The post you are reporting:
Speaking of the Irish problem this is from the Times.
Leo Varadkar has said that the Brexiteers’ favoured “max-fac” customs solution is less useful than deodorant as Ireland turns up the pressure ahead of next month’s EU council meeting. Theresa May has told her warring ministers that she wants to settle the dispute over which of two options to choose for a future customs arrangement with the EU as soon as possible. Brexiteers led by Boris Johnson, David Davis and Michael Gove blocked her favoured “customs partnership” model. She remains concerned that their maximum facilitation solution option breaks a commitment not to have a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday the taoiseach said that Mrs May’s model could be made to work and mocked max-fac as he reiterated Ireland’s refusal to accept it. “I believe the customs partnership is closer to being made workable than the maximum-facilitation proposal or max-fac which ... I had thought was some form of make-up or deodorant.” “I have certainly not seen to date any detail that indicates that such a solution would be as functional as make-up or a deodorant. We are not drawing up any plan for a border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, full stop. There is not going to be one.
“I have made it very clear to my counterpart in the United Kingdom and the other EU prime ministers that under no circumstances will there be a border.”
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn’s team has moved to kill renewed speculation that Labour could back the so-called Norway-option for Brexit. The Labour leader is under pressure from his backbench MPs to commit Britain to being part of the European Economic Area (EEA) after it quits the European Union.
The EEA is made up of the 28 EU member states along with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, which is why post-Brexit membership for the UK is often called the Norway option. The three extra members have free movement of goods, services, people and capital with the EU and each other, and adopt most EU rules, making them part of the single market. However, they are not members of the EU’s customs union.
Mr Corbyn has previously ruled out the Norway option, saying that it would leave the UK as a “rule-taker” unable to take advantages offered by Brexit such as increasing state aid. A shadow Brexit minister appeared to open the door to Labour backing a Lords amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill make EEA membership a negotiating objective today. Paul Blomfield said that the EEA had “problems associated with it” but refused to rule out supporting it on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.