Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would submit “compromise” plans for a Brexit agreement to Brussels yesterday but again warned that Britain was prepared to leave the European Union later this month without a deal, despite fears it could herald an economic slump.

In his closing speech to his Conservative party’s annual conference, Johnson said the plans would address the contentious issue of how to keep open Britain’s border with Ireland.

“This is a compromise by the UK,” he told delegates in the northwestern city of Manchester, adding that he hoped EU leaders “understand that and compromise in their turn”. But he emphasised that if they did not, Britain would still leave the EU on October 31. A no-deal exit “is not an outcome we seek at all. But let me tell you my friends it is an outcome for which we are ready”, he said, to big cheers from delegates.