Brexit: Boris Johnson tells MPs 'it's my deal or no deal'

Mr Johnson, after arriving in Brussels for the two-day EU summit, urged MPs to "come together to get Brexit done" and "get this excellent deal over the line".

Camley's Cartoon: Boris Johnson's deal on a knife-edge

In a statement last night, he declared: “I'm very confident when my colleagues in Parliament study this agreement, they will want to vote for it on Saturday and then in succeeding days.”

• READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon - SNP MPs will not back Brexit deal

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, insisted there would be no further delay to Brexit beyond October 31. “There will be no prolongation. We have concluded a deal and so there is not an argument for further delay. It has to be done now," he declared.

Yet Donald Tusk, the European Council President, was more cautious, refusing to rule out another extension should MPs reject the new UK-EU deal.

Earlier, the Democratic Unionists made political waves by announcing they could not support the new deal, hammered out over the past 12 weeks, because of concerns over the issues of customs and consent.

On the former, they believe the creation of a customs border down the Irish Sea unnecessarily separates off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, which would “undermine the integrity of the Union”.

On the latter, they say the proposal removes their ability to veto any unwanted changes and “drives a coach and horses through the professed sanctity of the Belfast Agreement” because it abandons the need for consent by both Unionists and Nationalists, replacing this with decision-making by simple majority.

Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s deputy leader, accused Mr Johnson of being “too eager by far to get a deal at any cost," adding: “If he'd held his nerve, he would have got better concessions which kept the integrity, both economic and constitutional, of the UK."

But the PM stressed the deal was “fair, balanced and reasonable,” boasting how the “anti-democratic” backstop had finally been abolished.

He explained: “What it means is we in the UK can come out of the EU as one United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, together, and it means we can decide our future together, we can take back control, as the phrase goes, of our money, our borders, our laws, together…

“We can build now on our relations with our friends and partners in the EU. And it'll be a very exciting period now to get to the positive side of that project; the extraction having been done, the building now begins.”

Leo Varadkar, the Irish premier, said the deal meant that “our objectives as Ireland and as Europe have been met”.

He added: "We have a financial settlement, there will be no hard border between north and south, the all-island economy will continue to develop and north-south co-operation as envisaged by the Good Friday Agreement can resume and continue.

“We secured the integrity of the European single market and our place in it and the common travel area between the UK and Ireland will stay in place."

Last night, a group of cross-party MPs signed a letter to Sajid Javid, the Chancellor, asking him to release economic impact assessments for the new deal ahead of Saturday's vote.

Much of it is the same as the one Theresa May failed three times to get through Westminster as it involves a divorce bill, now estimated at £33 billion, a transition period up to December 2020 and protecting the rights of EU citizens living in Britain and British citizens living in the EU.

The main changes relate to Northern Ireland:

*the highly contentious backstop is scrapped - its opponents feared it could have kept Britain in the EU customs union indefinitely;

*the province remains in the UK customs territory, meaning it will be included in trade deals the UK strikes with other countries post Brexit;

*as it will continue to be an entry point into the EU, the UK will not apply tariffs on goods entering its territory so long as they are not destined to cross the Irish border for shipment to the EU27;

*a UK/EU committee will decide which goods are at risk of entering the EU single market with the UK collecting EU tariffs on them on behalf of the EU27 and

*the Stormont Assembly - suspended since January 2017 - will get a vote every four years on whether to continue with the new trading arrangements by use of a simple majority rather than needing majorities from both the Unionists and the Nationalists.

News of the deal sent the pound up, hitting a five-month high against the US dollar.

But it met strong resistance from the opposition parties.

Nicola Sturgeon, making clear SNP MPs would oppose the Johnson plan, said: “It’s hard to imagine a deal that could be worse for Scotland; it’s worse even than Theresa May’s deal. It takes Scotland out of the EU, out of the single market, out of the customs union; all against our will.”

• READ MORE: Scottish legal challenge to declare Boris Johnson's new Brexit deal unlawful

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, insisted the new deal sounded "even worse" than the one negotiated by his predecessor and "should be rejected" by MPs while Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, denounced it as economic vandalism.

However, a suggestion that an amendment will be tabled for Saturday’s debate calling for the deal to be voted on in a second referendum was being rowed back on as supporters of the move felt the numbers might not be there to push it through.

The SNP’s Ian Blackford announced his party would table an amendment to Saturday’s motion, opposing the deal, calling for an extension to facilitate a General Election, as he complained that Scotland had been “completely ignored” and its interests “side-lined” by Westminster throughout the Brexit process.

Given the DUP’s opposition, Mr Johnson’s bid to succeed where Mrs May failed three times appears a high risk gamble and potentially doomed to failure.

Discounting Sinn Fein, which does not take its seats, the Speaker and his deputies, who do not vote, as well as the tellers, who also do not vote, the magic number is 318 to get a Commons majority.

The Tories have 285 votes. This leaves the PM 33 short.

Some former Tory MPs now sitting as independents could rally round the new deal – there are 21 of them – but it seems clear Mr Johnson will have to rely on Labour rebels to get his Brexit plan over the line.

In Brussels, after EU leaders backed the new deal, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, described Brexit as a “lose lose process” but insisted he had a great deal of admiration for the UK.

His colleague Mr Tusk said he had sadness in his heart at Britain’s impending departure but added: “For our British friends our door will always be open.”