Thread by @DaveKeating

Breaking: UK asking EU to delay decision on #backstop until end of transition period in Dec 2020 - but still grant UK a deal for leaving EU on 31 October.

It's an absolute non-starter in Brussels. "It's like they haven't been listening for the last year" grumbles one EU official

The EU is insisting the UK give a concrete proposal for replacing the #backstop in next 12 days

In response, #Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said the UK wants the EU to agree to put off a decision on the backstop until Dec 2020 and give the UK a deal by 31 Oct in the mean time

Barclay also said in his speech in Madrid on Thursday that the UK cannot meet the deadline for coming up with a backstop alternative.

Confusingly, this is the opposite of what Boris Johnson has been insisting - that it is completely possible to find an alternative by October.

Breaking: As expected, today Michel Barnier unequivocally rejected Stephen Barclay's request for the backstop issue be delayed until the end of transition period in Dec 2020, and the UK be given a deal to exit in the mean time. politico.eu/article/michel…

Following Barnier's meeting with Barclay in Brussels today, the Commission said in a statement: “It is essential that there is a fully workable and legally operational solution” to the backstop before the UK is given a deal to leave the EU on good terms. #Brexit