Published: 8:34 AM October 11, 2018 Updated: 8:45 AM September 18, 2020

Dithering former Brexit secretary David Davis has claimed that the 'benefits' that Brexiteers were hoping for when the UK leaves the EU are starting to 'vanish'.

.@DavidDavisMP tells @Peston he fears the UK will not be let out of a Brexit backstop by the EU. #Peston pic.twitter.com/VI2EC6afmj — Peston (@itvpeston) October 10, 2018

Davis made the claim on Peston's ITV programme when discussing possible compromises between Theresa May and the European Union.

He said that he could not support an Irish backstop that kept Northern Ireland in a customs arrangement with the Republic of Ireland, and that did not have a legally binding end date.

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He claimed this was a 'bad negotiating position' and warned the 'upsides' to Brexit were vanishing.

'Once they have got the £39 billion in their pocket, once they have got EurAsEC court within the customs union, which means we can't do trade deals with the rest of the world. So all of the upsides of Brexit just vanishes.'

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'It just evaporates right there and then. Why should they let us out? We know a number of European Union countries want to punish us for this, want to us not to do well.

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'This is a perfect way of doing it. They get all they want and we get none of what we want.

'So, it is a very bad negotiating position.'

Davis also said that he would not be prepared to support the country paying a divorce bill 'for nothing'.

'£39 billion of taxpayers money goes along with this deal. We're going to do that for nothing? I don't think so.'

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