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Ireland has rejected Boris Johnson's new Brexit plan as hopes of a new deal hang by a thread.

Premier Leo Varadkar said the plan "falls short in a number of aspects" - while his deputy PM Simon Coveney declared: "If that is the final proposal, there will be no deal".

In a damning blow, European Council President Donald Tusk - who represents the 27 leaders who'll make or break a deal - warned he would stand fully behind Ireland.

He tweeted: "We remain open but still unconvinced." And EU said Britain needed to put in more work, saying: "We are not going to be the ones left holding the ball."

The scathing comments come 24 hours after the Prime Minister finally sent his plan for "two borders" in Northern Ireland to the EU.

EU chiefs are not expected to issue a formal response today. But after churning through the details, a senior Brussels source warned the Mirror: "It's hard to see how this can work".

And despite the DUP indicating they would accept the plans, they were rejected by almost all the other political parties in Northern Ireland.

(Image: REUTERS)

The row has erupted over plans for Northern Ireland to share single market rules with the Republic - but customs rules with mainland Britain.

That will mean some checks on goods crossing both the Irish Sea and the 310-mile land border.

Boris Johnson today tried to play down any hint of customs checks on the land border.

He told MPs: "Under no circumstances will the UK institute physical infrastructure at or near the border."

Yet his own plans admitted there will be a "small number of physical checks" away from the border, "at traders’ premises or other points on the supply chain".

(Image: Government of the United Kingdom)

Irish Premier Leo Varadkar today said Mr Johnson's "reassuring" comments were "in contradiction" to his own Brexit plans.

Mr Varadkar added: "Our objective is very clear.

"We don’t want to see any customs posts between north and south.

"Nor do we want to see any tariffs or restrictions on trade north and south.

"They were all abolished in the 1990s. We don’t want to go back to that,. The majority of people in the north don’t, the majority of people in the Republic don’t.

"But if we are going to be in two different customs unions I think that creates a real difficulty that’s going to be very hard to reconcile."

Ireland's Deputy PM Simon Coveney went even further in his condemnation as he raised concerns about a separate part of the plan.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Under Mr Johnson's deal, Stormont will vote every four years on making Northern Ireland stick to "all relevant" EU single market rules.

But Simon Coveney warned that could give one bloc of Northern Irish politicians - such as the Tories' DUP allies - a veto.

The deputy PM said: "We cannot support any proposal that suggests that one party or indeed a minority in Northern Ireland could make the decision for the majority in terms of how these proposals would be implemented in the future."

And Mr Coveney added: "If that is the final proposal, there will be no deal.

"There are a number of fundamental problems with that proposal."

DUP leader Arlene Foster blasted Mr Coveney's remarks as "deeply unhelpful, obstructionist and intransigent".

Accusing him of "paving the road for a no-deal exit", she said Dublin wanted to "dump" consent and "ride roughshod over unionism" in a move that is "foolish in the extreme".

(Image: PA)

It comes after Boris Johnson told MPs he has made a "genuine attempt to bridge the chasm" with the European Union by making compromises to strike a fresh Brexit deal.

Downing Street today said the proposals to address problems with the Irish border were the "broad landing zone" and the "basis for discussion".

Yet a day earlier, a Number 10 press release had described the plans as the UK's "final offer".

Boris Johnson will have further talks with EU counterparts and European Council president Donald Tusk before the EU comes to a final decision ahead of an October 17 summit.

He said the plans represent "a genuine attempt to bridge the chasm, to reconcile the apparently irreconcilable and to go the extra mile as time runs short".

But Jeremy Corbyn responded by saying no Labour MP could support the "reckless deal", which he said would jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement.

And European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said agreeing to the proposals would be "nearly impossible".

The Brexit Steering Group he chairs said the proposals "do not match even remotely" what was required.

European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud added "we have many questions on the text" of the Brexit proposal that "need to be answered by the UK and not the other way around".

She said: "Work needs to be done by the UK...we are not going to be the ones left holding the bag, the ball, or anything else”.