Poland has set itself apart from the rest of the European Union to urge a five-year time limit on the Irish backstop to avoid a “game of chicken” ending with a no-deal Brexit.

The proposal was made as other EU governments dismissed as “party politics” Theresa May’s plea for Brussels to help get her deal through the parliament with new assurances on Northern Ireland.

Jacek Czaputowicz, the Polish foreign minister, discussed his plan with Jeremy Hunt and Simon Coveney, his British and Irish counterparts, during a meeting in Brussels yesterday.

“If Ireland appealed to the EU to change the agreement on the backstop in the agreement with the British so that it would apply temporarily, let’s say five years, the matter would be solved,” he