Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team John Bercow defies eurosceptics with vow to stay on as Speaker and allow Parliament’s view on a no-deal Brexit to be heard John Bercow plans to stay on as Commons Speaker until Brexit is resolved, he has revealed. The announcement is likely to infuriate Conservatives, who believe he wants to thwart a no-deal exit from the European Union. Mr Bercow, who had been expected to step down this summer, said that he did not believe it was “sensible to vacate the chair” while there were major issues before parliament. He also warned Tory leadership contenders that parliament could override their plans to leave without a deal and said it was “unimaginable” that Theresa May’s successor would be able to override the views of MPs. Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson have pledged to take Britain out of the EU by October 31 with or without a deal if they become prime minister. “The idea the House won’t have its say is for the birds. Parliament is a big player in this,” Mr Bercow told the American think tank the Brookings Institution in Washington yesterday. “The idea that parliament is going to be evacuated from the centre stage of debate on Brexit is simply unimaginable.” In an interview with The Guardian he denied he was going to step down in July. “I’ve never said anything about going in July of this year,” he said. “I do feel that now is a time in which momentous events are taking place and there are great issues to be resolved and in those circumstances, it doesn’t seem to me sensible to vacate the chair.” – Guardian John Bercow vows to stay on as speaker amid claims of Brexit bias – Telegraph (£) John Bercow: I’m staying put as Commons Speaker until Brexit is decided – The Times (£) Jean-Claude Juncker dismisses Tory leadership hopefuls’ boasts of renegotiating May’s Brexit deal… Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, has poured cold water on Tory leadership hopefuls’ claims that they will be able to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement with Brussels. Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab and several other candidates have vowed they will pressure the EU to reopen talks over the agreement, which was rejected by the House of Commons three times. “I was crystal clear. There will be no renegotiation,” Mr Juncker said as he entered an EU summit in Brussels this evening. The former prime minister of Luxembourg will have a short meeting with Mrs May, who is also holding talks with Donald Tusk, the European Council president, in the margins of the meeting to discuss the results of the European elections and Mr Juncker’s successor. It is expected to be her penultimate EU summit, the setting of some of her greatest Brexit humiliations, after she announced her resignation last week. Mrs May said, “I’ve always taken the view that the best option for the UK is to leave the EU with a deal. I’m not going to comment on the views of individual candidates, there will be a process of selecting my successor as leader of the Conservative Party, but I continue to have the view that it’s best for the UK to leave with a deal.’ She added, “Well while I’ve been prime minister, I’ve been to something like 15 Council meetings or more and every one of those I’ve been working hard to negotiate the best possible deal for the UK in leaving the EU and it’s a matter of great regret to me that I haven’t been able to deliver Brexit.” “But of course that matter is now for my successor and they will have to find a way of addressing the very strongly held views on both sides of this issue and to do that and to get a majority in parliament I think will require compromise.” – Telegraph (£) > WATCH: EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker ahead of the EU Summit …as the Prime Minister says Brexit is now a matter for her successor at EU summit… Theresa May has stressed Brexit is now a matter for her successor as she arrived at a European Union summit in Brussels. The gathering is the first time the prime minister has met EU leaders since announcing she will resign next month. Speaking on her arrival, Mrs May admitted it was a “matter of great regret” that she has been “unable to deliver Brexit”, having originally planned for the UK to leave the EU on 29 March. She said: “That matter is now for my successor and they will have to find a way of addressing the very strongly held views on both sides of this issue.” The prime minister repeated her message that “compromise” is needed in parliament in order to break the Brexit deadlock at Westminster. A number of Tory MPs vying to replace Mrs May in 10 Downing Street have argued the UK should leave the EU on 31 October, in line with the new timetable, whether or not a withdrawal agreement is passed by the House of Commons or not. The prime minister refused to comment on the views of individual candidates, but pointedly remarked that her view remains that “it’s best for the UK to leave with a deal”. She claimed the “deeply disappointing” results of last week’s European Parliament elections, which saw the Tories suffer their worst ever result as the Brexit Party topped the polls, showed “the importance of actually delivering on Brexit”. – Sky News Theresa May blames Brexit failure for EU election humiliation – Guardian > WATCH: Theresa May speaking ahead of the EU Summit in Brussels …where Merkel and Macron clash as brutal divisions over choosing Juncker’s successor are exposed European Union divisions over who should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the head of the bloc’s executive were brutally exposed at a summit in Brussels on Tuesday night. In a rare public disagreement, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron were at loggerheads over the identity of the next European Commission president, and EU leaders were also on a collision course with the European Parliament over the appointment. