Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Boris Johnson warns that Tory Remainers are driving the party to ‘extinction’ by blocking Brexit with rebel plot… Boris Johnson warned Tory Remainers they are driving the Conservatives towards “extinction” if they block attempts to deliver Brexit. The would-be next PM hit out at attempts by a pro-EU cabal to stop No Deal by taking cash away from Government departments.Speaking to Tory members at a hustings event in Exeter, BoJo blasted: “People have different views about this question – but I think we’re coming together now as a party that we’re facing down the barrel of electoral extinction unless we get this over the line. ” I think that is concentrating the minds of colleagues.” He again refused to rule out suspending Parliament to push through a No Deal but insisted he’s “not remotely attracted” to the idea. But Jeremy Hunt claimed Mr Johnson’s plan would see the Tories “crucified” because it would lead to a General Election before Brexit is delivered with Jeremy Corbyn sneaking into No10. – The Sun Remainer MPs are trying to stop Brexit by inflicting hardship on the poor and vulnerable – The Sun editorial MPs trying to boycott Boris Johnson must realise BoJo Deal is better than NoJo Deal – James Forsyth for The Sun …after reportedly ‘calling the French turds’ over Brexit in a documentary when he was Foreign Secretary… The BBC covered up a Boris Johnson outburst in which he accused the French of being ‘turds’ over Brexit. The crude remark, made when he was foreign secretary, was supposed to feature in a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary. But the Foreign Office successfully begged for it to be cut, according to insiders. The claim is corroborated by a leaked Whitehall memo seen by the Mail. It said the gaffe would make Anglo-French relations ‘awkward’. Senior diplomats went further and privately said it would enrage French president Emmanuel Macron and make it even harder for the UK to achieve a good Brexit deal. – Daily Mail Boris Johnson ‘has no memory of insulting the French’ – The Times (£) Boris suggests the Foreign Office is behind ‘turdgate’ – The Spectator Calling the French ‘turds’ will just make Tory members love Boris all the more – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) …as he plays down reports he has already earmarked a Chancellor while he plots emergency no-deal Budget Boris Johnson today denied reports he told Sajid Javid he wants him to be his chancellor and help him prepare an emergency Budget ready for a No Deal Brexit. The frontrunner for the Tory leadership said ‘nobody has been offered a job’ after it was claimed he told the Home Secretary in a recent phone call: ‘You must be chancellor.’ The favourite to win the keys to Downing Street is said to be planning major tax cuts, an overhaul of stamp duty and revamp of regulations so that Britain is ready to leave the EU without a deal on October 31. Addressing the Tory leadership hustings in Exeter, Mr Johnson said: ‘One of the difficulties I am discovering in this situation is obviously that people want to project onto us and to our agenda all sorts of things that they think are desirable, including the possibility that that should have some job or other. – Daily Mail > David Scullion on BrexitCentral this week: Who should take on the Treasury’s Remain factory? Jeremy Hunt urges Johnson to ‘be straight with people’ about the impact of a no-deal Brexit The Tory leadership hopeful said his rival needed “to be straight with people” after he claimed the UK could still continue tariff-free trade with the bloc even if it leaves on 31 October without a withdrawal agreement in place. Mr Johnson has insisted that Brexit must happen “do or die” by Hallowe’en, and also claimed that a provision under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, known as GATT 24, would allow free imports and exports to continue while a long-term trade agreement is thrashed out. – PoliticsHome > Iain Duncan Smith MP and David Campbell Bannerman on BrexitCentral last week: The facts about GATT 24 Half of Tory members want an electoral pact with the Brexit Party We wrote earlier this week about the way in which the two-party electoral contest of 2017 is now a four-party one in 2019, at least for the moment – indeed, a five-way contest in Scotland. This survey finding confirms both that Party members are mindful of it, and how consistent they can be as members of our panel. At the start of June, 49.33 per cent of them said that the next Conservative leader should seek a pact with the Brexit Party, and 39.30 per cent opposed the idea. This month, those figures are 49.93 per cent and 39.52 per cent: the dial has scarcely flickered. Meanwhile, the finding last month for those wanting a pact with the Liberal Democrats was 94 per cent. Five per cent were opposed. This month, those figures are 93 per cent and four per cent. That tiny change in the Brexit Party figure now allows us to write that half of Conservative Party members now want a pact. To say that this is an extraordinary development is an understatement. – ConservativeHome > Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen MEP on BrexitCental today: If the traditional parties don’t change their ways, they should expect to be eclipsed by the Brexit Party Brexit