Boris Johnson news: DUP dismisses Brexit breakthrough ‘nonsense’ as government braces for humiliating extension request letter

Michael Higgins, the president of Ireland, has stressed that it is paramount any Brexit deal safeguards the Good Friday agreement.

Mr Higgins says his country's good relations with Britain will "prevail."

He added that a Brexit agreement should ensure that economic activity and trade carries on with minimum disruption given that Ireland-UK trade amounts to 4.5bn euros "in each direction."

He said it's estimated that a no-deal Brexit would shrink Ireland's gross domestic product by 8 per cent, primarily impacting the agribusiness sector since nearly half of Irish beef goes through Britain. He said Brexit with an agreement would result in a GDP drop of 4 per cent.

Higgins spoke at the end of an official visit to Cyprus.

"Boris Johnson was on the brink of striking a new Brexit deal on Wednesday night, but still faces an uphill fight to keep his pledge to leave the EU at the end of the month," reports The Independent's Brussels correspondent Jon Stone.

"Negotiators worked overtime in Brussels to hash out an agreement, with leaders due to scrutinise any final product at a summit in the EU capital today.

"The prime minister could however yet be forced into an extension by parliament after EU member states said it was now too late for leaders to formally sign-off the plan in Brussels. If no agreement is in place by Saturday –  when parliament will meet for an extraordinary weekend sitting – the prime minister by law has to ask for a delay."

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Britain's best interests lie with remaining a member of the EU, former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell has told the Lords.

In resumed debate on the Queen's Speech, Lord Campbell said no deal could offer the UK better advantages than it enjoyed as an EU member.

He said: "The difficulties of the last three years corroborate my view that the best interests of this country are to be served by remaining a member of the EU."

Lord Campbell said his best judgment was that "remaining is the best solution to the constitutional, economic and political crisis in which we now find ourselves".

He added: "I cannot understand the logic of a position which says we must observe the referendum result irrespective of the consequences in all circumstances."

His comments came as hopes rose about the likelihood of a possible deal.

"Supporters of a Final Say referendum say they have an array of parliamentary weapons “oiled and polished” to ensure that any Brexit deal Boris Johnson brings back from Brussels is subjected to a public vote," reports Andrew Woodcock, The Independent's political editor.

"Labour is now ready to whip its MPs to support a second referendum amendment, in a development regarded as essential for the chances of success.

"But opponents of Mr Johnson’s deal may hold back from putting the issue to a vote on Saturday, depending on the state of negotiations following the European Council summit on the previous two days.

"The planned sitting comes on the same day as a massive People’s Vote march and rally to demand a referendum under the slogan Together for The Final Say."

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"Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, has defended the government's decision to award a grant to an entrepreneur with close links to Boris Johnson, as an investigation into the prime minister was paused at the request of a police watchdog," reports Ben Kentish, The Independent's political correspondent.

"Ms Morgan said the payment to Hacker House, owned by Jennifer Arcuri, was the subject of an internal government review but appeared to defend the decision to award the money, which has since been put on hold.

"She insisted that it was not unusual for the government to give money to a company that had no income, or to directly approach firms to ask them to apply for government funding."

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Jenny Chapman, the shadow Brexit minister, said she expects Labour to support any amendment which tries to attach a confirmatory referendum to a Brexit deal.

"The expectation would be that should a deal be tabled on Saturday, and we don't know that is going to happen, I am as sure as you can be that there will be an amendment tabled that would want to see a referendum attached to the deal," she said, speaking to the BBC's Andrew Neil Show.

Asked if Labour would support this, she said: "I would expect us to support that, yes."

She added: "I'd rather have a general election, but we are not in control of this, unfortunately.

"So should that opportunity come, on Saturday, to have that referendum on the deal - the deal that we don't know yet is going to be there.

"But should that happen... in the circumstance I think there is an opportunity there and the pragmatic, sensible thing for the Labour Party to do, given that we've been asking for this, would be to take that opportunity."

Anna Soubry, the leader of the Independent Group for Change, has described the time MPs will have to scrutinise a draft deal as "plain wrong".

"It is increasingly clear Johnson's 'new' deal is worse than May's," she tweeted on Wednesday.

"Parliament will get 5 hours debate on Saturday without any independent assessments, analysis or select committee scrutiny of the most important set of decisions we will make in generations.

"That's plain wrong."

Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels early on Thursday to have meetings about a possible Brexit deal, Sky News has reported.

The European Parliament's chief Brexit official has said that over the coming hours "there are possibilities for an agreement, but it is not done."

Guy Verhofstadt on Wednesday praised the "fundamental shift" which Boris Johnson had made during the past week of intense negotiations.

He said earlier British proposals "were absolutely unacceptable."

But Mr Verhofstadt cautioned that despite the progress over the past days, there are "still outstanding issues" that must worked out.

He said customs and VAT issues are the remaining big issues to resolve.

New tonight - Dame Louise Ellman, MP for Liverpool Riverside, has left the Labour Party.

“I have made the truly agonising decision to leave the Labour Party after 55 years,” she said on Twitter.

“I can no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks Corbyn becoming PM.”

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