Former Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) John Bruton has said the Prime Minister's plan for a post-Brexit customs deal will be "unworkable".

Theresa May has said Brexit means leaving the European Customs Union.

It currently allows tariff and paperwork-free trade between the UK and the rest of the EU, including the Republic of Ireland.

Sinn Féin has said exiting the European Customs Union creates a "hard border on the island of Ireland".

Former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness said: "A border of the future is coming at us."

Mr Bruton said Mrs May was "remarkably unclear about the sort of relationship she wants with the EU Customs Union".

He said what Mrs May had laid out would run into difficulties with the World Trade Organisation.

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Boris Johnson tells the EU not to treat the UK's Brexit "escape" like a "World War Two movie".

Plaid Cymru warns Theresa May her Brexit plan will cause "calamitous self-harm" to Welsh exporters.

Two major City of London investment banks say that some staff will have to move abroad when the UK leaves the EU.

Here's a round-up of the day's main stories so far:

• Boris Johnson warns EU leaders not to give the UK "punishment beatings" for Brexit "in the manner of some World War Two movie". 
• Two of the largest investment banks in London confirm that some staff will definitely have to move abroad when the UK leaves the EU. 
• The government will learn next Tuesday whether it has won its legal battle to get Brexit under way without the need for a vote by MPs.  
• James Landale's analysis: Don't mention the war

Image source, EPA

BBC correspondent Kevin Connolly has been gauging reaction in the European Parliament to Theresa May's Brexit pledges.

If Brexit is going to end up feeling like a long toe-to-toe boxing match then at last we can say that the first round is over. 

Theresa May has come out jabbing - offering crisp points about the UK's plans to leave the single market and its readiness to walk away from a bad deal if that's all that's on offer. 

The European side for the moment is still acting as if what we've seen so far this week is just the posturing and chest-beating you see at the pre-fight weigh-in rather than the fight itself. 

Their big-hitters - politicians like Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk - have confined themselves to a little nifty defensive work pointing to the likely difficulty of the talks, hoping for a fair outcome and reiterating that until Britain formally triggers the departure process everything is mere shadow boxing. 

None of that of course will stop individual MEPs and commentators from offering their assessment of where the balance lies between the EU and the UK after Theresa May's Brexit declaration.

The impact of Brexit on Scotland sparks a heated exchange in the House of Commons between Theresa May and the SNP's Angus Robertson.at Prime Minister's Questions.

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Like some latter-day Basil Fawlty, Boris Johnson mentioned the War and didn't get away with it. 

The foreign secretary urged the French president not to "administer punishment beatings" on Britain for choosing to escape the EU "rather in the manner of some World War Two movie". 

Not surprisingly, uproar has ensued. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Johnson had shown once again that he could be "supremely clever and yet immensely stupid". 

To some Britons, Mr Johnson's remarks will be seen as colourful but unexceptional language that echoes the popular World War Two film The Great Escape. 

To many of Mr Johnson's generation, these films were part of their childhood and are subject to frequent cultural reference. Former Prime Minister David Cameron has seen The Guns of Navarone more than 17 times and once quoted a line from the film in a party conference speech.

Read more from James

Lee Thomas
BBC Radio Stoke

Stoke-On-Trent Central's by-election could take place as soon as next month, according to the city's returning officer. 

Labour's Tristram Hunt is standing down to take on the role of Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Image source, PA

Image source, Reuters

French newspaper Le Monde says it is surprised how upbeat UK ministers and the Brexit-supporting media have been in the past 24 hours, using an editorial to express its view that a hard exit will be "hard for the English".

Anticipating the start of negotiations proper, it says European leaders should have "cause for satisfaction" while "time is against" Theresa May.

Image source, AFP

Barack Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest has been asked about Brexit at his final press briefing before the president leaves office.

He said it was up to the UK and the EU to design a relationship that "prevents any sort of economic disruptions from misunderstandings or from surprises".

He said it was in the interests of the US that this happened and he believed this view would be shared by the incoming Trump administration. 

President Obama will give his last press conference later. 

Downing Street has said Theresa May continues to have full confidence in her cabinet colleague Boris Johnson following remarks he made during a trip to India.

The prime minister’s official spokeswoman said that the foreign secretary made no reference to “Nazis” despite media reports alluding to that, adding that he was making a “theatrical comparison”.

Asked whether Mrs May would respond to the call by the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator to condemn the comments, the spokeswoman said: “I think it’s important people focus on actually what was said and see them in their proper context.”

Mr Johnson's remark came during a visit to India, when he was asked about a reported comment from one of Mr Hollande's aides, who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship with Europe from outside the EU. 

 The Foreign Secretary responded: 

Image source, Reuters

Ed Miliband has questioned Boris Johnson's suitability to be foreign secretary following his comments about World War Two movie-style punishment beatings.

The former Labour leader tweeted, external that Mr Johnson had shown that "you can be supremely clever and yet immensely stupid".

Image source, Reuters

Away from Brexit, there is an unusual story about calls for an inquiry into the leaking of a confidential report written by a parliamentary committee. 

The Commons Privileges Committee has been urged to probe the unauthorised release of a secret report on British arms exports to Saudi Arabia produced by the Commons Arms Export Controls Committee (CAEC)

The Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC), external called for a "full investigation" of leaks to the media of draft versions of the report last September. 

Both the BBC's Newsnight programme and the Guardian reported contents of the document, as well as amendments tabled by certain MPs. 

The report by CAEC, which is made up of four Commons select committees, investigated claims that UK arms sold to Saudi Arabia had been used in breaches of international law in Yemen. 

Image source, House of Commons

Labour's Tristram Hunt has been making his farewell speech to the Commons after his announcement he is standing down to become director of the V&A museum.

The Stoke Central MP spoke about the EU referendum and the fact, although he backed Remain, there were days when he toured his constituency and did not find a single person who shared his views.

Stoke Central, he argued, voted for Brexit in large numbers for three reasons - to restore sovereignty, to address globalisation and to curb immigration. 

The government must now deliver a settlement that works for the city's residents and others like them across the country who feel they have been left behind by the decline and disappearance of manufacturing industries and don't have the skills to make the most of a rapidly changing world.

The historian expresses concerns that Brexit could result in a country that is "more equal but poorer - more Sparta than Rome".

As to the future of Labour, he says the interests of its supporters in places as varied as Cambridge and Redcar have diverged and any leader would now face a struggle holding together a "metropolitan and post-industrial coalition".

He says he will not be following the example of Tony Benn, who memorably said he quit as an MP to devote more time to politics.

But he wishes his fellow colleagues well from his new vantage point and says it has been a privilege to represent the city for the past six and half a years.

Theresa May taunts Jeremy Corbyn over leadership skills.

Jeremy Corbyn offers a new name for the PM, twisting a former moniker for Lady Thatcher.

A hard Brexit "could rip Britain apart", London mayor Sadiq Khan is to warn in a speech later.