With Theresa May’s Brexit deal looking ‘dead on arrival’ in Westminster, thoughts are now turning to the alternatives.

There are reports that Cabinet ministers are actively considering the “Norway Plus” plan being promoted by the Conservative MP Nick Boles.

So here we look in detail at the Boles plan, and ask whether - legally, politically and practically - it can ever deliver on its promises.

What it says

The UK accepts the current draft Withdrawal Agreement in full but renegotiates the Political Declaration and agrees that Norway Plus [Norway including a customs union] will be the basis of our future relationship with the European Union.

Can it work?

This would be a major shift for Parliament to make, accepting the £39bn Brexit bill and a deal that (if the EU were to agree to it) locks the UK into the EU single market with very little say, in practice, over the EU directives it would follow. It would also need to accept free movement of people. All of these things fly in the face of what Brexiteers think they voted for in leaving the EU. But for the purposes of this exercise, let’s assume all of that is politically possible, for now.