The Prime Minister successfully opened up new negotiating ground during his recent talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission’s president, and Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator, in Luxembourg. During the two-hour lunch, he was said to be “surprised” by the amount of checks needed in order to convince Brussels to remove the controversial Northern Ireland backstop. EU sources have indicated that Mr Johnson’s reaction proved he is intent on preventing the return of a hard border.

One EU diplomat familiar with the discussions told Express.co.uk: “I think, first and foremost, it expresses that the Prime Minister doesn’t want customs checks or the like on the island of Ireland.”

Mr Johnson was shown how creating an all-Ireland standards zone for food and livestock would fall short of EU expectations and fail to avoid checks on a large amount of goods that cross the border.

Sources said the Prime Minister’s current agri-food plan covers just 50 out of the 150 customs regulations needed to maintain the all-Ireland economy.

UK and EU officials will now begin work on establishing how to deal with the 100 outstanding issues ahead of the European summit on October 17.

The Good Friday Peace Agreement could be used as a “backdrop” to allow negotiators to evaluate if they are all absolutely necessary, an EU source said.

This opens up a possible Brussels compromise as any deal would have to cover enough regulations “to keep the hole in the single market manageable, but not be too wide to undermine the peace process”, they added.

Such a plan could use an extended transition period to allow both sides to hammer out the details at a later date.

Simon Coveney has revealed he has been holding secret talks with British ministers about backstop alternatives.

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Ireland’s deputy prime minister Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, no deal planning chief Michael Gove, and Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith.

“Of course there are conversations, as you would expect, exploring concepts, what might work, what won’t work,” Mr Coveney said.

“We await written proposals from the UK side. We simply haven’t seen any written proposals to date.

“Just because Boris Johnson says the backstop needs to go, doesn’t mean that everybody else will respond positively to that.

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“There’s an obligation on the party looking for change to come up with solutions that can deal with the consequences of what they’re asking for.

“And if that question can’t be answered, we won’t have a deal.”

Addressing the European Parliament today, Mr Juncker signalled that he is ready to do away with the backstop.

“I have no emotional attachment to the backstop,” he said.

“But I made clear that I do have an intimate commitment to its objectives.”

While promising to work “day and night”, the Commission chief said there is a “palpable” risk that the deal won’t be struck before October 31.

In a significant moment, Mr Barnier acknowledged the Prime Minister’s concerns that the backstop is anti-democratic.

The Brussels negotiator said: “We also understand the questions and remarks of the British Prime Minister on the democratic, or undemocratic, nature of the backstop.”

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