UK to give EU information on Irish Border issue

The UK have pledged to provide data that could help reach a solution to prevent a hard border in Ireland post-Brexit, according to Bloomberg.

With the Irish issue one of the main hurdles remaining on the road to a Brexit deal, the European Union is starting to redraft the language on the "backstop" in an attempt to make it more acceptable for the UK.

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier asked the UK to share information on trade between the two regions in order to find a way to ensure the normal functioning of the system post-Brexit in August, but at the time it wasn't clear if Raab would comply.

The EU is hoping the UK will finally agree to an Irish "backstop" proposal before November, thus paving the way for a deal by that date.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told Barnier last week that he would hand over the data on the trade flows, Bloomberg reported citing a source close to the negotiations.

Nonetheless, any text presented to parliament regarding the Irish border needs to win the backing of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party on whose backing May depends for her majority in Westminster.

"I don't see any way for the DUP to support a Northern Irish-only backstop," said Richard Bullick, a former adviser to party leaders Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster.

"I would have thought that there's no way DUP could accept Northern Irish being treated differently from rest of U.K. in this regard, almost at any price."