IRISH Foreign Minister Simon Coveney threatened to block Brexit talks from moving on yesterday unless Downing Street addressed Brussels’s threats of a “hard border” with North Ireland.

Speaking at a Brussels summit of EU and former Soviet nations, Mr Coveney insisted that leaders of the bloc’s member states would not give the go-ahead to start phase two of the Brexit negotiations next month without a “credible road map” from Britain.

He again raised the spectre of border posts on on roads between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland if there was “regulatory divergence” — if the north leaves the EU single market along with Britain.