BORIS Johnson has said the chances of securing a Brexit deal are "good" as it was reported the EU is ready to offer Britain a time limit on the hated Irish backstop.

The PM told the BBC that Brits should "keep hope alive" that he can bring them back a deal and get it signed off before his October 31 deadline.

8 Boris arrives at Tory party conference this morning after revealing he does have a plan for the Irish backstop

8 Boris Johnson could ask the EU to refuse a third delay - it was claimed today

"We do think that our proposals are good and creative," Boris told BBC News this evening.

"I'm hopeful that we'll get a deal - I do think there is a good chance of getting a deal. And we're going to work very hard to do that."

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported this evening that the EU are preparing to offer the PM a time limit to the hated backstop - which would mean Britain wouldn't be tied to EU rules forever.

Brussels officials have been floating the idea and discussing it in recent meetings.

However, the PM has insisted repeatedly that the backstop has to be completely ditched - and so the plan may not fly with Britain.

It came as:

BoJo refused to deny reports that he could ask the EU to rule out giving Britain a third Brexit delay to give MPs a stark choice between his deal and no deal.

Boris insisted if Britain remained in the EU "we would need a bigger bus" as the costs of staying would rise to £400m a week

He denied allegations he had touched a woman's thigh 20 years ago and suggested it was an attack because some people didn't want Brexit to be done

And the PM suggested he would shut down Parliament again to force a Queen's Speech to force through his domestic agenda

The Prime Minister is set to officially reveal his plans to get an agreement signed off with Brussels within days as he vowed: "We do have a solution."

As part of the plan Boris could ask Brussels to rule out a third delay to Brexit if they agree to his ideas - and give MPs a stark choice between his deal and No Deal.

The PM refused to deny the plan this morning in a round of media interviews:

He said: "Well, we haven’t in truth made any such request.

"But my own view is that they want to get this done as much as we do, and as much as the majority of the British public do, whether they voted leave or remain."

He added: "I think it would be a mistake to keep the UK bound in beyond the time people want to come out."

This would be a way around the law passed by rebels earlier this month to try to force Boris to ask the EU for a delay if he doesn't secure an agreement.

Defiant Boris has insisted again and again that he will take Britain out of the EU without a deal on October 31 no matter what it takes.

Mr Johnson has privately urged member states to sign up to a commitment to rule out another extension to Article 50.

The new law - dubbed the Surrender Act by Boris - forces him to seek a delay, but there's nothing MPs can do to make the EU give Britain one.

On Sunday the PM said Brussels don't want the "truculent, mutinous" UK to remain in, stuck "in a limbo" - suggesting Britain would make life incredibly hard for the EU if they forced us to stay in.

"The only way No Deal happens now is if the EU turns down an extension," one Cabinet minister told MailOnline.

Yet if Boris couldn't seal off an agreement with the bloc then he would still face a huge headache for how to get around the new law.

It comes as sources claimed David Frost will this week show the legal text the Government wants inserted into the withdrawal agreement to kill off the Irish backstop.

Boris confirmed the plans will be with the EU by the weekend.

He is said to be considering whether to reveal the full ideas in his conference speech or in a Commons statement on Thursday.

"This is the moment when the rubber hits the road," Boris said. "We do have a solution."

UK sources claim they have already secured wins in convincing the EU to even consider alternatives — and to give the Northern Ireland Assembly a bigger say over customs rules.

This is the moment when the rubber hits the road. We do have a solution. Boris Johnson

Yet RTE claimed that the new plan would involve a string of "customs centres" which would be 5 - 10 miles away from the border.

Goods going through the buffer zone would need to be checked at their origin or at their destination - and would be monitored using GPS trackers as they went through the border zone.

Boris this morning ruled out this plan and said there would "absolutely not" be any hard borders, even away from the Northern Ireland frontier.

He said: "That’s not what we are proposing at all.

"There are very good reasons why that would not be a good idea... both for practical reasons and reasons of sentiment that we totally understand."

He argued that all of the UK "must have a single customs territory" and the Government has already proposed bold proposals to mirror each other's agricultural rules after we leave.

But it was the "reality" that there would have to be some checks.

He refused to go into more details - saying he would wait until the Government had given the "good solution" to Brussels in the coming days.

Downing Street said this morning: "Nothing we are proposing involves checks and controls at the border, and that’s an absolute commitment."

ACT OF SABOTAGE

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, DUP chief whip in Westminster, told Newsnight tonight that whoever leaked the government’s Brexit border plan documents had committed "an act of sabotage" to make negotiations more difficult.

He said: "I think a deal is still possible. I think what happened yesterday evening, whoever was behind it certainly wasn’t working towards a deal.

"This was an act of sabotage to try to make it more difficult in the negotiations. But we’ve got to work our way through that."

If Brussels choose to engage and start formal negotiations, a frantic round of discussions will take place ahead of the crunch EU council summit in the middle of October.

Ministers have this week said they want to get something sorted out before the summit, in the hope it can be sealed by EU leaders there.

Boris would then bring it back to the House of Commons for a vote before October 31.

But already Deputy Irish premier Simon Coveney slammed the plans, saying Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland "deserves better."