The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has delivered a brutal verdict on Boris Johnson‘s Brexit plans, saying the UK and Brussels are ”not really in a position” to find agreement.

Ahead of a critical EU summit, it emerged that the prime minister was preparing a historic Saturday Commons sitting on 19 October, in a last-ditch bid to avoid asking the EU for a Brexit delay.

Mr Johnson and his advisers are reportedly ready to tell the Queen she cannot sack him, even if he loses a no-confidence vote in the Commons later this month – a plan ridiculed by lawyers and historians.