Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the duration of any backstop period, when the UK remained part of the Customs Union after leaving the EU.

We agreed in the Joint Report that a backstop option to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland and Ireland and maintain the economic integrity of the UK should be translated into legally binding text. The Prime Minister has been clear that the current drafting of the EU’s backstop proposal is unacceptable. We will bring forward a our own proposal in due course.