Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Labour launches manifesto with Brexit plans to keep the UK closely aligned with EU… The manifesto sets out the “sensible” Brexit deal Mr Corbyn would seek to negotiate with the EU: it would represent a far closer economic and political partnership than that proposed by Mr Johnson and would be broadly acceptable to the EU27. Crucially, it would see Britain remain part of the EU customs union — with the country benefiting from, but having no legal say over, trade deals negotiated by Brussels with countries around the world. There would be “close alignment” with single market rules to avoid regulatory checks at the border, with Britain staying within EU agencies. Britain would remain aligned with the EU on workers’ rights, the environment and consumer protection. – FT (£) > Robert Courts on BrexitCentral today: A post-Brexit customs union with the EU would be the worst of all worlds …keeping free movement and putting no limit on the number of people moving to Britain… Labour last night vowed to keep free movement for EU citizens and to allow tens of thousands more immigrants from the rest of the world into Britain. Leader Jeremy Corbyn promised to tear up rules which mean new arrivals must be earning at least £18,600 if they want their families to join them. His party also said it would not put any limit on the number of people moving to Britain. The announcement is a radical departure from Labour’s 2017 manifesto pledge to end free movement. And it is set to infuriate voters in the party’s heartlands who backed Brexit because they wanted immigration cut. – The Sun UK Labour launches manifesto with pitch to ‘protect’ free movement – Politico …as Corbyn says his ‘final say’ referendum would be legally-binding A Final Say referendum on EU membership held under a Labour government would be legally-binding and its outcome would be implemented immediately, Jeremy Corbyn has declared. The move aims to head off Brexiteer claims that a confirmatory vote held next year would lead to endless re-runs of the 2016 referendum, which was advisory. And it counters Boris Johnson’s central charge that Labour would consign the country to years of “dither and delay” over the EU, while Tories would “get Brexit done” – something Mr Corbyn denounced as “a fraud on the British people”. – Independent > On BrexitCentral today: What the 2019 Labour manifesto says about Brexit > WATCH: Jeremy Corbyn delivers Labour’s Brexit policy at the Labour Party’s manifesto launch Sir Keir Starmer says Britain ‘won’t go back to normal’ after Brexit or a second referendum Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer has said Britain “won’t go back to normal” after Brexit or a vote to remain in a second referendum. During a meeting in support of Edinburgh Labour candidate Ian Murray, Sir Keir said, regardless of the decision made after his party’s proposed second referendum, the country will remain divided. The claim comes on the same day his party released its manifesto with a promise to negotiate a new deal with the EU and hold a second referendum on the issue within six months. The shadow Brexit secretary said the only way to unite the country will be to take action to ensure people no longer feel disenfranchised. – ITV News EU is ‘open to’ Corbyn’s Brexit policy, says Irish premier Leo Varadkar The EU is “open to” Labour’s Brexit policy of renegotiating the Brexit agreement to include a customs union and single market membership, Leo Varadkar has said. Asked about the Labour manifesto the Irish leader told public broadcaster RTE that the bloc would be “very happy” with sitting down with “whoever is prime minister” and that the opposition’s policy would not be a problem. “Whoever is in government in the UK in a few weeks’ time, whoever is prime minister, we will be happy to sit down with them, listen to what they say and work with them and, in a hypothetical scenario, if a UK government wants to talk about a customs union with the EU, or closer alignment with the single market, that’s something we’ve always been open to, something we’d be very happy to talk to the UK government about,” he said. – Independent Brexit Party to launch ‘contract with the people’ today in place of a manifesto Millions of start-up companies should be given a £10,000 tax free allowance to boost entrepreneurism, Nigel Farage has said as he launches the Brexit Party’s policy platform. Mr Farage also said he wants net migration into the UK slashed to the “post-war norm” of 50,000 a year after Britain finally leaves the European Union as he said that the Brexit Party was “here to stay” as “a political force”. Although Mr Farage has no chance of winning the election outright because he is only standing 274 candidates, his policy pledges will have to be taken seriously if he succeeds in his aim of winning a dozen MPs after polling day on December 12. Unveiling the party’s election manifesto – which he is calling a “contract with the British people” – on Friday, Mr Farage will point to figures that show two thirds of the UK’s companies make profits of less than £10,000 a year. – Telegraph (£) OECD upgrades growth forecast for this year but suggests it will fall behind the EU ‘even without a no-deal Brexit’ Britain’s economy will grow faster than expected this year but will fall behind