DOMINIC Raab has defied calls from both sides of the Commons to abandon Theresa May’s Chequers Plan, telling MPs he was not prepared to simply “roll over” in the face of push-back from Brussels.

As the Brexit Secretary insisted he was adopting a “resolute and tenacious” approach to the EU talks, the SNP’s Angus Brendan MacNeil claimed the reality now was that a deal or no-deal on Brexit was a “scorched earth policy”.

The MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar added: “It’s one of the reasons why Scotland will decide on its independence in the next year.”

But Mr Raab decried the “blinkered, narrow political obsession that the SNP has got with a referendum on independence” and stressed the UK Government was striving to get the best Brexit deal for all parts of the UK.

The Secretary of State told MPs how UK ministers had had more than 60 meetings with their counterparts in recent weeks, had made good progress and were within sight of a deal.

But he raised laughter from opposition benches when he declared: “This House and the British people can rest assured the UK will be ready for Brexit; deal or no deal and prepared for whatever the outcome, so that this country goes from strength to strength.”

His Labour opposite number, Sir Keir Starmer, replied: “There is no hiding the fact the Government is in a real fix.” Its ability to get a deal, he argued, “sinks by the day”.

Sir Keir denounced the “Chequers fudge,” which, he said, was now being attacked from all sides.

Warning the Brexit talks were “in serious trouble,” he added: “The Government must change course and put forward a credible plan to break this impasse, one that can command the support of the House and protect jobs, the economy and avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. The Government has got six weeks to get this right; more of the same will not do.”

Labour’s Hilary Benn, who chairs the Commons Brexit Committee, which on Tuesday in Brussels met Michel Barnier, said the EU’s chief co-ordinator had “emphatically rejected” the Chequers Plan. He asked what the Government’s alternative was.

But Mr Raab highlighted Mr Barnier’s admission last week that the EU27 was prepared to offer the UK a bespoke deal, stressing: “This is a negotiation…We are confident we will make progress.”

Former Conservative Culture Secretary John Whittingdale suggested it was time to abandon the Chequers “flawed proposal” and pursue a free trade deal.

Mr Raab again defiantly said the UK would not “roll over,” that the Government was confident its proposals “respect the key and core principles of the EU” and would resolve all the issues around frictionless trade at the border.

In other developments:

*the GMB, one of UK's biggest trade unions, called for a public vote on final Brexit deal because it said the promises made during the referendum were "not the reality we are facing";

*Trade Minister George Hollingbery will urge Scots to take part in four online consultations on the UK’s future trading relationships during a meeting with businesses in Edinburgh and

*a report by psephologist Sir John Curtice says the number of people in the past 18 months who felt the UK will get a bad Brexit deal has jumped from 37 per cent to 52 per cent while those who believe it will get a good Brexit deal has dropped over the same period from 33 per cent to just 19 per cent.