'Very wide gap' on Brexit, says Varadkar following Johnson meeting

The Taoiseach has said there is still a "very wide gap" on Brexit following his meeting with UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

Both men and their teams have met in New York on the fringes of the UN Summit with Mr Varadkar describing their discussions as "good".

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Varadkar said the discussions were "a little more detailed" than his meeting with Mr Johnson in Dublin recently.

"We got to talk about some of the detail of the withdrawal agreement and the backstop and I think it was a good meeting in the sense that we were able to get into more detail this time.

"However, there is still a very wide gap between the EU and the UK in terms of achieving what we need to achieve before October," he said.

Mr Varadkar said both men agreed to follow up their discussion with another meeting in the "near future".

Speaking ahead of the meeting Mr Johnson said he was "cautiously optimistic" about striking a Brexit deal ahead of the October 31 deadline.

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The decision was unanimously made by the 11-judge Supreme Court after Mr Johnson suspended parliament for five weeks ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline.

Mr Johnson is now set to return to London in time for the resumption of parliament tomorrow at 11.30am after a series of bilateral meetings with world leaders, including Mr Varadkar.