Brexit Deal On Irish Border Expected Soon

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has told MPs he expects a deal on the UK's exit from the EU by 21 November, and said agreement on the Irish border issue was "not far off".

Officials said that concluding the negotiations by the middle of this month remained an aspiration, but that there had been no major breakthrough in recent days.

The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019.

Both sides are hoping for a confirmed outline of the withdrawal, as well as details for future relations, before the end of the year in order to give Parliaments, both at Westminster and in Brussels, enough time to vote on it.

The talks have stalled in recent weeks over how to prevent the return of physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Plans for a special summit in mid November to seal the withdrawal agreement were put on hold after insufficient progress on the issue was made at a meeting of EU leaders earlier this month.

Despite this, Dominic Raab showed a more upbeat outlook in his letter to Brexit committee chairman, Labour MP Hilary Benn.

He said the end of negotiations was "firmly in sight and while obstacles remain it cannot be beyond us to navigate them", and that an agreement on the border "should be possible".

"We have resolved most of the issues and we are building up together what the future relationship should look like and making real progress," he added.



(JG/CM)