Arlene Foster has ruled out flying to London today for Brexit talks with Theresa May as insiders warned that the Democratic Unionist Party was “far away” from agreeing a deal with the Government on the Irish border.

Instead Nigel Dodds, the DUP's Westminster leader, will meet with the Government’s chief whip Julian Smith today in Westminster to try secure a deal on the terms of Britain leaving the European Union

The news throws into question the Prime Minister’s plans to fly back to Brussels tomorrow to try to secure agreement on the Irish border, EU citizens rights and a Brexit bill to kickstart trade talks.

There had been suggestions yesterday that Mrs Foster, the DUP leader, will fly to London to meet Mrs May today.

However a source told The Telegraph that the DUP did not "think it would be productive for Arlene to be there today" because there was so much more work to be done.

The source said: “Arlene will come in when they are close to agreeing something. There is such a level of work to be done at the moment – it is not at a stage where Arlene would be involved as leader.”

The source said the UK could still be in a “no deal” territory which would see the UK leave the EU in March 2019 without any trade deal with the EU.