It was hailed by Boris Johnson as a major concession to break the Brexit deadlock, but European leaders have poured cold water on his proposals for a new deal.
The Prime Minister told MPs he had made a “genuine attempt to bridge the chasm” with the EU by making compromises ahead of the October 31 deadline.
However, President of the European Council Donald Tusk said Brussels remains “open but still unconvinced” after talks with Mr Johnson, while Ireland went further.
Irish Premier Leo Varadkar said Mr Johnson’s Brexit plan “falls short in a number of aspects”, while his deputy Simon Coveney went further, saying “if that is the final proposal, there will be no deal”.
Mr Johnson earlier told the Commons his proposals provided a basis for rapid negotiations, but acknowledged there is still some way to go before a resolution.
He told MPs: “I do not for one moment resile from the fact that we have shown great flexibility in the interests of reaching an accommodation with our European friends and achieving the resolution for which we all yearn.
“If our European neighbours choose not to show a corresponding willingness to reach a deal then we shall have to leave on October 31 without an agreement and we are ready to do so.
“But that outcome would be a failure of statecraft for which all parties would be held responsible.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed the plans as “a rehashed version of previously rejected proposals” that would put the Good Friday Agreement at risk and “trigger a race to the bottom on rights and protections for workers, consumers and our precious environment”.
Meanwhile, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford insisted the proposals were unacceptable, unworkable and undeliverable.
He said: “Scotland will never consent to this extreme Tory Brexit, which would drag us out of the EU, single market and customs union against our will – and cause devastating harm to Scottish jobs, living standards, public services and the economy.
“Boris Johnson’s half-baked Brexit proposals are even worse than Theresa May’s.
“They are unacceptable, unworkable, undeliverable and designed to fail – but no-one will be fooled by this botched Tory attempt to shift blame for a catastrophic no-deal Brexit.”
He said the SNP “stands ready” to bring Mr Johnson down in a vote of no confidence.
Mr Johnson shared his latest Brexit proposals with leaders in Brussels on Wednesday.
In a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker he said the backstop – a contingency measure to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland – must be removed.
Mr Johnson’s new plan would see Northern Ireland apply EU rules on goods but stay in a customs territory with the UK.
This would create a regulatory barrier for goods crossing the Irish Sea and a customs border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but Mr Johnson insisted there would be no need for checks or infrastructure at the frontier.
Mr Varadkar said he could not fully understand how the UK envisages Northern Ireland and Ireland operating under different customs regimes without the need for checkpoints.
He said there were five ways to avoid a hard border: the reunification of Ireland; the Irish Republic re-joining the UK; the UK remaining in the single market and customs union; the border backstop mechanism; or the UK reversing the Brexit decision.
He said the polls suggested the British people actually want to scrap Brexit and stay in the EU, “but their political system isn’t able to give them that choice”.
Meanwhile the European Parliament’s Brexit Steering Group said it had “grave concerns” about the plan.
It said the “last-minute proposals” did not “represent a basis for an agreement to which the European Parliament could give consent”.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Johnson urged MPs to “come together in the national interest behind this new deal”, which will need to gain support from both Brussels and Parliament.
He said: “We have made a genuine attempt to bridge the chasm, to reconcile the apparently irreconcilable. And to go the extra mile as time runs short.”
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