Brexit Sec expects to secure deal before 21 November
Brexit secretary Dominic Raab told the a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that he expects a deal with the European Union to be secured before 21 November.
Although, as the Prime Minister said earlier this month, 95% of the deal has been agreed, the problem of the border in Ireland after the divorce remains a sizeable obstruction to securing a Withdrawal Agreement.
“The end is now firmly in sight and, while obstacles remain, it cannot be beyond us to navigate them. We have resolved most of the issues.” he said in a letter to the chairman of the Brexit Committee.
Raab reminded that Theresa May told the House on 22 October that there were four steps to take to agree to the backstop solution.
The first would be to make a commitment to a temporary UK-EU joint customs territory legally binding so that the Northern Ireland proposal is no longer needed. Second, to create an option to extend the implementation period before the backstop activates.
Third would be to set an end date for these two steps and the final step would be for the government to deliver the commitments it made to ensure the continued access for Northern Irish businesses to the whole of the UK.