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, emerged as a possible compromise candidate but his chances were ruled out by MEPs, who must back the eventual appointment by a majority. The deadlock could lead to a constitutional crisis that could paralyse the Brussels machine, if MEPs refuse to back the candidate when he or she is eventually chosen by the European Council. It would mean Mr Juncker continuing in a caretaker role, but unable to push forward new initiatives, beyond November 1 and until the impasse is bridged. EU leaders, including Theresa May in her penultimate Brussels summit, met in the Europa building for opening discussions over who would lead the commission for the next five years. Phone signals were jammed in the meeting room to prevent heads of state and government from leaking details of the negotiations, as leaders moved to reassert their sole right to name the president. The talks centred on what profile the candidate should have, rather than individuals in a bid to head off discord. The row centres on whether or not to repeat the Spitzenkandidat method of choosing a commission president, which ties the job to the results of the european elections with each political group nominating a lead candidate. – Telegraph (£) Macron and Merkel row over who should replace Jean-Claude Juncker as EU president – Independent Jeremy Hunt says he would include DUP and ERG members in Brexit talks to prove a deal could get a majority… The Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who is in the running to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, said he would bring members of the DUP and hardline eurosceptics into the UK’s Brexit negotiating team – to provide certainty to the EU that anything they agreed to could reach a majority in Parliament. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Today, Mr Hunt attempted to differentiate himself from the other leading candidates, Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, who have both advocated for a no-deal Brexit. The former Health Secretary warned a no-deal Brexit would topple the Government and cause a general election that could usher in a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Government. He said his strategy would be to reform the UK’s negotiating team to include the Tory Party’s coalition partners in the DUP and the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative backbench MPs. This would allow the UK to renegotiate aspects of the Withdrawal Agreement, he claimed, something Brussels has said on multiple occasions that it will not do. Mr Hunt said: “First of all, one of the reasons that they weren’t flexible in changing with the Withdrawal Agreement is that they weren’t confident that the British Government will be able to deliver Parliament for any deal that they agree to.” “What we need to do is have a new negotiating team. In that team needs to be not just the Government, but the DUP, the ERG, I think you should have someone from Scotland and Wales so that the union side of these issues is properly thought through.” But he rejected the idea that a role could be created for the opposition saying: “I think the Labour Party frontbench has shown that they aren’t prepared to do this in good faith. So I don’t think that would work.” – iNews …but Hunt’s ‘flip-flopping’ on No Deal boosts Michael Gove’s bid for the Tory leadership… Jeremy Hunt is losing support to Michael Gove in the Conservative leadership race because MPs believe that he is flip-flopping on a no-deal Brexit. The foreign secretary said yesterday that pursuing a policy of leaving the EU without a deal would be political suicide for the Tories. He has previously said that he would choose no-deal over no Brexit. The comments infuriated Brexiteers who were considering backing Mr Hunt as a “safer” alternative to Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab. The Tory MP Crispin Blunt, a former chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, told The Times that he had asked to be taken off a list of Mr Hunt’s supporters compiled by the Conservative Home website. “It is all very well saying you would try and get a deal but you have to have a plan B,” he said. “And we no longer know what Jeremy’s plan B is. It is very frustrating. He has the best personal skill to be the PM — but there is no point in being the leader of a party with just ten MPs.” He made clear that he had not decided who he would support. Another senior MP who had privately told the Hunt campaign that he intended to back him said he would now support Mr Gove. He said that Tory Brexiteer WhatsApp groups were full of MPs joking about Mr Hunt’s changing positions. – The Times (£) …as Brexit minister James Cleverly becomes the eleventh candidate formally to join the race James Cleverly has joined the race to become Conservative Party leader. The Brexit minister is the 11th candidate to confirm they are running, after Theresa May announced she would stand down on 7 June. The winner, expected to be named by late July, will also become prime minister. In an open letter, Mr Cleverly set out his case to become leader and said he had backed Brexit from the beginning. He said: “I have never been blind to the complexities of the process and I have always been uncomfortable with those who offer artificially simple solutions.” The MP for Braintree in Essex spoke about the need to unite the party, arguing: “We