Brexit: 'I hope very much in the next few days we are going to get there' - PM

Speaking at a reception hosted by the DUP at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, the prime minister said the UK had made progress in Brexit negotiations, adding, “I hope very much in the next few days we are going to get there.”

He said it wouldn't be "a walk in the park" but suggested there was "grounds for optimism", adding "now that [European Commission President] Jean-Claude Juncker no longer has an erotic attachment to the backstop”.

The backstop is a mechanism designed to avoid the implementation of physical barriers or checks on the Irish border after Brexit. It is in the withdrawal agreement thrashed out between the EU and Theresa May, but rejected three times by MPs.