Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Brexit deal hopes rise as ‘last-minute compromises are made’ A Brexit deal appears to be taking shape after sources on both sides of the Channel said a positive day of negotiations had yielded a potential solution to the Northern Irish border problem. Sources in Brussels and London told The Daily Telegraph there was “cautious optimism” that a narrow path to a deal could now be appearing – a marked shift in tone from the downbeat assessment from the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Sunday. With talks on a knife-edge, Boris Johnson cancelled Tuesday’s planned meeting of his Cabinet in order to avoid the potential for leaks that could derail the delicate talks. Downing Street sources said the Cabinet meeting had been moved to Wednesday “to allow for a more detailed update of the EU negotiations”, adding that the Cabinet had received its last update in a conference call on Sunday afternoon. – Telegraph (£) Finnish PM says there’s no time left for a deal to be made before Thursday’s summit… Boris Johnson’s hopes of sealing a Brexit deal before an EU summit on Thursday have been dealt a blow after Finland’s prime minister said he believed time had run out. As British and EU officials negotiated late into Monday evening, Antti Rinne, whose country holds the EU’s rolling presidency, appeared to call time on the prime minister’s race to find an agreement. “I think there is no time in a practical or legal way to find an agreement before the EU council meeting. We need more time,” Rinne told a news conference after talks with the incoming president of the European council, Charles Michel, in Helsinki. The issue of customs checks on the island of Ireland and the details of a mechanism for providing democratic consent to arrangements for avoiding a hard border have dogged negotiations in Brussels. – Guardian …but the Irish Deputy PM says a deal is still possible this week, although there is ‘still work to do’… A Brexit deal is possible this week but there’s a lot more work to do, the Irish deputy PM has warned. As talks go down to the wire ahead of a crunch EU summit on Thursday, Simon Coveney appeared cautious but upbeat. With just 17 days to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc, Boris Johnson faces a crunch week ahead which could derail his hard work altogether. Mr Coveney said “a deal is possible, and it is possible this month. It may be possible this week. But we are not there yet.” – The Sun > WATCH: Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney says a Brexit deal is possible but “we are not there yet”. …amidst rumours that another summit could be held before the October 31st deadline EU leaders could hold an extra European Council summit to discuss a Brexit deal before the end of October because an agreement is unlikely by the time of their scheduled meeting later this week, according to a diplomatic note seen by BuzzFeed News. The memo says the chances are low of a text on customs arrangements, the most difficult sticking point in the negotiations, in time for leaders to make a decision when they gather in Brussels for the summit on Thursday and Friday. Instead, the meeting’s conclusions will more likely focus on the terms of a possible extension of the Brexit deadline, with either Jan. 31, 2020, or later mooted as potential options should the UK ask to delay its departure for a third time. – Buzzfeed Brexit was front and centre of the Queen’s Speech… The UK government is still determined to see Brexit through by October 31 — and you can take that from the queen. The monarch opened her speech Monday, which sets out the government’s legislative plans, by making it clear that Boris Johnson’s top priority is “to secure the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on 31 October.” Speaking from the throne in the House of Lords, the queen said her government intends to develop a new partnership with the EU “based on free trade and friendly cooperation.” The ceremony marks the beginning of a new parliamentary session and lays out the government’s new legislative agenda, with 26 bills announced on domestic policy areas including crime, immigration, health, and the environment. – Politico Queen sets out PM Johnson’s October 31 Brexit priority – Reuters > WATCH: The full Queen’s Speech in Parliament 2019 > Jonathan Isaby on BrexitCentral: Queen’s Speech promises legislative programme to ‘seize the opportunities’ of Brexit …as Boris Johnson prepares to dare MPs to vote down his programme… Boris Johnson is to force a showdown with deadlocked Parliament by daring MPs to vote down his new laws ahead of a winter general election. A total of seven new bills from today’s [Monday’s] Queen’s Speech will be introduced to Parliament tomorrow, covering voter-friendly subjects from the environment to sentencing and broadband. The PM is also pressing ahead with pushing his entire new legislative agenda – unveiled by the monarch yesterday – to a crunch vote on Tuesday next week. No10 admits Boris faces an uphill battle to pass any of it with the Brexit battles last month leaving him 45 MPs short of a majority. – The Sun …although he won’t resign even if the Queen’s Speech is voted down next week… Boris Johnson will not resign if his Queen’s Speech is voted down by MPs, Downing Street has said. Number 10 confirmed that the Prime Minister would also introduce all the Bills announced in today’s speech, even if Parliament rejected