cannot bring the country back together unless the party of government is united, and the party cannot unite if it is led from its fringes.” He also called for change, writing: “To inspire the British people we need to look different, sound different, and offer something new. I believe I can do that.” Speaking at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Tuesday, Mrs May urged her successor to seek a consensus on Brexit in Parliament. Senior EU figures at the summit reiterated that the agreement they secured with the UK could not be reopened. Some of the leadership contenders have indicated that they could consider leaving the EU on 31 October without a deal with the bloc – but others say that would be unacceptable. – BBC News Brexit Minister James Cleverly becomes 11th MP to enter Tory leadership ‘circus’ – The Sun Jeremy Corbyn set ‘to back second referendum this week’ as he caves into Remainers and betrays Brexit voters… Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is reportedly set to support a second referendum on Brexit after losing heavily in the European elections. In a major Brexit betrayal, the Euro-sceptic leader could cave in to Remainers’ demands and back a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ – perhaps in the next few days. Labour sources told The Mirror the 70-year-old was expected to back a people’s vote as early as this week. Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford fuelled speculation there could be a breakthrough. He said: “He continues to get advice from a variety of different sources. I think the UK position is still evolving. We will hear more about it, I believe, over this week.” And Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has also come out in support of a second referendum despite millions already voting to leave the European Union. She said: “We’re supporting a people’s vote strongly now because it’s the right thing to do and it’s democratic. “There is no inherent contradiction between respecting the result of the referendum and having a people’s vote, not least because it’s still not sure how a people’s vote would pan out.” A senior Shadow Cabinet minister told the Mirror: “We need to be more definitive quickly and you’ll see that in the next couple of days, to give our membership confidence again that they can get back on the doorstep, because they couldn’t this time round.” – The Sun …as Labour’s NEC faces pressure to ballot members on a second EU referendum… Labour’s ruling body is facing demands to ballot all party members about whether to start campaigning immediately for a second EU referendum, as thousands sign petitions asking for the party’s policy to change in the wake of the European elections. Campaigners in the Labour party wanting a “people’s vote” wrote to the national executive committee on Tuesday requesting a members’ ballot or special conference. Each of these options has been endorsed by Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson. The letter said: “Party members are increasingly concerned that Labour’s chances of winning the next general election could be harmed if we fail to commit clearly to a public vote on Brexit, and to campaign for remain in that referendum. “Polling over the last year has been clear that over 80% of members, and over 70% of Labour voters, want a second referendum and to remain. Party conference, where policy is normally set, is still four months away, only a month before the end of the article 50 extension. It’s essential that we clarify our position as a party much more quickly.” Mike Buckley, the director of the Labour For A People’s Vote campaign, said the group had already received thousands of signatures from Labour members calling for a special conference or members’ ballot, to be held before the end of June. – Guardian …while Wigan MP Lisa Nandy warns Labour colleagues that a policy shift towards backing a second referendum will be ‘a betrayal of voters’ Labour’s Brexit mayhem deepened yesterday after an MP in the Leave-backing North said the party’s policy shift towards a second referendum would be a ‘final breach of trust’ with voters. Lisa Nandy, who represents Wigan, said if there had been any shift in opinion over Brexit, it was towards the type of No Deal promoted by Nigel Farage. But Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott reiterated that she believed another vote would be ‘the democratic thing to do’ to move Brexit forward. And Tom Watson, the deputy leader, warned of ‘electoral catastrophe’ unless party leader Jeremy Corbyn is persuaded to throw his weight behind a new vote on any deal. The row between Remain and Leave supporters at the top of Labour threatens to tear the party apart as it struggles to come to terms with their drubbing at last week’s European elections. Mr Corbyn is facing mounting pressure to abandon his preference for a general election and go for a second referendum. On Monday, his closest ally, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, said: ‘We’re saying quite clearly if there can be a deal, great, but it needs to go back to the people.’ – Daily Mail Tony Blair accuses Corbyn of making the ‘same mistake’ on Brexit as Theresa May Tony Blair has accused Jeremy Corbyn of making the “same mistake” as Theresa May for trying to “sit on the fence” on Brexit. The former Labour prime minister told Sky News his party had to stop “equivocating” and called for it to campaign explicitly for another referendum. He admitted voting Labour “without any great enthusiasm” in the European elections on Thursday, which saw Labour pushed into third place behind the Brexit Party and Liberal Democrats. Mr Corbyn has maintained the party will push for another referendum only if it cannot force a general election. Ramping up pressure on the leadership to swing fully behind one, Mr Blair said Labour “can’t hide” from the Euro results. “It should stop equivocating and come out to a clear position,” he said. “That position in my view should be in favour of going back to the people.” He continued: “Both party leaderships have made the same mistake, which is to think that it’s possible to sit on the fence on Europe and appeal to both sides. What the European elections show you is that isn’t possible.” – Sky News > WATCH: Former PM Tony Blair’s full interview on Sky’s All Out Politics Alastair Campbell expelled from Labour after admitting voting Lib Dem at the European election Alastair Campbell has been ousted from the Labour Party after he revealed he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections. The former Downing Street head of communications revealed on Sunday night he had voted for the Lib Dems “for the first time in my life”, after becoming frustrated with Labour’s Brexit policies. Mr Campbell is a People’s Vote campaigner. He previously said he felt disillusioned with Labour’s “two horse policy” and launched a stinging attack on the party he has been affiliated with since Tony Blair’s premiership. Speaking of the expulsion on Twitter, Mr Campbell said: “Sad and disappointed to receive email expelling me from @uklabour – particularly on a day leadership finally seems to be moving to the right place on Brexit, not least thanks to tactical voting by party members, including MPs, councillors and peers who back @peoplesvote-uk.” Mr Campbell added: “I am and always will be Labour. “I voted Lib Dem, without advance publicity, to try to persuade Labour to do right thing for country/party. In light of appeal, I won’t be doing media on this. But hard not to point out difference in the way anti-Semitism cases have been handled.” The former spin doctor said that after taking advice from lawyers, he intended to appeal against the expulsion. Mr Campbell said there were plenty of previous cases where members had voted for other parties and causes, with some now being senior party staff members. The news comes after Labour suffered a humiliating defeat in the EU elections on Sunday, losing key seats in London, the north and in Wales. – Express Alastair Campbell expelled by Labour after voting for Lib Dems in protest at Brexit stance – Independent Jeremy Corbyn faces mutiny as Labour grandees dare him to expel them after Alastair Campbell thrown out – Telegraph (£) Nigel Farage warns Tory leadership candidates hoping for a Brexit deal renegotiation that the EU ‘won’t change one dot or comma’… Nigel Farage has warned Tory leadership candidates claiming they could renegotiate a better Brexit deal than Theresa May that the EU is not prepared to change “one dot or comma”. The Brexit Party leader took aim specifically at Jeremy Hunt, one of 11 candidates to have launched a bid for the Conservative crown, who said a no-deal outcome would be “political suicide”. Speaking on his LBC show from Brussels, Mr Farage mocked the Foreign Secretary’s claim he will “change” the withdrawal agreement and branded his pledge “absolute rubbish”. Mr Farage said: “Every single person here in the European Commission, and leading groups in the European Parliament, will not change by one dot or comma that withdrawal agreement. “And it’s not an agreement, it’s a treaty… Michel Barnier walks around with it under his arm. So I think that side of the argument is absolute rubbish. He [Mr Hunt] is also pledging to create a new negotiating team. I wonder where he got that idea from. – Evening Standard Nigel Farage invites Jeremy Hunt onto his radio show to discuss Brexit – LBC …as the Brexit Party leader ‘walks out’ of talks to form eurosceptic Brussels supergroup with Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini Nigel Farage has reportedly walked out of talks to form a “supergroup” of Eurosceptics in the European Parliament. He allegedly said he would sign up his Brexit Party’s 29 MEPs — the joint largest single party in Brussels after last week’s elections — only if he became leader. A source said Mr Farage told Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen it would need his “star quality and recognisable face” for their “Europe of Nations” gang to take off. But Salvini and Le Pen were said to be put off by his demands which included transferring his staff on their current pay. Salvini and Le Pen are also said to be wary of appointing a leader who may have to leave the Parliament in just four months’ time, if Britain quits the bloc on October 31. They also believe Mr Farage will be in a weaker negotiating position in a month’s time if Italy’s Five Star Movement leave the EFDD as expected. That would consign the group to the history books, leaving the Brexit Party leader in desperate need of a new political home in Strasbourg. – The Sun Arlene Foster wants ‘compromise’ after Leo Varadkar calls on government to recognise Northern Ireland support for Remain and backstop Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has called on the UK government to recognise support in Northern Ireland for the backstop and remaining in the European Union. Mr Varadkar was speaking after Northern Ireland returned two remain-supporting MEPs in Monday’s European election. However, DUP leader Arlene Foster said that the current withdrawal agreement must be addressed and that compromise is the way forward. Alliance Party leader Naomi Long joined fellow Remainer, Sinn Fein’s Martina Anderson, and Brexit-supporting DUP MEP Diane Dodds in Brussels in a historic result. Mrs