department’s new annual plan omits parliamentary vote on a deal The U.K. Brexit department’s latest overarching plan, which it published Thursday, does not include a commitment to hold another parliamentary vote on the deal finalized by Theresa May’s government, heightening fears among Remainers that MPs will be cut out of the loop. The previous so-called Single Departmental Plan, released in May 2018, included a promise to “hold a vote on the final deal — covering both the Withdrawal Agreement and the terms for our future relationship with the EU — in parliament as soon as possible after the negotiations have concluded.” But the updated version includes no such vow. – Politico Leo Varadkar stands firm against new Brexit talks Leo Varadkar has said that Britain’s next prime minister will get a “fair hearing” from Brussels but “we mean what we say” about not reopening negotiations on the withdrawal agreement. Speaking at the end of a British-Irish Council meeting in Manchester yesterday, the taoiseach said that it would “not be helpful” for him to comment on the Conservative Party leadership race. However, renegotiating the withdrawal agreement or backstop was not open for debate, he claimed. – The Times (£) Any renegotiated deal must include the withdrawal agreement – Philip Hammond MP for the Daily Mail Justice Secretary survives vote of confidence after eurosceptic activists targeted their ‘first Cabinet scalp’ A pro-Remain Cabinet minister has survived a no-confidence vote by his local Conservative Association. Justice Secretary David Gauke, who represents South West Hertfordshire, is one of the Cabinet’s most prominent opponents of a no-deal Brexit. The victorious MP tweeted his thanks to members, who voted two-to-one against the motion, which had the backing of pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU. He said: ‘Tonight, I argued that: We should not allow the Party to be taken over by entryists. ‘We should be a broad church. No deal would be immensely damaging to the UK. ‘I defeated a motion of no confidence 123 to 61. I am grateful to the members of my association for their support.’ – Daily Mail EU Commission closes Edinburgh outpost after 44 years Edinburgh witnessed one of the first tangible signs of Brexit yesterday. On Alva Street, the European Commission lowered its flag as it leaves its base in Scotland after 44 years. It was the commission’s first regional office. Documents found in a clear-out included “myth-busting” brochures disputing claims that the EU would force Britain to abandon mph speed limits and straighten bananas. “We were doing it in the Seventies and we are still doing it now,” one official said. The move is taking place with Britain still in the bloc because MPs were unable to agree an exit deal. The commission gave notice to vacate in December, presuming that the original exit date of March 31 would apply. When that was postponed by six months they were left with no choice but to go ahead with the move. Tricia Marwick, the former presiding officer of the Scottish parliament, said that the sight was distressing while Nicola Sturgeon wrote on Twitter: “Haste ye back.” – The Times (£) Consumers unfazed by the prospect of No Deal British households were unperturbed by the prospect of a no-deal Brexit in the first three months of the year as they saved less and spent more, despite warnings of an economic shock had the UK crashed out of the European Union on the original exit date of March 29. Figures from the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, unrevised from earlier estimates, but the breakdown revealed the particular resilience of the household sector. – The Times (£) Donald Tusk tries to revive discussions about EU top jobs in margins of G20 Nearly everyone trying to broker a deal on how to fill the EU’s top jobs is negotiating from a position of weakness. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a lame duck and her conservative political family, the European People’s Party, lost enough seats in the EU election to break its long-time grip on power in Brussels. French President Emmanuel Macron, despite a lot of rhetoric, is a political naïf on the EU stage. The new liberal-centrist alliance that he formed is not fully in his control, and he is at risk of being iced out of a majority coalition. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez still has not been able to form a governing majority in Madrid, forcing him to focus primarily on domestic pressures even as he would rather be asserting himself in the international arena. