Theresa May's government has finally agreed a plan for Brexit — but the EU may still reject it

Experts have already cast doubt on whether the EU will accept this proposal. The Times got its hands on an early draft of the plan and asked Centre for European Reform research fellow Sam Lowe to analyse it.

His conclusion? Europe is unlikely to bite. "Allowing the UK such a relationship could cause problems for the EU vis-à-vis its external relationships with Switzerland and the EEA countries; and it could also empower Eurosceptic sentiment in manufacturing-heavy parts of the EU, such as France and Germany," he wrote. "If the EU doesn’t want to grant the UK a special deal, it won’t."