Long called for a People’s Vote to be held on Brexit following her election. Prior to the election Northern Ireland had two Brexit-supporting MEPs in Mrs Dodds and the UUP’s Jim Nicholson, who retired prior to last week’s vote. UUP candidate Danny Kennedy failed to retain the seat. While the UUP had initially backed Remain in the EU Referendum, following the result the party said that the democratic will of the people must be delivered. The Taoiseach said that he hoped the results of the EU election would be recognised in Westminster. “What I think is really significant, and I hope this has been noticed in Britain, is the result of the European elections in Northern Ireland, where for 40 years there have been two unionists and one nationalist,” Mr Varadkar said. “That is no longer the case. There is one unionist, one Alliance Party MEP and one nationalist. “So, two out of the three MEPs elected in Northern Ireland are supporting the European Union and supporting the backstop and I hope that hasn’t been missed as a fact by the British government and the wiser British people.” In response to the Taoiseach’s comments DUP leader Arlene Foster said that it was time he realised that the best way forward was to “address the flaws in the withdrawal agreement”. “Compromise should not be seen as weakness. It was a UK question, respect the referendum,” Mrs Foster said. “Northern Ireland had two ‘Remain’ MEPs before the election too.” – Belfast Telegraph Dominic Grieve shamed after claiming he would accept result of another referendum Remainer Dominic Grieve received a brutal backlash after he revealed that in the event of a second referendum he would accept the result, even if it was a no deal Brexit. Tory MP Dominic Grieve faced an online backlash after appearing on BBC Radio 5 Live where he announced he still believed a second referendum was the only way to end the Brexit impasse. He added there should be three options in a second referendum, including no deal, and noted he would support the final result. He said: “The better course of action is to have a referendum. In that referendum, you can put to the public the available choices. At the moment they are the deal that Theresa May has negotiated, very few people seem to like but it was done in good faith. Remain, which is clearly a viable option and people are entitled to change their mind and there is quite a lot of evidence from polling that some people have changed their mind. Finally you can put some form of no deal Brexit although I would like to emphasise that no deal Brexit is a fairly meaningless term. “If it is to be promised to the electorate then those that are promising it need to make it pretty clear before this referendum takes place and before it is on the ballot paper, what it is they are in fact offering. Subject to that, even though I happen to think it is very damaging I would be prepared to see such a question on the ballot paper. If the public were to say, yes that is what I wanted all along, I would accept it and I would never raise the topic again.” – Express Esther McVey: The only way to deliver the referendum result is to embrace leaving without a deal No government that I lead will ever seek an extension beyond October 31. It’s time for the Conservative Party to wake up, listen to the voters and embrace Brexit as a magnificent opportunity, not as a problem to be managed, mitigated and ultimately reversed. Otherwise Jeremy Corbyn will become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As we deliver Brexit, there’s another vital ingredient we’ve got to bring back into the way we do politics: trust. Trust in politics has been stretched to breaking point by our failure to deliver Brexit and it will irretrievably shatter if we do not manage it soon. Political suicide lies in failing to secure a clean break from the EU on October 31, not in anything else. This is the only viable and acceptable Brexit option now left on the table. The public’s view has hardened, the Prime Minister’s attempts at negotiating a deal with the EU have ended in three humiliating defeats in Parliament and Brussels has made it abundantly clear that the deal cannot be re-opened. We need to stop wasting time having artificial debates about renegotiating backstops or resurrecting botched deals. The only way to deliver the referendum result is to actively embrace leaving the EU without a deal. As soon as I read the Withdrawal Agreement last November, I resigned from the Cabinet. It sought to frustrate Brexit at every turn and I couldn’t possibly continue to serve while it remained government policy. People saying that we need now to compromise to deliver a Brexit that all Conservative MPs support are misreading the situation. That is not possible and we must be honest about that. Our only option is to deliver the referendum result with a clean break and then bring people together by how we govern the country outside the EU, by putting aside the battles of the past and by uniting to defeat the most toxic and dangerous Labour leader we have ever faced. – Esther McVey MP for the Telegraph (£) Daniel Hannan: The next Tory leader faces a Brexit Catch 22 that could destroy the party At around one o’clock on Monday morning, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg put it to me that my party had suffered its worst performance since 1832. Oh, no, I replied, it was far worse than that. In the 1832 election, which had until then stood as a Tory low point, we won 29 per cent of the vote. Last week, we sank to nine per cent. Conservatives need to understand the depth of the crisis. Even now, there are senior Tories who argue, in private, that we shouldn’t take too