Barnier talks with Spain about Gibraltar ahead of Brexit

Johnson quit in July over the Chequers plan.

Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged to end unrestricted freedom of movement when Britain leaves the bloc but has so far given little detail on what the rules will be.

“He remained in Government for a full seven months after the joint report was agreed”.

However, Mr Johnson denounced alternative plans set out by the PM as a “constitutional abomination” which would leave Britain as a “humiliated rules-taker”.

But EU member Ireland and the rest of the EU have demanded a ” backstop” guarantee that if that happens, then Northern Ireland would have a special status – effectively remaining inside the EU economic space, but at the cost of new differences with the British mainland, which both May and her vital parliamentary allies from the province say threaten British sovereignty. The Irish cabinet had earlier agreed to hire 451 new staff for border duties out of a total of 1,077 needed for ports and airports.

Britain’s economy – the world’s fifth-biggest – slowed after the 2016 referendum decision to leave the European Union and it continues to be outpaced by most other rich nations.

The Government should look at either a customs union or European Economic Area (EEA) membership as a fallback to avoid leaving the European Union without a withdrawal agreement, the Exiting the EU Committee suggested.

Both sides have proposed fallback plans, known as backstops, that would kick into place if trade talks fail to settle the question.

“One option we are considering is the regulation of online political advertising, not to restrict it but to make it completely transparent”.

Johnson wrote in Monday’s Daily Telegraph that May’s Brexit negotiations were heading for a “spectacular political vehicle crash” that would leave Britain in “the ditch with a total write-off of Brexit”.

“We are straining at the gnat of the Irish border problem, in fact we haven’t even tried to chew the gnat, and we are swallowing the camel of European Union membership in all but name”.

The Northern Ireland branch of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which speaks on behalf of 190,000 United Kingdom businesses, said that the plan “risks damaging labour shortages”.

“We are clarifying which goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom would need to be checked and where, when and by whom these checks could be performed”, he said.

Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, told a news conference at the Treasury in London: “Those projections assume a timely deal with the European Union on a broad free trade agreement and a relatively orderly Brexit process after that”.

He added: “We’re urging the Government to concentrate on getting a deal to ensure the continuation of tariff and friction free trade which is so important to the future of our economy”.

Tusk, who chairs the dinner talks Wednesday and informal sessions on Thursday, wants the 27 leaders – minus British Prime Minister Theresa May – to spell out just how detailed they need an agreement to be on future relations, and whether any wiggle room should be left for last-minute negotiation with London.

Ireland’s foreign and trade minister, Simon Coveney, was in Brussels for pre-summit meetings, and warned a solution must be found by the October summit instead of being allowed to drag into November.

“In reality, as the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday, there is no Brexit deal that will better what we have at present, while a no-deal Brexit, as the old Jeremy Hunt used to acknowledge, would be certain to hit jobs, wages, investment and public services for years into the future”.