Fresh hope for a Brexit deal came on Tuesday when the Government refuted claims made by the Finnish prime minister that “more time” is needed. The European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said reaching an agreement this week is “still possible”.

The negotiator seemed positive after meeting Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay at the General Affairs Council on Tuesday morning.

He debriefed EU27 ministers in Luxembourg before tweeting: “Talks are difficult but I believe an agreement is still possible.”

Earlier in the morning, Mr Barnier said work to secure a deal has been “intense”, after talks which are understood to have gone on until 11pm on Monday.

He added: “Because even if an agreement will be difficult, more and more difficult to be frank, it is still possible this week.

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“Let me add also that it is high time to turn good intentions into a legal text.”

Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels for an EU summit on Thursday and will be rushing to secure a deal with both the EU and MPs at home before his deadline of 11pm on Saturday, October 19.

On Saturday, an emergency meeting of MPs will be held for the first time since the Falklands War in 1982. 

The emergency sitting is expected to begin at 9am and last until 2.30pm, for the first in 37 years.

Will Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘eat his words’ and vote for deal?

The Leader of the House admitted he may be forced to “eat his words” and vote for a deal that bears a resemblance to Theresa May’s.

Jacob Rees-Mogg vehemently opposed Mrs May’s deal before joining Mr Johnson’s administration but warned compromise was inevitable to secure an agreement.

Speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, Mr Rees-Mogg reached out to the eurosceptics among Tory MPs, saying Leave supporters can trust Mr Johnson would not allow Brussels to take control.

He added: “I think that he [Boris Johnson] is somebody who even the arch Eurosceptics, even a member of the Brexit Party, can trust and have confidence in.”

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Which Tories will back Boris?

If the deal is rejected by either the EU or MPs, Mr Johnson – bound by the Benn Act – will have to write to the EU to request a Brexit extension until January 31, 2020.

If the deal passes through the EU and is proposed to MPs at an emergency meeting in the Commons on Saturday, it is not clear who will support it.

Utterances in Whitehall suggest the Prime Minister may have support for his deal from his party.

But without a majority in the Commons, Mr Johnson will need more than his MPs to get the deal through.

This could be especially difficult thanks to the 21 Tory rebels who lost the whip in September, who now threaten to force a Brexit extension even if a deal is achieved – and are receiving cross-party backing.

What happened to Theresa May’s Brexit deal?

Former Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal was voted down by MPs three times before her resignation.

The Irish Backstop is a major sticking point for both the UK and EU and Mr Johnson’s proposed solution was deemed not enough by Brussels.

Mr Johnson proposed Northern Ireland would become a dual customs zone, which would apply both EU and UK customs rules.

Brussels wants Northern Ireland to remain in the EU customs union, even if legally it remains inside the UK’s.

Now Mr Johnson has gone back to the drawing board, and Irish broadcaster RTE has reported two sources confirmed British negotiators will bring forward an updated plan on Tuesday to deal with the issue of customs and the Irish border.

However, the DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said any return to Mrs May’s deal would not be acceptable to his party.

The DUP’s votes may be crucial to Mr Johnson to pass a deal through Parliament, and Mr Dodds told Italian La Repubblica newspaper Northern Ireland “must stay in a full UK customs union, full stop”.

He said: “It cannot work because Northern Ireland has to remain fully part of the UK customs union.

Mr Rees-Mogg did not speculate on what was being discussed in the Belgian capital.

He said: “Naturally in the middle of a negotiation these matters are extremely sensitive as everyone is compromising to some degree and therefore to give negotiations the best chance of succeeding, it is best to be discreet about them.”

When questions as to whether the Irish backstop proposals could be close to Mrs May’s plan, he said: “We’ll have to find out in a day or two whether I’ll have to eat my words or not – time will tell.

“There’s a line from Churchill saying that he often had to eat his words and he found it to be a very nourishing diet – and that is something that happens in politics.”

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