much notice of a European election, that it was a one-off protest vote, that things will get back to normal once we have a competent leader. It was precisely such complacency that brought us to this pass. Had the party woken up to the gravity of its predicament, it would have switched leaders months ago. Instead, with unbelievable self-indulgence, various factions gamed the timing of the leadership contest so as to favour this or that candidate. By leaving things as late as they did, those MPs have ensured that the next leader will inherit a radioactive crater. Here is the problem. The 2016 referendum saw a fundamental realignment of political affinities in Britain. Every pollster tells you the same thing, namely that voters now identity as Leave or Remain rather than as Labour or Tory. The Conservative Party needed to pick a side. And, as the party that had legislated for the referendum and promised to implement its result, there was only one side to take. Yes, it would involve trade-offs. Appealing to Leavers would mean losing some Remainers. The Conservatives would win support in the Midlands and the North, but lose it in London. Still, with just a modicum of tactical nous, that exchange should have left the party with a net gain in votes. And, indeed, the 2017 general election did see the Tories pick up support from patriotic Labour voters who felt alienated by Corbyn – support which did not entirely evaporate at the local elections earlier this month. But, to state the obvious, keeping those voters depended – depends – on delivering Brexit. – Daniel Hannan MEP for the Telegraph (£) Patrick Minford: Tory leader hopefuls still don’t get that being ready for no-deal is the only way out of this mess With the EU election results ringing in their ears you would have thought that all Tory leadership candidates would have seen the obvious implication that a new government must ensure we leave the EU before there is another general election. But some are attacking the default route to achieving this: via a WTO Deal, often misnamed “no deal”. The misnomer reveals a deep misunderstanding of this route as being some sort of lawless outcome. In fact it is an outcome in which our trade actions would be subject to WTO trade rules, while our other actions would be subject to other specific agreements and understandings that would be entered into under commonsensical accommodation on both sides. The essential point to grasp is that there is already wide agreement between the UK and the EU on areas other than trade; they are largely covered in the existing Withdrawal Agreement, much of which is non-controversial. The main elements of controversy in the Agreement concern trade and the associated Irish border question, including the complicated backstop to avoid a hard border. It is for these that WTO Rules offer a solvent. In sum, there is nothing lawless or chaotic about a WTO Rules Brexit. There would be order at the border; WTO law, which is also embedded in national commercial law on both sides, would stop disorder, and normal commercial interests would do the rest to keep trade flowing normally. – Patrick Minford for the Telegraph (£) Daniel Hannan: There is no easy path out of Brexit mess for Tory contenders running for Prime Minister Here’s the Conservative quandary. We can’t face the electorate before leaving the EU. But we might not be able to leave the EU without an election. There is no getting around that dilemma. All the potential leadership contenders privately understand it, as do growing numbers of MPs. The question is whether they are brave enough to place such an unpopular truth before party members. When I predicted six weeks ago that the Conservative Party was headed for a single-figures vote in the European election unless it ditched Theresa May, there was much scoffing. Yes, I was told, things would be bad, but not that bad. Well, on Thursday, we secured 9.1 per cent. If we break that vote down by constituency, every single Tory MP loses. The first-past-the-post system is capricious. It protects you until, all of a sudden, it eliminates you. Just ask Scottish Labour. As long as our political debate revolves around Brexit, people are likely to vote for the most hardline pro and anti-Brexit parties. Indeed, the longer this wretched argument goes on, the more radicalised both sides become. Voters identify as Remain or Leave rather than according to their old party alignments. There is no point in saying, “Just leave!” or “I’ll get us a better deal!” unless you are clear about how you intend to do it. The trouble is that, in the current mood, those are precisely the slogans that many Tory activists want to hear. The candidate who levels with them, who sets out the dilemma honestly and outlines a proposed route out of it, may become unelectable. – Daniel Hannan MEP for The Sun Tom Harris: An underestimated Corbyn has just outfoxed Labour Remainers once again It’s not hard to understand the frustration that must be felt by Labour activists throughout the country. Earlier this month, the party (just about) out-performed the Conservative Party in the local council elections, inasmuch as it lost fewer seats than Theresa May’s party did. But the media’s attention seemed heavily focused, not on the prime minister’s difficulties, but on Jeremy Corbyn’s inability to achieve the electoral breakthrough that has eluded him since he became leader of his party. It’s happened again in the last few days. Although suffering a truly dreadful result in the European Parliament elections, Labour didn’t do quite as badly as the Tories, yet the fallout in the people’s party seems, to reporters and columnists, so much more entertaining