Boris Johnson grilled on Brexit plan

Our live coverage is over for the day. Read Luke McGee's analysis of Boris Johnson's latest Brexit plan here.

European Council President Donald Tusk has spoken to both Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson on Thursday.

Tusk once again stressed the EU was united behind Ireland. This is crucial: Ireland is a small member state and the circumstances make it vulnerable. It needs support from Brussels and the biggest member states, including Germany and France.

Ireland is the only state with a land border with the UK. That border was at the center of a decades-long conflict between Northern Ireland and Ireland; now it's at the center of the Brexit deadlock.

Here is a reminder that it's not just the opposition and the EU who seem fairly pessimistic about Boris Johnson's new Brexit proposals.

Hard-core Brexiteers, led by Nigel Farage, are also criticizing the plan, calling it "Fake Brexit."

Farage and his Brexit Party would prefer the UK to leave the European Union without a deal -- an event economists say would hurt the UK economy.

European Parliament's Brexit Steering group has said the Brexit proposal presented to the EU by Boris Johnson "do not match even remotely what was agreed as a sufficient compromise in the backstop."

Europe's chief negotiator Michel Barnier met the members of European Parliament's Brexit Steering group on Thursday, to brief them on Boris Johnson's latest proposals.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Boris Johnson's Brexit plans "fall short in a number of aspects."

Varadkar said he failed to see how, under the proposal, Northern Ireland and Ireland could operate under different customs regimes without customs posts.

"No one party should be able to block the majority view on the island," he said, referring to the fact that the plan seems to be aimed at pleasing the DUP.

 "Any consent mechanism and democracy mechanism must reflect the views of the majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland," said the Taoiseach.

Varadkar pointed out a contradiction in Johnson's statements.

"I’m reassured by what PM Johnson said, that he’s not proposing that there’ll be any new physical infrastructure on the island of Ireland linked to customs or custom checks. But that is actually in contradiction to the papers presented by the UK Gov yesterday."

Johnson's proposals mention the need for a small number of physical checks.

Here's where the semantics come to play.

While a "small number" "away from the border" means "no new checks" to Johnson, it seems to mean something completely different to Varadkar.

"We do not want to see any customs posts between north and south, nor do we want to see any tariffs or restrictions on trade between north and south," he said.

The Liberal Democrats' Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, tweeted that manufacturers in Northern Ireland have said they are being "thrown under the bus" by Boris Johnson's plans, and have described them as "an existential threat."

In Ireland, meanwhile, things are not looking great for Boris Johnson's latest proposal.

Irish Deputy Prime Minister, or Tanaiste, Simon Coveney, has said that if the plan is Johnson's final proposal, then there will be no deal.

Coveney said that "Ireland has not been treated well" during the Brexit process so far.

Angela McGowan, the head of the CBI Northern Ireland, a business lobby, said the proposal could lead to more uncertainty for businesses across Ireland and Northern Ireland.

That's because under the plan, the rules would be reviewed periodically in order to make sure people in Northern Ireland agree with them.

McGowan said:

The topic is crucial, the opinions are divisive. But the tone in which the discussion is taking place in Parliament on Thursday is calm, at least compared to the circus of the past few weeks.

Just last week, a furious Boris Johnson shouted at his opponents, using words like "surrender" and "betray." The opposition was talking about a "coup."

Johnson even dismissed as "humbug" the concerns of one MP, Paula Sherriff, who asked him to recall the politically motivated murder three years ago of a Labour lawmaker, Jo Cox.

On Thursday, everyone appeared to have taken their foot off the gas a little -- much to the relief of Speaker John Bercow, who has lost his voice.