Labour leader Brendan Howlin has claimed that the prospect of postponing the issue of the Irish “backstop” is being discussed in the Brexit talks as negotiations enter a critical phase.

Mr Howlin said he had been talking to colleagues in the Party of European Socialists and had heard such a suggestion from a “variety of sources”. He said this must be resisted by Ireland.

The EU says the backstop - which would avoid a hard border in Ireland by aligning Northern Ireland to the EU single market and customs union if no wider EU-UK deal is reached - must be included in the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The agreement was expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, but the talks have become stuck on the backstop.

“I had hoped that the decision would be made to have a clear outline of what the backstop would be at the June summit,” he told reporters at Leinster House.

‘Real danger’

“I said if it was deferred there was a real danger of becoming the critical issue, not only in October but beyond and would actually muddy the waters in relation to the exit deal.

“Talking to colleagues across Europe, I now hear for the first time, that there are actually suggestions being made that the Irish backstop issue be postponed. That is very dangerous for us that is something we have to resist but it was highly predictable.”

A spokesman for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the claims made by Mr Howlin were “baseless”. He added that the Government had “no idea” where Mr Howlin had heard such rumours, saying there was “no basis” for what he had alleged.

Fianna Fáil Brexit spokeswoman Lisa Chambers said the view of her party, the Government and Michel Barnier, the EU chief Brexit negotiator, “has always been that the Irish Border issue is part of the withdrawal treaty”.

“And until that is resolved, there will be no discussions on future trade. If we allow that issue to get kicked down the road, if it is not resolved now, we could find ourselves in a very lonely situation.”