SHADOW Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer told Good Morning Britain the Brexit deal was a "miserable failure of negotiation", and claimed that Labour will vote against it.

He told the ITV programme: "It's a chaotic ending and the root cause is the utter division on the Conservative benches."

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said MPs should back Theresa May's Brexit plan because the alternatives to it are "ugly".

He warned that failing to get the deal agreed with Brussels through Parliament would either lead to a no-deal Brexit or a second referendum and the risk of not leaving at all.

He told BBC News: "All MPs should vote for it because this deal is in the national interest.

"The two alternatives are deeply unattractive and as people read the detail of it and look at the deal in the round, rather than the bits and pieces that have come out in the newspapers during the latter stages of the negotiations, anybody in any compromise negotiated document can pick out individual parts that they would prefer were written differently."

European Council president Donald Tusk has set out the process leading up to a Brussels summit of EU leaders on November 25 at which the UK's withdrawal agreement will be finalised and formalised.

At a press conference in Brussels, Tusk was presented by the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier with a copy of the 585-page agreement approved on Wednesday by Theresa May's Cabinet.

Tusk said that the agreement was already being analysed by all the member states, and by the end of this week the EU27 ambassadors will meet in order to share their assessment.

"I hope that there will not be too many comments," he said.

Ambassadors and ministers of the EU27 will also discuss the mandate for the European Commission to finalise the joint political declaration on future UK/EU relations published in outline form on Wednesday with the intention of agreeing a final form of the declaration by next Tuesday.

Over the following 48 hours, member states will evaluate the document and sherpas should conclude the work on November 22, allowing the European Council to convene at 9.30am on November 25 "if nothing extraordinary happens".

Welcoming the approval of the draft agreement by Theresa May's Cabinet, Tusk said: "Of course, I do not share the Prime Minister's enthusiasm about Brexit as such.

"Since the very beginning, we have had no doubt that Brexit is a lose-lose situation and our negotiations are only about damage control."

Thanking Barnier for his work as chief negotiator, Tusk said: "You have achieved our two most important objectives: You ensured the limitation of the damage caused by Brexit and you secured the vital interests and principles of the 27 member states and of the European Union as a whole."

In a message to the British people, Tusk said: "As much as I am sad to see you leave, I will do everything to make this farewell the least painful possible, both for you and for us."

Vara, the Tory MP for North West Cambridgeshire, was promoted to his Government post in July, having previously been a parliamentary private secretary in the Northern Ireland Office.

In a statement posted on Twitter, he said: "We are a proud nation and it is a say day when we are reduced to obeying rules made by other countries who have shown that they do not have our best interests at heart.

"We can and must do better than this. The people of the UK deserve better."

Barnier said: "This is a very important moment. What we have agreed at negotiators' level is fair and balanced, takes into account the UK's positions, organises the withdrawal in an orderly fashion, ensures no hard border on the island of Ireland and lays the ground for an ambitious new partnership."

Barnier said that his team had "always followed the EU mandate scrupulously" and had achieved "decisive progress" together with the UK negotiators.

He added: "Our work is not finished. We still have a long road ahead of us on both sides.

"On my side, in the next few days we will all work on the text of the political declaration on the future relationship with the member states as well as with the European Parliament.

"This work will be intense. Our goal is to finalise this political declaration with the UK so that the European Council can endorse it."

Tusk and Barnier took no questions from reporters after their brief statements. Barnier said he would now travel to Strasbourg to discuss the agreement with the European Parliament, adding: "We have no time to lose."

Sir Keir Starmer said that May's plan had only seven pages out of more than 500 looking at the future relationship with the EU, of which three were on trade.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today: "There is nothing in there about a comprehensive customs union and if you look at those seven pages, it must be the first time in history that what is proposed is a trade agreement that makes it harder to trade, not easier to trade."

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey, who was said to have argued against the Brexit agreement and called for a Cabinet vote, was tight-lipped on the matter on Thursday morning.

"Thank you and good morning," she said as she left her London flat and hopped into a waiting car.

Health Secretary Hancock refused to confirm or deny reports that he told Wednesday's Cabinet meeting he "could not guarantee that people would not die" if no Brexit deal was agreed.

He told the Today programme he would not go into what people had said behind closed doors, but said the prospect of no deal was "not pretty" for healthcare.

He added: "We are working very hard to ensure that people have the unhindered flow and access to medicines that they need.

"There is a lot of work to do that but I hope that by this deal we can avoid a no-deal Brexit, we can avoid a second referendum and we can have a high-quality future with the EU, and that is what this deal provides."

Hancock said the discussions at the Cabinet meeting had been civil but "open and frank", adding: "I didn't see any tears."