It's Chequers or no deal says Housing Secretary James Brokenshire after EU rejects Theresa May's Brexit plan
The EU has a choice between Theresa May's Chequers plan or a no deal Brexit, the Housing Secretary has warned.
James Brokenshire came out in defence of the Prime Minister's plan after the EU rejected her proposals at talks in Salzburg, in what was widely seen as a humiliation for her.
With pressure still mounting within her own party to ditch the Chequers agreement, the Government is insisting the idea is "firmly achievable".
"We remain focused on getting the EU to engage with the substance of the Chequers agreement," said James Brokenshire.
"Ultimately you have to be prepared to walk away if something is not in our national interest - particularly something that might split up our United Kingdom, with separation of Northern Ireland from Great Britain," he added.
At Salzburg, the European Council president Donald Tusk ripped up May’s blueprint, saying it risked the integrity of the EU single market and the Northern Ireland border.
The Government has been making preparations for a no deal scenario, but even the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has admitted this carries with it "significant risks".
Today the shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC: "We should never accept that no deal is inevitable. No deal would be catastrophic for our economy, plunging it into real crisis. We can't accept no deal.
"Really, the next four weeks should be all about how does the Prime Minister avoid that. She can only avoid that by being more realistic.
"She needs to accept that we need a customs union and a strong single market deal, both for the Northern Irish border and also for our economy."
May remains committed to the Chequers blueprint, which is the only proposal on the table as the deadline approaches, although she indicated the UK will unveil new measures on the future status of the Northern Ireland border in a bid to break the deadlock.
The eventful two-day EU summit in Austria also heard German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk of the need for “substantial progress” over the next four weeks, and French President Emmanuel Macron describe leaders of the Brexit campaign who told British voters it would be easy as “liars”.
The next major milestone in the process is fast approaching, with the October 18 summit labelled a “moment of truth” by Donald Tusk.