Cabinet ministers have urged the Prime Minister to stop using the threat of a no-deal Brexit as a negotiating tactic as March 29 draws closer.
Four MPs made the intervention on Monday ahead of Theresa May’s trip to Brussels.
Business Secretary Greg Clark, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, Justice Secretary David Gauke and Scottish Secretary David Mundell warned Mrs May businesses now need certainty the UK will not leave the EU without a deal in place, according to The Guardian.
There was no immediate comment on the report from No 10.
The move came as Honda looked set to announce 3,500 jobs will be lost if the car manufacturer closes its Swindon plant.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay will brief the Cabinet today on the continuing deadlock over the Northern Ireland backstop.
He was said to have had a "productive" discussion with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday alongside Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.
Mr Cox will make a speech in London on Tuesday setting out “legal tests” to ensure the UK will not be trapped in a customs union by the “backstop”.
However, it appeared that they were no closer to resolving the fraught issue, which remains the main stumbling block to an agreement, and the pair are thought to be returning to Brussels on Wednesday.
The Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) confirmed they discussed the so-called "Malthouse compromise" being worked on by Tory MPs in the Alternative Arrangements Working Group.
However, there appeared to be little enthusiasm for the proposals - intended to replace the backstop with a basic free trade deal combined with technological solutions to avoid the need for physical border checks - on the EU side.
A DExEU spokesman said: "While the commission engaged seriously with these proposals it expressed concerns about their viability to resolve the backstop.
"We agreed to keep exploring the use of alternative arrangements - especially how they might be developed to ensure the absence of a hard border in Northern Ireland on a permanent footing, avoiding the need for the backstop to ever enter force."
Cabinet Office minister David Lidington warned on Monday that a no-deal Brexit could encourage the break-up of the UK.
Read More
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is stepping up his call to the Prime Minister to re-think her negotiating "red lines" and back Labour's proposals for a customs union with the EU.
The Labour leader, who is addressing the EEF employers group manufacturing conference, said he would be travelling to Brussels later this week to discuss the plan with Mr Barnier.
In his speech, Mr Corbyn is expected to say: "Earlier this month I wrote to the Prime Minister laying out Labour's alternative Brexit plan, based around a permanent customs union with a British say in future trade deals, a strong relationship with the single market and full guarantees on workers' rights, consumer standards and environmental protections.
"It's a plan that could win the support of Parliament and help bring the country together.
"It has been widely welcomed as a way of breaking the impasse. So I call on the Government and MPs across Parliament to end the Brexit uncertainty and back Labour's credible alternative plan."
