UK expects Brexit deal with EU by 21 November

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is nearing a deal with the EU. Photo/123RF.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has said he expects a deal on the UK's divorce from the European Union to be finalised by November 21. The pound rose.

In a letter sent October 24, and published on Wednesday, Raab said "a great deal of progress" had been made in recent weeks, thanks in part to new British proposals for resolving the thorny question of how to avoid customs checks at the Irish border.

This issue has clogged up negotiations for months, but Raab appeared hopeful of reaching a swift resolution. "Despite our differences, we are not far from an agreement on this issue," Raab said in his letter to Hilary Benn, chairman of Parliament's Brexit select committee.

"I would be happy to give evidence to the committee when a deal is finalized, and currently expect 21 November to be suitable," he wrote.

The pound headed for its biggest daily gain in more than three weeks, trading 0.6 per cent higher at 1.2781 per dollar at 3:59 p.m. in London.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman, James Slack, appeared to be playing down the significance of Raab's comments. "I'm not going to get involved in the interpretation you choose to put on that," he said. "This is a correspondence I haven't personally seen."

Slack maintained the line that the governments seek a Brexit deal as soon as possible.

Although Raab gave his upbeat assessment a week ago, one British official said there was no reason for the positive picture to have changed. Even so, his comments are at odds with the official position from the EU, which has so far resisted calling a special summit to sign off a Brexit deal that had been pencilled in for mid-November.

Instead, the next time the leaders of the 27 remaining member countries in the EU are due to sit down with May - potentially to sign the divorce terms -- will be at the European Council summit in December.

The UK has said the negotiations are 95 per cent complete but progress remains blocked by a long-running disagreement over how to handle the passage of goods across the border with Ireland after Brexit.

Both sides have promised to avoid the need for customs checks but they still can't agree on how to do it. In the UK, May's cabinet is divided over how hard to push the EU for a guaranteed limit on any temporary arrangements.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported Raab will be making his first visit to the Irish border on Friday to see the challenges for himself and inject fresh momentum into the talks.

- Bloomberg