Read Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal deal in full

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• Theresa May has published the full text of her draft Brexit withdrawal deal.
• The text confirms that the UK would remain in the customs union as part of the Irish "backstop" arrangement.
• She faces an uphill battle to persuade ministers and backbenchers to support the deal.
• A leaked briefing from EU negotiator Sabine Weyand appears to confirm many MPs' worst fears - that the EU would seek to keep the UK permanently within its customs union.

LONDON - Theresa May has finally published the full text of her 585-page Brexit deal.

The deal, agreed by the prime minister and her Cabinet on Wednesday evening, sets out how Britain will withdraw from its relationship with the EU.

READ: Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal treaty in full here

Under the deal:

• The whole of the UK will remain within the EU customs union.
• Northern Ireland will remain within parts of the EU single market.
• There will be no fixed end date to that arrangement.
• The UK will not be able to withdraw unilaterally from that arrangement.
• An independent panel will rule when the measure can end.

Under the agreement, the UK has agreed to be bound by a UK-wide Brexit "backstop" which will effectively keep Britain in a customs union with the EU if the prime minister fails to secure an alternative arrangement before the end of the two-year Brexit transition period.

May believes the backstop measure - designed to be temporary - is necessary because it will ensure that no new checks emerge at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is seen as vital to preserving the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

But ministers and backbenchers are concerned because the arrangement would leave the UK without the ability to strike independent free trade deals, and leave it subject to EU rules and regulations despite having no role in their legislation.

They are also concerned that the EU would seek to make the supposedly temporary arrangement permanent, a concern which appears to have been concerned by a leaked briefing from Sabine Weyand, the EU's deputy Brexit negotiator.

She reportedly told EU ambassadors that UK-wide membership of the customs union should be "the basis for the future relationship." In other words, it looks like the EU are aiming to keep the UK in a customs union on a permanent basis, something which all Brexiteers - and indeed many Remainers - are implacably opposed.

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