The Irish Prime Minister is "wrong" to threaten to block British planes flying over his country in a tit-for-tat response to the United Kingdom reclaiming sovereignty over its fishing rights after Brexit, Number 10 has said.

On Wednesday evening, Leo Varadkar suggested his government could close Irish airspace to one of its largest trading partners if Theresa May decided to restrict Irish fisherman’s access when the UK leaves the Commons Fisheries Policy.

However, a spokesman for the British Prime Minister, said today that Mr Varadkar was "wrong".

The Prime Minister's deputy official spokesman said: "It is wrong to say that Ireland could simply stop the UK from flying over its land as a result of Brexit because over-flight rights are not guaranteed by the EU but by multinational treaty which both ourselves and Ireland are signed up to.

"We are confident that we will reach an agreement which maintains our aviation access."

On the eve of a keynote speech by Mrs May in Belfast, Mr Varadkar had said: “You can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t take back your waters and then expect to take back other people’s sky.

“The situation at the moment is that the United Kingdom is part of the single European sky, and if they leave the EU they are not and that does mean that if there was a no deal, hard Brexit next March, the planes would not fly.