Brexit deal possible in 24-48 hours, says May's deputy

Britain and the European Union are on the cusp of a Brexit deal which could be clinched in the next 24 to 48 hours, British prime minister Theresa May's de facto deputy said on Tuesday.

While officials choreograph the biggest divorce deal in EU history, it remains unclear whether May can get a deal through parliament, where opponents have said she is betraying Brexit by signing up the United Kingdom to EU subjugation.

"We're not quite there yet," cabinet office minister David Lidington said. "We are almost within touching distance now."

Asked if he was saying it was possible there could be a deal in the next 24 or 48 hours, he said: "Still possible but not at all definite, I think pretty much sums it up. Cautiously optimistic."

The EU wants to get agreement on a draft deal by the end of Wednesday at the latest if there is to be a summit this month to approve it, although few in Brussels seemed to hold out much hope that a breakthrough could come this week.

Brussels diplomatic sources said the bloc was trying to cajole May into sealing a deal this week and rubber-stamping it later this month, fearing that any delay would increase the chances of rejection by her ministers or parliament.

Leaving approval until the next scheduled EU summit on December 13-14 would mean British lawmakers would not vote on a deal until after January 7, when they return from holiday.

"That's giving the opponents of the deal a lot of time to pull together a campaign to vote it down. That's why everyone on our side is pushing so hard for November," one source said.

The EU and the United Kingdom need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world's biggest trading bloc and the fifth largest national economy.

But May has struggled to untangle nearly 46 years of membership without damaging trade or upsetting the lawmakers who will ultimately decide the fate of any deal she can secure.

The intricacies of any deal are unlikely to change the growing opposition to May.

By seeking to leave the EU while preserving the closest possible ties, May's compromise plan has upset Brexiteers, pro-Europeans, Scottish nationalists, the Northern Irish party that props up her government, and some of her own ministers.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, a prominent Brexit campaigner who resigned from May's government in July over her strategy, said the deal would turn Britain into a colony of the EU.