than further fixation on the party of government. This is partly because the Tories were expected to do badly anyway, and one of the sources of voter discontent – Mrs May herself – has rather shot that particular fox with her resignation announcement. And to be fair, Labour did perform really, really poorly, especially for the main opposition party. To put it in context, the party attracted a smaller share of the vote than at the same elections in 2009, when the Labour government was at the centre of the parliamentary expenses scandal and led by a deeply unpopular prime minister. A majority of Remain-supporting commentators have joined Remain-supporting Labour MPs in analysing the party’s problem and have – somewhat unsurprisingly – concluded that they were right all along, and that if the party had unequivocally supported another referendum to cancel Brexit, then it would have come top of the ballot. – Tom Harris for the Telegraph (£) Express: EU results are a wake-up call to get on with Brexit The results of the Euro elections are a stunning and resounding wake-up call to the Westminster politicians who have squandered opportunity after opportunity to carry out the wishes of the people and leave the EU. Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party have emerged with the biggest mandate from the nation for his uncompromising approach demanding withdrawal. His party did not even exist four months ago but look at it now. The other parties, who have dithered and squabbled, were hammered by the electorate with the Tory party and Labour the biggest losers. It may stiffen the resolve among Tory contenders for the leadership who will have to show who will actually deliver and even the pusillanimous Jeremy Corbyn will have to respond. For Farage, who must have thought his work was done after the referendum in June 2016, it is a remarkable comeback – but the political establishment has only itself to blame. – Express editorial Asa Bennett: Jeremy Hunt’s no-deal Brexit flip-flopping hardly inspires confidence In a Tory leadership race dominated by Brexiteers talking up their readiness to pursue a no-deal Brexit, Jeremy Hunt has chosen to set himself apart by writing in today’s paper that pursuing such an exit from the European Union would be “political suicide” that would “probably put Jeremy Corbyn in No 10 by Christmas.” The Foreign Secretary’ s position has delighted staunch cabinet sceptics of a no-deal Brexit such as David Gauke, who praised him on the BBC for making a “very good point”. So does that mean we can chalk up Mr Hunt as a fellow opponent of a no-deal? If so, the Foreign Secretary deserves credit for clarifying his views, given that the way he has spoken about it over recent months would lead anyone to think it was both feasible and impossible at the same time. Late last year, Mr Hunt was keen to show off his readiness to consider a no-deal Brexit, telling the Telegraph in December that the United Kingdom would “flourish and prosper” in such a scenario (a few months after telling ITV News it would “survive and prosper”). But by 2019, Mr Hunt had turned against a no-deal. He told the Today programme in January that it was “very unrealistic” to believe that it could happen because MPs would stop it. The outgoing Prime Minister delighted Brexiteers with her promises to ensure “Brexit means Brexit” and her reassurance that “no deal is better than a bad deal”, but left them thoroughly disappointed. Mr Hunt will have his work cut out persuading Brexiteers his leadership would not just mean more of the same. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Brendan O’Neill: Britain’s Brexit split is finally out in the open I love everything about the European Parliament election results. As a Brexiteer, of course I love that the Brexit Party came out of nowhere to obliterate the Tories and Labour and induce yet another outbreak of Brexit Derangement Syndrome among the chattering classes. But I also love the fact that Remain parties did well, too. I’m happy that the Lib Dems, with their sneering, juvenile, anti-democratic slogan of ‘B******* to Brexit’, came in second place. And I’m pleased that the Greens, for whom Brexit is a calamity on a par with the climate catastrophe they breathlessly drone on about, also had a good showing. Why? Because the victory of a proper Brexit party on one side and of the B******* to Brexit lobby on the other is a wonderfully clarifying moment. It confirms that the mushy middle ground of seeking a Soft Brexit has fallen away. That the days of compromise are over. That the country is split — as many of us suspected it was — between people who want Brexit and people who want to destroy Brexit. Thanks to these elections, we can now see the truth of political life in 21st-century Britain. It isn’t often I agree with Jonathan Freedland, but he’s right to say the UK now faces ‘a fight to the finish between a no-deal Brexit and remain’. ‘The battlefield is shifting’, he says, ‘towards a starker, binary clash’. – Brendan O’Neill for The Spectator Philip Johnston: The Tories need to recognise that the Brexit Party are their friends, not their enemies Any list of the greatest novels of the past 100 years would have to include Catch-22. A television adaptation directed by and starring George Clooney is about to hit our screens; and listening to Jeremy Hunt on the radio yesterday, I wondered if there might be a part for him. The Foreign Secretary set out the dilemma facing the Conservatives much in the way Yossarian, the tortured Second World War US airman, does in Joseph Heller’s book when he tries to get out of flying any more