Brexit pressure intensified on Theresa May as the leader of the Scottish Conservatives warned the Prime Minister not to cut separate deals for different parts of the UK.
The intervention by Ruth Davidson came as Mrs May tried to plot a way forward in withdrawal negotiations after the Democratic Unionist Party refused to accept proposals which would have shifted Northern Ireland’s customs border to the Irish Sea.
In pointed remarks, the Scottish Tory leader tweeted that any Brexit agreement must be UK-wide.
The comments came as Mrs May briefed Cabinet colleagues on Tuesday on the race against the clock to find the key to break deadlock in Brexit talks on the Irish border and other issues.
Mrs May plans to return to Brussels before the end of the week, with time running out to persuade leaders of the remaining 27 EU nations at a summit on December 14-15 that “sufficient progress” has been made on divorce issues to move Brexit negotiations on to their second phase concentrating on trade.
The PM was expected to speak by phone with DUP leader Arlene Foster as Mrs May grappled to find a form of words acceptable to the Northern Irish party, on which she relies to prop up her minority administration at Westminster.
Chancellor Philip Hammond struck an upbeat note, insisting he was “very confident” that the Government would be able to make progress over the coming days.
Speaking to reporters as he arrived for a scheduled meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels, Mr Hammond said: “This is a very complex set of negotiations. There are many moving parts in it, there are many parties involved.
“We are very confident that we will be able to move this forward. Discussions are going on right now and will go on throughout the day.”
He added: “We have made a lot of progress over the last weeks. We have made tremendous steps forward. We are very close, but we are not there yet.
“As the Prime Minister said yesterday, we will have to do some further consultations, further discussions, today and she expects to come back to Brussels later in the week.”
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to “get his act together” on Brexit.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband also took to twitter to express concern about how negotiations were unfolding.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister Simon Coveney insisted Dublin would not budge from its position on the border.
“We have been moving forward on the basis of good faith. We believe the British Government has also been.
“There have been very difficult negotiations, we recognise these are very difficult political issues to manage for the British Prime Minister and we want to give her the time and the space to do that.
“But we don’t want to give the impression the Irish government is going to reverse away from the deal we felt we had in place and agreed yesterday.
“Of course, if there are presentational issues they want to work with, we will look at that.”