BREXIT Secretary David Davis will call for a 'deal like no other in history' as he heads to Brussels to launch negotiations for Britain's exit from the European Union today.

Talks with the European Commission's chief negotiator Michel Barnier will focus on the status of expats, the UK's "divorce bill" and the Northern Ireland border.

But officials insisted the UK would continue to push for an agreement on trade relations to be dealt with alongside a deal on the withdrawal process.

It comes as Philip Hammond warned failing to secure a Brexit deal would be "very, very bad" for the country and insisted there must be transitional arrangements to avoid a "cliff edge".

Mr Davis will be accompanied by a nine-strong negotiating team that includes the most senior civil servants at the department as well as officials from the Treasury and Home Office as well as Mark Sedwill, the national security adviser to the Prime Minister.

Oxfordshire MPs have also set out their positions on Brexit, with the newly elected MP for Oxford West and Abingdon has vowed to ‘fight for her constituents’ and oppose a hard Brexit in EU negotiations which start today.

Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, who beat Nicola Blackwood to take the seat by 816 votes, was speaking ahead of the talks and almost one year after the referendum vote to leave the EU.

She said: “During the election I was very clear on the idea of a hard Brexit where we lost out on access to the single market and protection for the rights of Europeans here and our residents.

“It would be devastating for our area and for my constituents. We will be fighting for all of these issues and for a final say when the talks are resolved.”

Her pro-EU party won 12 seats at the shock General Election which saw no party with a clear majority and the Conservatives the largest party overall.

Chancellor and Tory MP Philip Hammond, meanwhile, dismissed Teresa May’s controversial comment that ‘no deal was better than a bad deal’ appearing on BBC’s Andrew Marr show this weekend.

He said: “No deal would be a very, very bad outcome for Britain, but there is a possible worse outcome and that is a deal that is deliberately structured to suck the lifeblood out of our economy over a period of time.”