'It's as bad as it could be!' MP warns EU's demands WILL result in WORST kind of Brexit

Remainer Sir John Major claimed the only solution to the Irish border issue is to remain in the customs union after Brexit.

But Tory MP Marcus Fysh shut down the Remainer claim and said the whole Irish border issue has been “blown out of proportion”.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Mr Fysh said: “It would be very convenient for the European Union to have us in the customs union because then they would be able to offer access to our market to other people who they wanted to do trade deals with and we would have no guarantee at all that we, in the UK, would have access to those countries’ markets.

“It’s perfect from the EU’s point of view. They are going to push for whatever they are going to get in the trade negotiation.

“This is about as bad a deal as it possibly could be for the UK but it suits the EU very well because their businesses don’t have to worry about changing anything and at the same time they would continue to have access and they would be able to sell our market, effectively, to third parties without having to give us anything in return.

Mr Fysh said it is not “beyond the wit of man” to come up with a solution to the Irish border issue that would result in Britain not remaining in the EU’s customs union.

He said: “It is not beyond the wit of man to come up with means of making sure that we have the systems that can talk to each other to make sure that there is no friction in terms of movement of people.”

Brexiteer ministers had urged Prime Minister Theresa May to pursue a plan for “maximum facilitation” – known as “MacFac” – which involved using a series of complex technologies and a trusted trader scheme to ensure customs checks on the Irish border are kept to an absolute minimum.

The Prime Minister had reluctantly convinced Brexiteers that customs union membership beyond 2020 should be considered as an option as they wait for the MaxFac technology to be developed, according to sources.

Mrs May issued a warning to those criticising her apparent softened position, she said: “No we are not climbing down. The United Kingdom will be leaving the customs union, we are leaving the European Union.

“Of course, we will be negotiating future customs arrangements with the European Union and I have set three objectives, the Government has three objectives in those.

“We need to be able to have our own independent trade policy, we want as friction-less a border between the UK and the EU so that trade can continue and we want to ensure there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.”