missions. “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to, but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.” I let out a similarly respectful whistle while reading Mr Hunt’s article for the Telegraph yesterday. To paraphrase: “The Conservatives need to deliver Brexit because our voters have made that as clear as they can. However, the current Parliament won’t agree to the deal on the table, but if we go for no deal, the Government will fall and we will end up with a general election in which we will be annihilated. So we need to keep negotiating changes to the deal that nobody wants and which has been rejected by both Parliament and the electorate.” Mr Hunt is right to say that if it is a “no dealer” like Boris Johnson, the likely outcome is a general election because some Tories would refuse to accept him, and a no-confidence motion would succeed in toppling the Government. But at least the Tories would then be equipped with someone able to embrace Brexiters who have deserted the party but who also knows how to fight and win an election against a far left opponent. For good or ill, in the new politics, a middle-way compromiser will be crushed. As Heller wrote of one of his characters in Catch-22: “He was good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him.” – Telegraph (£) Jane Moore: Remainers’ Brexit denial will see Nigel Farage burst Westminster bubble in next General Election The Westminster bubble was fit to pop with excitement as the European election results came in. Pro-Leavers flocked to the TV studios to tell us what a great win it was for them which, the Scottish sea of SNP yellow aside, was at least backed up by the sight of Brexit — not Tory — blue slowly spreading across the majority of England and Wales. Yet another undeniable mandate to get on with leaving the EU, you might think. But no. Along came the pro-Remainers to tell anyone who’d listen that, actually, it was a great night for them because if you add up the votes cast for all the other parties, it’s a clear sign that half of the country want to remain in the EU. No madam, you’re not on drugs. You heard/read that correctly. If you voted for the Brexit Party, you were doing so on a clear single issue. But if you voted for the Green Party, you might have been doing so because your main concern is climate change. Equally, there are plenty of die-hard socialists who are Brexit-leaning but would still vote for Labour if its leader was saying rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Which he pretty much is. Yet pro-Remainers have seen fit to ignore this inconvenient truth — as well as this inconvenient map of colour-coding — and fudge the results so they can carry on with their “Stop Brexit” business as usual. As dawn broke, the BBC remembered that it was a public service broadcaster and thought it had better ask a couple of ordinary people what they think about it all. So a reporter trotted off to an early-morning car boot sale in Sutton Coldfield to ask sellers and punters their thoughts on this momentous occasion. The first, slightly startled woman to have the mic thrust in her direction replied that she didn’t even know the European elections were taking place. How’s that for a reality check? – Jane Moore for The Sun Peter Foster: Why Jeremy Hunt’s cunning ‘good cop’ Brexit renegotiation plan might just work Jeremy Hunt has set out his stall as the ‘good cop’ negotiator should he win the race to become Prime Minister later this summer, promising to deliver a new deal rather than a ‘no deal’. Like his rivals, he accepts Theresa May’s failed Withdrawal Agreement will need to be changed to win approval in Parliament, but he eschews the confrontational, tough-nut approach of the likes of Dominic Raab. Both Mr Raab and Boris Johnson argue that if the EU really believe that the UK is prepared to leave without a deal, then the EU will blink at the eleventh hour. Mr Hunt disagrees. He rules out ‘no deal’ arguing that the reason Mrs May failed to win concessions on the Irish backstop was because EU leaders were never truly convinced they would actually deliver the deal. Rightly, as it turned out. So rather than laying down ultimatums Mr Hunt believes that a “reasonable and statesmanlike” request, delivered after broad consultation with the DUP, the Welsh and Scottish parties and the Tory party’s own Brexiteer wing, the ERG, could make Europe see things differently. Could it work? Well, it might sound hopelessly naive but Mr Hunt is correct on his first point, which is that the 27 EU leaders did indeed lose confidence in Mrs May, and frequently cited her political weakness as a reason for not making deal-clinching concessions. Where his plan is totally unrealistic is in the belief that the EU leaders, having invested so much political capital in the Withdrawal Agreement and in backing Ireland, will renegotiate that deal simply because he asks nicely. – Peter Foster for the Telegraph (£) Brexit in Brief Will the EU become an empire? – Peter Franklin for UnHerd Proof that the public is sick of binary politics and its slippery practitioners – Graham Grant of the Scottish Daily Mail Labour’s Euro vote disaster can mean only one thing: Corbyn must go, says Dominic Midgely for the Express If the Brexit Party is serious about a general election, this is what its manifesto should be – Andrew Lilico for the Telegraph (£) Far from humbling Macron, the European election results will only make him more unbearable – Anne-Elisabeth Moutet for the Telegraph (£) Across Europe, people want their countries back – they have had enough of betrayal – Leo McKinstry for The Sun Conservative leadership hopefuls set to take part in TV debates on BBC and Sky News – Independent