Last week's poll: Is government taking industry Brexit warnings seriously enough?

Talks in Salzburg have left the UK and the EU at an impasse that currently points Britain toward a no-deal withdrawal from Europe.

PM Theresa May doesn’t necessarily want this, and neither do senior figures in industry who have expressed concerns about losing tariff-free access and frictionless trade with Europe.

The EU has presented two options in terms of future economic relations, the first requiring the UK to stay in the European Economic Area and in a customs union with the European Union; the second to enter a free trade agreement that would introduce checks at the Great Britain/EU border.

“This would mean we’d still have to abide by all the EU rules, uncontrolled immigration from the EU would continue and we couldn’t do the trade deals we want with other countries. That would make a mockery of the referendum we had two years ago,” May said on returning from Salzburg. “But even worse, Northern Ireland would effectively remain in the Customs Union and parts of the Single Market, permanently separated economically from the rest of the UK by a border down the Irish Sea. Parliament has already - unanimously - rejected this idea.”