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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
9.01am BST
Michael Roth, Germany’s Europe minister, told reporters that he was “not quite sure” whether a Brexit deal was close as he arrived for the EU general affairs council meeting in Luxembourg. But he also said a no-deal Brexit would be a “disaster”.
8.57am BST
These are from RTE’s Tony Connelly.
Breaking: the UK will table fresh proposals to break the Brexit deadlock this morning, @rtenews understands
2/ Two well-placed sources have confirmed that UK negotiators will bring forward a new text when they meet European Commission negotiators in Brussels this morning
3/ It follows a 90 minute meeting between Boris Johnson and DUP leader Arlene Foster, and deputy leader Nigel Dodds in Downing Street last night
4/ It's not clear yet if the proposals are a revised version of the dual customs scheme which the UK proposed following the breakthrough meeting between Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson last week in Cheshire, or whether they are something much different
5/ The development follows a downbeat assessment by the EU's chief negotiator on Sunday over the dual customs idea, which would see NI stay in the UK's customs territory, but operate the EU's rules and procedures on tariffs
6/ EU sources have said the original NI-only backstop is a much clearer and legally watertight way to resolve the problem of avoiding a customs border on the island of Ireland.
7/ However, the UK and DUP have long rejected the original backstop as the way forward.
Brexit talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union continued until late on Monday and will begin again on Tuesday morning but that is routine and nothing to get excited about, a British source close to the negotiations said.
“Talks took place until 11 p.m. last night and are due to begin again this morning,” the source said. Continue reading...