By Tim Sculthorpe, Deputy Political Editor For Mailonline
Published: 09:37 GMT, 17 February 2019 | Updated: 09:38 GMT, 17 February 2019
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Europe will hurt its own economy if it refuses to back down on the Irish border backstop to strike a Brexit deal, Liam Fox warned today.
The Trade Secretary said EU leaders should consider the global economic slowdown as they wrestle with the Brexit endgame.
Dr Fox said politicians on the continent would have to answer to their own voters if they force Britain to leave without a deal.
Europe will hurt its own economy if it refuses to back down on the Irish border backstop to strike a Brexit deal, Liam Fox (pictured in Westminster on Thursday) warned today
The border backstop protocol seeks to guarantee there will never be a hard border in Ireland by keeping Britain in the EU customs union until there is a replacement trade deal (file image)
Following the crushing defeat of the deal in Parliament last month, the Prime Minister is demanding Brussels offer legally binding guarantees on the backstop.
The protocol seeks to guarantee there will never be a hard border in Ireland by keeping Britain in the EU customs union until there is a replacement trade deal.
But Brexiteers insist the backstop cannot be allowed to last indefinitely - meaning it must either have a time limit or unilateral exit clause, or be replaced entirely.
Brussels has so far refused to engage on the detail of the backstop - and complained Britain has not made a specific request for changes.
But Dr Fox insisted the EU had to be flexible to ensure the two year negotiation does not fail at the final hurdle over the issue.
He told the Sunday Telegraph: 'This is a Europe that's got European elections and a number of potential elections - a potential Spanish election - coming up.
'There comes a point where politicians have to park ideological issues and
