Sophie in 't Veld has claimed “that in essence means Brexit is not going to happen” after David Davis announced that it was always the plan that Northern Ireland have the same regulatory arrangements as the rest of the UK.

Ms Veld, the deputy of the EU’s parliament’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, said: “I think that’s fantastic because, in essence, that means Brexit is not going to happen, in a large part, because the UK would still follow the same EU rules.

“It doesn’t make much sense to me but if that is what Mr Davis proposes then good.”

The Dutch MEP then looked like a deer in the headlights when Newsnight host Evan Davis asked: “If we went down the David Davis route, would we have to have free movement?”

Ms Veld then replied: “We’re talking about very shady proposals here. We don’t know what we’re actually talking about.

“Nobody knows quite honestly. At some point, we would also like to know exactly what it is the UK Government wants… only once we have a clear idea of what we can negotiate.”

Addressing the issue of the Irish border, she added: “What we don’t want is a hard border. Yes, by definition there is a border, there is a border now. The question is how is it going to work in practice. I think the one solution that is not going to work is what the UK Government has in mind which is to say ok, we’re not set up a physical border but we’ll just put up some cameras and sensors… no that’s not going to work.

“It will have to be a ’soft border’ otherwise you jeopardise the Good Friday agreement.

Evan Davis then hit back: “You are jeopardising the Good Friday agreement by potentially ruling out a deal with the UK that is acceptable to the UK. It takes two sides for there to be no deal and if there is no deal you will want to put a border there to protect the integrity of you single market.

Ms Veld lashed back that it was “a very strange way of looking at it”.

She added: “I am also a little bit irritated. The EU is an entity that has been around for 60 years and for over 40 years the UK has been a member.

"The UK has chosen to leave the EU – and for the time being it looks as though they want to leave the internal market.

“The UK knows better than anybody else what the rules of the single market are, you’ve created them together with the rest of Europe.”

The news comes as reports emerged that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are spearheading a Cabinet rebellion against Theresa May following fears she is trying to hoodwink them into a soft Brexit

The Brexit architects have expressed “genuine fear” that the Prime Minister was seeking regulatory alignment between the UK and Brussels after Britain leaves.

A Cabinet source told The Telegraph: “It seems that either Northern Ireland is splitting from the rest of the UK or we are headed for high alignment with the EU, which certainly hasn’t been agreed by Cabinet.

“The Prime Minister is playing a risky game.”

DUP leader Arlene Foster called Mrs May while she was preparing for a victorious speech alongside EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to announce an agreement had been made to move onto trade talks.

Instead, the Prime Minister was launched into crisis talks with the DUP saying it will take days to change the wording to something they can support.

A statement by David Davis which was designed to calm the situation was seen by Leavers as a hint at a soft Brexit.

The Brexit Secretary said any alignment between Dublin and Belfast would apply to the rest of the UK, which was seen an implication of a future under EU rule.