro-Brexit MPs in May's Conservative party were seeing this as an opportunity, The Times reported, "not to remove her, but to allow her to climb down of her own volition".

Brexiters led by former Brexit minister Steve Baker will publish a new alternative proposal for a free-trade deal based on plans from David Davis when he was the Brexit secretary.