iain duncan smith. may i welcome my honourable friend... order.the respectful attention that he probably wants and i think he should have. very kind of you mr speaker. can i welcome the statement today. clearly she is right that we would prefer to have a deal, in the statement she made, she talked about alternative arrangements, which are bailed hugely on the compromise details. can i remind my honourable friend that it is clear behind closed doors that the uk government officials and the eu recognise that what is right now in the backstop is unworkable and therefore they will have to implement alternative arrangements. therefore when she sits down with them to ask for this, could she say the alternative arrange mentes must reach a deadline date and be bound legally? so they cannot renege from that when we leave. can i say to my honourable friend, that in fact there has not been the suggestion that the arrangements are unworkable. but there has been an acceptance of the desire to discuss the alternatives and have those in place, such that we re an

i know they will be led by a former party leader and a notably courteous member, mr iain duncan smitht to the successful amendment by my right honourable friend, the member of washington and sail west, the passage was heavily based on the figure that has become as the malthouse compromise. —— altrincham and sayle west. for the importance of doubt, can she now confirmed, therefore, that this proposal forms part of government policy? i say to my right honourable friend, because he has been involved in these meetings which have taken place with the secretary of state for exiting the eu, looking at the proposals that have come to be known as the malthouse compromise. there have been a number of alternative arrangements which have been proposed over the past months. the possibility of alternative arrangements to replace the backstop is recognised by both the uk and the eu by the declaration agreed in november. the proposals that have been tabled, there are some issues, there are some questions about the proposals that have been tabled. i raised the issue of alternative arrangements with th