THE European Parliament’s chief negotiator demanded to know why MPs had come to Brussels while Westminster remains deadlocked over Brexit.

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry, a member of the Commons Brexit committee, said Guy Verhofstadt made the remark at the start of their meeting amid a growing sense of frustration in Brussels with the UK Government.

Cherry told The National: “We had a meeting with Guy Verhofstadt and the first thing he said was, ‘I don’t know why you are here’. He said, ‘Why are you here? The main discussion needs to happen in the House of Commons. We need clarity from you’.”

“We are the committee that scrutinises, so we go over to Brussels to scrutinise but his comment expresses the frustration people like Guy Verhofstadt feel about the British Government: why do the British keep coming over here when they can’t actually tell us what they want?”

The sense of frustration was also evident when a top EU official was again forced to stress the EU will not consider offering legally binding assurances to help Theresa May get her Brexit deal through Parliament.

Speaking after talks with the Commons Brexit Committee, European Commission secretary general Martin Selmayr said the 90-minute meeting had confirmed it was right to begin preparations for a no-deal outcome.

In response to reports he had told the committee that the EU would be ready to consider legally binding assurances, Selmayr tweeted: “On the EU side, nobody is considering this. Asked whether any assurance would help to get the Withdrawal Agreement through the Commons, the answers of MPs were ... inconclusive. The meeting confirmed that the EU did well to start its no-deal preparations in December 2017.”

The comments from commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s right-hand man heap further pressure on the Prime Minister as she prepares to go to Brussels to seek a renegotiation of her withdrawal agreement.

MPs from both sides of the Conservative Party’s Leave/Remain divide met in Whitehall yesterday to develop ideas for “alternative arrangements” to replace the backstop to keep the Irish border open.

The group is due to draw up alternative proposals under the framework of the Malthouse Compromise, “as soon as possible”, possibly through the use of new technologies or the extension of the transition period by a further year to the end of 2021 – to make the backstop unnecessary.

But there has been no appetite from the EU side to rewrite the agreement reached by May and Juncker in November but rejected by a 230-vote margin in the Commons last month.

Deputy Brexit negotiator Sabine Weyand said last week technology would not be able to solve the border issue “in the next few years”.

The chairman of the Brexit Committee, Hilary Benn, also voiced

scepticism about the prospects of a technological solution to the border issue, telling reporters: “Personally, I don’t see how it can work, particularly in the very short amount of time that there is left.”

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU was ready to listen to proposals to solve the border “riddle”, but needs to hear from Britain how it thinks it can be done.

Speaking during a trip to Japan, she said: “To solve this riddle, you have to be creative and you have to listen to one another.

“We can have those conversations, so we can use the remaining time to perhaps remove the obstacles that have so far stood in the way and find an agreement if everyone is willing. But we must hear from Great Britain how they want to do it.”

Merkel’s visit for talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe followed a new EU-Japan trade deal coming into force and took place a day after Nissan confirmed it was ditching plans to build its X-Trail SUV in Sunderland.

May will travel to Northern Ireland today for a speech in which she is expected to confirm her “absolute commitment” to avoiding a hard border. Ahead of her visit, Downing Street rejected speculation over an early election, saying May was “absolutely not” considering a vote on June 6.