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The stunning ultimatum was revealed on the BBC’s Brexitcast podcast on Friday morning. The host, Laura Kuenssberg, said: “There's a lot of suspicions, a cabinet source was saying to me on Thursday, ‘I think maybe next Tuesday Theresa May will try and bounce everyone into a deal.’” She continued: “The cabinet has not yet had the discussion about what to do if this is as good as it gets. “And it was put to me by somebody who’s close to the process: it’s possible that next Tuesday might be the day when Theresa May says ‘OK, this is as good as it gets. What you gonna do?

“What you gonna do, Jeremy Hunt? “What you gonna do, Dominic Raab? Sajid Javid? Gavin Williamson? Geoffrey Cox? “I know you don’t like it. Are you really really gonna walk out of this cabinet and say that you’d prefer no deal?’ “We might suddenly find ourselves in that moment.”

BBC's Laura Kuensbergg warned of Brexit ultimatum

Ms Kuenssberg added: “There has to be some kind of sign of progress from the tunnel in the next five or six days if a summit, which wouldn’t be in itself for another two weeks, is actually going to be somewhere where a deal can be done.” The BBC veteran later turned her attention to the difficulties surrounding the Irish border, arguing that the whole discussion about the backstop means that surely one is not in place if it is causing problems. She said: “In quieter moments, some people who have been absolutely behind the EU strategy do say things, as one diplomat said to me this week, ‘the thing is, if we allow this to fall over the backstop and how perfect of a backstop there is, there’s no backstop at all.’” The insightful commentator added: “If the economic futures of all of the population in Ireland, the population in the UK and the biggest free trading area in the Uk falls because two sets of negotiators could not agree on a wording….Will history look kindly on that, given the turmoil that not having a deal could produce?"

But Ms Kuenssberg also laid the blame for the negotiating deadlock squarely at Ireland's door, citing the bitter infighting between Prime Minister Leo Varadker and his deputy, Simon Coveney. Rumours of an early election in Ireland have intensified the power dynamic between the two high profile members of Fine Gael, Ireland’s largest governing party. The established journalist said: “They’re a minority government and seeming to back down to the UK would, of course, be something very, very risky politically for Leo Varadkar. “And as we said before, this is also part of the fuel of the kind of rivalry between him and Coveney.”

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is locked in a feud with deputy PM Simon Coveney

The former Newsnight presenter further claimed a Brexit deal will be voted on by MPs on December 21, or even Christmas Eve. She said: “If the deal is in December it looks like the vote would end up being Friday 21, but someone in Government told me on Friday that there had been a discussion about whether or not it would be possible or not to have the final vote on Christmas eve. Can you imagine?” The BBC's Adam Fleming stepped in pointing out how “dramatic” a vote on Christmas Eve would be. He said: “If Theresa May’s strategy is to make it feel like a real moment of drama and it is ‘choose the deal that is on offer or the abyss of no deal’.