The chances of the prime minister being able to secure a Brexit deal with the EU appear to be crumbling by the minute.

‘Significant’ obstacles remain unsolved on both sides of negotiations with time rapidly slipping before Boris Johnson will be forced to ask for another extension.

There are now just a handful of hours left on the final day of crunch talks today before Mr Johnson needs to sign off on a deal during the two-day EU summit.

The Prime Minister needs to get a deal approved at the summit – which starts in Brussels on Thursday – if he is to avoid having to ask for a delay until 31 January.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay this morning confirmed that Mr Johnson will write a letter asking for an Article 50 extension if no deal is in place by Saturday, something the PM has repeatedly ruled out.

EU commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said: ‘Talks have been constructive but there still remains a number of significant issues to resolve.’

But this afternon it appeared the negotiations were brought to a standstill over the issue of consent on the Irish border.

DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told Mr Barclay there must be consent from both unionists and nationalists in the Northern Ireland assembly in any new arrangements.

Support from DUP MPs is crucial for the government to be able to sign off a Brexit deal by Saturday.

Mr Wilson told the Brexit secretary that any customs deal affecting Northern Ireland would need the consent of the assembly and must be subject to a cross-community vote.

Without such consent, he said, the government would be in breach of the Good Friday agreement.

DUP leader Arlene Foster quickly moved to reject a suggestion that her party had accepted the government’s latest proposal on consent.

Irish broadcaster RTE reported that two senior EU sources had confirmed it.

But Mrs Foster tweeted: ‘”EU sources” are talking nonsense. Discussions continue.

‘Needs to be a sensible deal which unionists and nationalists can support.’

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also said ‘many issues’ still need to be resolved, ‘particularly around the consent mechanism and issues around customs and VAT’.

He added: ‘Although time is running short I am confident these objectives can be achieved.’

The Benn Act dictates that the PM must write a letter to the EU on Saturday asking for a delay if he fails to secure a Brexit deal by then.

Mr Barclay was questioned by the legislation’s namesake, Labour’s Hilary Benn, when appearing at the Exiting the European Union Committee of MPs today.

He reiterated that the PM would write to Brussels asking for an Article 50 extension, as previously revealed in documents submitted during a Scottish court challenge.

But he also repeated Mr Johnson’s commitment to leave the EU on the current 31 October deadline, despite the act demanding a delay to the end of January if MPs to do not approve a deal by Saturday.

Even if he agrees a deal with the EU, the PM faces a battle in the Commons on Saturday to get his deal passed by Parliament – something Theresa May failed to do three times.

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