it. “If MPs do choose to vote against the Queen’s Speech, it will be (for) them to explain to the public why they are voting against greater support for our public services, including police, schools and hospitals,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said. “Why they are blocking legislation which will lead to serious and dangerous offenders spending more time in prison, why they are stopping laws which will lead to longer jail sentences for foreign national offenders and why they are standing in the way of significant infrastructure improvements that will level up across this country.” – Telegraph (£) …and looks to an election with a promise to make the UK ‘the greatest place on earth’ Boris Johnson thinks Brexit can make Britain great again. The queen’s speech, the ritualistic state opening of the UK parliament in which the monarch sets out the government’s plan for legislation, was dominated by Brexit Monday, with both leaders of the two main parties eyeing a likely general election. In a foreword to the speech published shortly after the queen spoke, the prime minister pledged to use Brexit to make the UK “the greatest place on earth.” “Let’s not wait, we can’t wait, let’s get Brexit done,” he told MPs later Monday afternoon, adding that Brexit would allow the UK to “regulate differently and better,” develop its own immigration system and control its fisheries and agricultural policy. – Politico Angela Merkel fears post-Brexit Britain will be a major competitor to the EU like the US and China Angela Merkel fears Britain will become a major economic competitor to the EU like the US and China after Brexit. The German Chancellor warned the UK will be able to do battle with bloc for a slice of global trade once it has left. Speaking after a dinner with Emmanuel Macron, she called for closer commercial cooperation between Paris and Berlin in response. She said France and Germany must work together more on trade, environmental standards and artificial intelligence to protect their interests. Mrs Merkel said: “We will do all this in the knowledge that with the departure of Britain, a potential competitor will of course emerge for us. That is to say, in addition to China and the US, there will be Britain as well.” – The Sun Jeremy Corbyn faces calls to support ‘pragmatic’ second referendum Jeremy Corbyn today faced growing calls to back a second referendum before a general election after a shadow Brexit minister said it would be the “most pragmatic” thing to do. Labour’s policy is to go into an election promising to negotiate a fresh Labour deal which is then put to a public vote. But Jenny Chapman, the shadow minister for exiting the European Union, said the party could back another referendum before a general election. She told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour she would like to stick to party policy but added: “If there is an opportunity to have another referendum it may be that the most pragmatic thing to do is to take that opportunity. We haven’t seen the [Brexit] deal, we don’t know what we’re going to be presented with on Saturday, but I would be very surprised if there wasn’t an amendment for a confirmatory ballot.” She made the comments as Mr Corbyn, below, came under pressure from senior shadow cabinet members to push for a second referendum before an election. – Evening Standard An independent Scotland would join the EU even if it meant a hard border with England, says SNP minister An independent Scotland would join the EU regardless of whether this leads to a hard border with England, the SNP’s Constitutional Affairs Minister has said. Mike Russell told a fringe event at the SNP conference in Aberdeen that the party’s longstanding policy of a separate Scotland becoming an EU member state would not be reconsidered to take account of Brexit. He said Scotland’s EU membership would then define its relationship with the remainder of the UK, including whether checks would be required at the English border. Mr Russell also said he could not rule out the SNP taking legal action if Boris Johnson refuses permission for a second independence referendum, with Nicola Sturgeon tabling an official request shortly. – Telegraph (£) European Parliament plans to keep EU budget funding for the UK in 2020 even in the event of a no-deal Brexit UK Researchers, students and farmers would continue to get EU support in the event of a no-deal Brexit, under provisions adopted by the Budgets Committee on Monday. The Budget Committee approved a measure to make sure that EU funds for 2019 and 2020 are fully available if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal. The draft regulation extends to 2020 the contingency plan approved by European Parliament on 17 April 2019, previously limited to 2019. The aim is to minimise any negative impact of the UK’s withdrawal for beneficiaries of EU funding and for the European Union budget in the case of a no-deal scenario. The measure includes programmes such as Horizon 2020, Erasmus+ and agriculture and regional policies. – European Parliament William Hague: Trapped by Parliament, Boris has little choice but to make concessions in search of a deal Last week I described why each of the three key decision-makers in the latest Brexit negotiations – Boris Johnson, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar – has a strong incentive to do a deal. Since then they have all duly demonstrated that they want to do one, despite optimism waxing