Commission deputy chief Timmermans: 'We're open for business if UK Govt has plans or ideas to improve Withdrawal Agreement or Political Declaration. We'll obviously be ready to listen to that and work with UK Govt but we can't put into jeopardy integrity of the Internal Market.'

Timmermans says MPs need to 'stop having a pipe dream that you can not have rules on this [customs/alignment] and not have a border in IE'. He adds: 'I would appeal to the hardliners in Westminster to understand what they're putting into jeopardy if they continue with this line.'

Timmermans wraps up by saying that watching the last two years unfold in the UK has been an 'incredibly effective antidote against' calls for a Nexit in his home country. He says the idea of leaving the EU is now a 'sterile debate' in the remaining Member States as a result.