The German Chancellor has said it may be possible to break the deadlock over the Brexit border backstop before the UK leaves the EU on October 31st.

Angela Merkel was speaking ahead of a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Berlin this evening.

She described the backstop as an “expression of a problem we have not yet solved” and noted that it will only come into force if no solution to the Irish border issue can be found.

“The backstop has always been a fallback position,” she said.

“We have said we will probably find [a solution] in the two years to come but we can also maybe find it in the next 30 days to come - so then we we will be one step further in the right direction.

“We have to put our all into this.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Berlin, 21-08-2019. Image: Jörg Carstensen/dpa

Dr Merkel said she believes there are ways to shape the declaration on the future relationship between the UK and the EU to “address this point in a sustainable manner” but admitted it will be “hard work.”

She said the backstop must remain in force until there is “absolute clarity” on the future relationship between Britain and the EU.

Backstop

Mr Johnson again called for the backstop to removed, “whole and entire” from the agreement before working “on the alternative arrangements.”

He claimed there are “abundant solutions” to the issue and suggested the UK Government had not “actively proposed” them over recent years.

“Now is the moment,” he said.

“You rightly say, the onus is on us to produce those solutions and those ideas to show how we can address the issue of the Northern Irish border and that is what we want to do.”

"Final furlong"

He said he was “more than happy” to hear the German Chancellor set a “blistering timetable of 30 days” to solve the impasse.

“I have watched a lot of European negotiations and believe me it looks at first as though it is irresistible force and immovable object and what, in my experience, happens is that people find a way through,” he said.

“I think that if we approach this with sufficient patience and optimism, we can get this done.

“It is in the final furlong generally when the horses change places and the winning deal appears.”