and waning every few hours after each bulletin from Brussels. Yet some people in this country will be puzzled as to why the great majority of concessions seem to come from the British side, and why the “do or die” Prime Minister continues to make them. The UK has conceded that the island of Ireland will be one area for the purposes of regulations covering agricultural and manufactured goods and has, as far as one can tell, also accepted that any departure from that regime would require the consent of both nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland. – Lord Hague for the Telegraph (£) Ben Bradley: My traditionally Labour constituency just wants Brexit done, so we can focus on the voters’ other priorities The Queen’s Speech showed us the great potential of post-Brexit Britain and the importance of getting Brexit done; not least because when we finally stop arguing about leaving, there are a million and one domestic priorities that need and deserve our attention. The speech focused on the key issue to cross my desk as Mansfield’s Member of Parliament, which is law and order. I’ve always felt that if a Conservative Government can’t achieve law and order, it is a failure. That is why it’s so brilliant to see Boris and our new Home Secretary working to revive the reputation of the Conservatives as the party of the police, and the party that is tough on crime. More officers on our streets, more powers to detain perpetrators of the worst crimes and to deport foreign criminals, more protections for the police and more support for victims. We’ll reduce violence in prisons, improve safety and invest in rehabilitation. That is an agenda to be proud of, and one that will hit home with members of the public. – Ben Bradley MP for the Telegraph (£) Madeline Grant: The EU is right to fear an ultra-competitive independent Britain In recent years, Brexit’s most implacable opponents have revelled in rubbishing Britain’s hopes of succeeding on the world stage. Britain is a diminished country, they insist, incapable of functioning on its own. Consider Emma Thompson’s description of the UK as “a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island”, or Michael Heseltine’s glorious Freudian slip when challenged about our economy outperforming EU rivals: the UK “is doing significantly better than you might hope”. Yet at the weekend came a dose of (unintended) optimism, from an equally unexpected quarter: Angela Merkel. The German Chancellor warned of the threat an independent UK posed to the EU. “With the departure of Great Britain, a potential competitor will of course emerge for us. In addition to China and the United States of America, there will be Great Britain as well.” – Madeline Grant for the Telegraph (£) Stephen Booth: Step by painful step, both sides creep close to agreement over Northern Ireland The silence from the Brexit negotiations has been deafening. Before Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar’s surprisingly positive meeting last week, a deal looked all but impossible. There remain significant political and technical hurdles to a deal being reached, not to mention a very tight timeline for the parliamentary ratification required to take the UK out of the EU by 31st October. However, negotiations between the UK and the EU have “intensified” and the fact that we have had very few leaks, briefings or counter-briefings would suggest that all sides are taking this process seriously in the run up to the European Council later this week, and all are mulling difficult compromises. – Stephen Booth for ConservativeHome John Redwood: A new programme for a new government Today is Queen’s speech day. It is the day to discuss where we want to take our country and what should be the priorities for public policy. To those who want this site to write about Brexit every day I have just two things to say. The first is I do not change my views on the advantages of Brexit or on the need to get out on 31 October, so I do not need to keep reaffirming them. I have set out my advice to the government on how best to do it on many occasions. The second is I see no point in responding to every rumour, leak and piece of misinformation about the talks and the possible outcomes. Meanwhile there are crucial issues that matter that we do as a country need to debate and tackle. – John Redwood’s Diary The Sun: Angela Merkel is right to fear post-Brexit Britain will be a fierce economic competitor A hearty Sun welcome to Angela Merkel as she joins those of us certain that Britain WILL thrive outside the EU. “A potential competitor will emerge for us,” says the German leader. “In addition to China and the United States of America, there will be Great Britain.” For three years Remain diehards have insisted we are a puny backwater doomed without the might of Brussels to cling to. But even the EU doesn’t believe it . . . quite the reverse. Merkel has exposed their greatest fear: that Brexit will work, in spades. That lower taxes and new trade deals, impossible to negotiate as a 28-member bloc, could rapidly make us richer and more attractive to investors than they are. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief Second referendum is winning new converts – Rachel Sylvester for The Times (£) Boris Johnson can only make this Queen’s Speech a reality by breaking the Brexit impasse – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) How the EU created a cadre of loyal academics – Lee Rotherham for CapX