Simon Coveney cast doubt on an eleventh-hour compromise being offered by leaders at the next European Council summit on October 17. He said the complexities of the Brexit withdrawal agreement make any offer that isn’t pre-cooked ahead of the crunch gathering virtually impossible. Even making alternations to the controversial Northern Irish backstop could be too difficult for leaders, he added.

Mr Coveney said: “I don’t see how any EU Council meeting is going to be able to redesign a withdrawal agreement of the complexity of this withdrawal agreement, which is a legal document which runs to many, many pages – even the Irish protocol on its own is complex.

“If you take out one essential element which is part of the balance and compromise of that withdrawal agreement without having a properly thought out alternative arrangement – well then, the withdrawal agreement starts to fall apart.”

Mr Johnson has warned the EU that the only chance they have of securing a deal depends on whether leaders are willing to scrap the backstop.

The Prime Minister has promised to deliver alternative arrangements to prevent customs checks on Irish border after Brexit.

Any compromise would require the cast-iron support of Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, who today presented a highly sceptical analysis of alternatives to the backstop.

He said: “I’m always willing to listen to any proposal that a British Prime Minister has.

“The backstop is a means to an end – it’s there to ensure that we continue to have frictionless trade North and South, that there’s no physical infrastructure, no checks, no controls and no tariffs.

“The difficulty is that anything we’ve seen so far when it comes to alternative arrangements do something very different they just manage the border they facilitate tariffs, they facilitate checks, they facilitate controls but try to do it in a way that is invisible and unobtrusive and that’s better than nothing but it’s not the outcome that we want to achieve.”

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Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, has been lobbying EU leaders not to leave the door open for Mr Johnson to deliver an easy compromise.

Amid fears that key figures, such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, is ready to offer concessions to the Prime Minister, Mr Barnier has said any alternative for the Irish border must pass his “stress test”.

On a recent tour of EU capitals, the negotiator told leaders the compromise must avoid a hard border, respect the Good Friday Agreement, protect the all-Ireland economy and protect the integrity of the single market.

According to reports in London, Mr Johnson has already developed a legal text that he intends to propose as an alternative to the backstop.

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But Brussels doesn’t believe any plans will be formally tabled ahead of what is expected to be a general election announcement in the coming days.

One EU diplomat said: “I don’t expect anything that in any shape or form will imperil Johnson’s elections fortunes prior to the vote.”

David Frost, the Prime Minister’s chief negotiator, will travel to Brussels for meetings on Wednesday and Friday this week.

He will meet senior officials from the European Commission and Council, for what are described as “dynamic” discussions.

A Commission spokeswoman said: “These are ongoing talks that will depend on when we receive concrete proposals that are in line with the withdrawal agreement. On that basis we are then happy to engage.

“They are, of course, proposals that emerge as a result of talks, because precisely the idea is that they are compatible with the withdrawal agreement and for that you need both sides to agree. So is it a dynamic process.”

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