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has no real power: he answers to his populist deputies, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio. Mark Rutte said he could envision an EPP candidate becoming Commission president given the conservatives won the most seats in Parliament. British Prime Minister Theresa May is a political zombie, having resigned after failing to accomplish Brexit. This is the woebegone landscape that Council President Donald Tusk faced on Friday at the G20 summit in Osaka, as he tried to revive discussions over whom to select for Commission president and to fill the EU’s other senior posts – David M. Herszenhorn and Maïa De La Baume for Politico George Osborne said to be plotting political comeback as he sets sights on marginal seat One source said the tete-a-tete over coffee in the busy cafe in Parliament’s Portcullis House office complex was intended to set down a marker, adding: “He never does anything by accident,” although the pair are close friends who are thought to have met “four or five times in the past 12 months.” Shortly after he took up his post editing London’s evening tabloid in March 2017, he confirmed that he would never rule out returning to the House of Commons or having a stab at “city hall politics”. Earlier this month, the Standard unexpectedly threw its weight behind Mr Johnson with the headline: “We back Boris as the PM to turn Britain around.” The u-turn came as a shock to some who has expected the former Treasury chief, as an arch Europhile, to back Mr Johnson’s remainer rival Jeremy Hunt. – Telegraph (£) Greg Hands: Here are the next steps towards implementing our Alternative Arrangements plan Prosperity UK’s Alternative Arrangements Commission (AAC), which I co-chair with Nicky Morgan, was launched in April to build on the Brady Amendment by developing credible and practical Alternative Arrangements to the Irish backstop. The AAC is neutral on Brexit outcomes and politically independent. We draw our legitimacy from a Parliamentary Commission, including over 40 MPs and peers, and a Technical Panel chaired by Shanker Singham and including a former head of UK Border Force, a leading Dutch customs expert, Sweden’s former Director of Customs and Fujitsu’s Industry Lead for Customs and Borders. – Greg Hands MP for Conservative Home The Sun: Remainer MPs are trying to stop Brexit by inflicting hardship on the poor and vulnerable Even we didn’t think Remainer MPs would stoop this low. To stop Brexit they are now ready to inflict hardship and fear on the poorest and most vulnerable. Shame on Tory saboteur Dominic Grieve and Labour co-plotter Margaret Beckett. Shame on Labour if it backs them, and on any Tories who join them. But No Deal would still be the default. And funding would have to be immediately restored. Grieve is mad if he thinks anyone but him and his Remainer friends will be blamed for targeting benefit claimants, OAPs and schools. – The Sun says MPs trying to boycott Boris Johnson must realise BoJo Deal is better than NoJo Deal – James Forsyth for The Sun Sherelle Jacobs: The people have lost patience with an immigration system built on lies Nowadays, MPs seem reasonably willing to have more frank conversations about how we deal with the plastics crisis – but they are considerably less forthcoming on migration, what with the topic’s pongy populist associations. Boris’s proposal is certainly a step forward, nonetheless. The prospective PM intuitively grasps the nation’s desire for a tough, tightly controlled and highly selective system. That said, his deliberately squishy proposal eschews any kind of target setting, and could lead to an increase, rather than a decrease, in overall numbers migrating to Britain. If this is Boris’s game plan, he should really think twice. Immigration and Brexit are indelibly intertwined in the marginal Northern seats that his party badly needs to win in the next general election. – Sherelle Jacobs for the Telegraph (£) At last, a sensible immigration plan – and it comes from Boris – Rachel Cunliffe for City A.M. Philip Hammond: Bluster and threats will not solve Brexit – the challenge for the next PM is building a coalition in Parliament Our new prime minister should also acknowledge that any renegotiated deal must include the withdrawal agreement – and without the withdrawal agreement there is no transition and no way of avoiding tariffs on our exports to the EU. So the challenge for the next prime minister is the same challenge that confronted the current Prime Minister. New face. New style, perhaps. But same facts. Bluster will not solve this problem. Nor threats – whether directed at Parliament or at the EU. Only more painstaking hard work can do that: building a coalition in Parliament around a compromise; convincing the EU of our plan; reuniting our country behind a solution that will give us back control – but won’t wreck our economy in the process. – Philip Hammond MP for the Daily Mail Comment in Brief Ruth Davidson’s progress hampered by Brexit ‘do or die’ from Boris – Alan Cochrane for the Telegraph (£) With the EU in need of friends on the world stage, conditions are ripe for Boris to pull off a Brexit deal – Fraser Nelson for the Telegraph (£) Yes, I really can tell the future of the EU – Frederick Forsyth for the Express How the next PM can save Brexit – and the Tories – Melanie Phillips for Conservative Woman Bravo Boris! His economic vision shows he is ready to champion Brexit Britain – Jo-Anne Nadler for the Telegraph (£) Time to challenge the Brexit narrative – Brian Morris for Briefings for Brexit The unbelievable hypocrisy of the Remoaner elite – Brendan O’Neill for Spiked News in Brief Brexit party MEP Claire Fox shows solidarity with Boris – The Spectator British holidaymakers bombarded with speeding tickets amid claims French fear it will be harder to rake in fines after Brexit – Daily Mail I’m starting to worry about our Brexit policy, Diane Abbott tells Jeremy Corbyn – Evening Standard BBC host slammed by bosses over biased interview with pro-Brexit Wetherspoons boss – The Sun