its European neighbours in 2020 even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned. The Paris-based think tank upgraded UK growth to 1.2 per cent this year, from 1 per cent at its previous update. It warned, though, that political uncertainty at home and trade wars abroad were weighing heavily on investment. In its latest economic outlook, the OECD said that economic growth in Britain would fall back to 1 per cent next year even if a no-deal Brexit was avoided. A disorderly exit from the European Union would leave Britain even more exposed to a global downturn, it said. – The Times (£) Campaigners urge Government to scrap registration scheme for EU nationals Almost 30 campaign groups signed a letter to Boris Johnson and other UK party leaders urging them to avoid a “cliff-edge” for EU nationals living in the UK who fear for their futures after Brexit. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants joined forces with 27 other groups, including The3Million, Unison and Age U.K., to demand an overhaul of the “settled status” scheme that allows EU nationals to register for post-Brexit rights. The letter was sent earlier this month, but the decision to make it public piles pressure on the UK prime minister ahead of the Conservative manifesto launch in the coming days, after the opposition Labour Party on Thursday vowed to change the scheme. – Politico Shareholders back pro-Brexit Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin at AGM Shareholders have thrown their weight behind the founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon despite a furious row over corporate governance. Ahead of Thursday’s annual shareholder meeting, the influential proxy voting agencies that advise big shareholders how to vote had raised a number of red flags. Tim Martin has been the executive chairman since 1983, in contravention of guidelines that recommend having a non-executive chairman operating above a chief executive. The advisory groups also criticised executive pay and Martin’s use of company money to buy pro-Brexit beermats. – Guardian Campaign group offers to sell thebrexitparty.com domain to Nigel Farage – for £1million An anti-Brexit campaign group has bought the website “thebrexitparty.com” and is offering to sell it to Nigel Farage for over a million pounds. Led By Donkeys said the entire fee, which will increase by £50,000 each day, would be donated to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. The move comes after Brexit Party lawyers contacted Led By Donkeys asking them to remove their logo from the site. The party said the campaign group is refusing to transfer the domain name, which is similar to their official site “thebrexitparty.org”. The website features a rising total of the cost, along with an “election advent calendar” – which offers examples of the “lies, lunacy and hypocrisy” of the Conservatives and Brexit Party every day until 12 December. – Independent /*COMMENT*/ Nigel Farage: The Brexit Party’s contract with the British people promises a political revolution One of the least trusted terms in the English language is “manifesto”. In a word association test, many people equate it with “lie”. This is because politics has become so cynical in recent years. Parties make promises in their manifestos which they think voters want to hear, yet have no intention of keeping them. For these reasons, The Brexit Party is instead launching a contract with the British people. We trust that this word speaks for itself. First, Brexit. So far, the so-called “Brexit election” has featured very little EU debate. I understand why Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” slogan appeals, but getting it done properly is even more important. That is why we are pledging a clean break from all EU institutions. – Nigel Farage MEP for the Telegraph (£) Asa Bennett: Corbyn’s woeful Brexit stance is proof he isn’t on the side of the people at all Now Jeremy Corbyn has unveiled what he trumpeted as the “most radical and ambitious plan to transform our country in decades”, is his plan to handle Brexit – the most radical step this country will embark on in decades – any clearer? Of course not. One has to leaf to page 89 of Labour’s manifesto to find its Brexit policy, which says nothing new. Those hoping to find whether – for example – Mr Corbyn might actually want the nation to back the deal he hopes to negotiate in his intended referendum will go away disappointed. All Labour has to offer is the same old guff about how it will have a go at renegotiating the deal and then hold a referendum, with it still up in the air how its MPs would behave throughout. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Cyrus Parvin: My path to the Brexit Party, by a reformed liberal EU-lover At the grand old age of 28, I entered King’s College London’s War Studies Department as a BA student. At this point in life, I was a social liberal, EU-loving ideologue with a strong disdain for religion. I had originally come to the UK as an eight-year-old Iranian refugee. Growing up, I would hear stories of the atrocities committed by the Ayatollahs in Iran and consequently came to associate all the ills of the world with religion. I also liked the idea of people coming together to get rid of national identities in one great human lovefest. So the EU seemed like a great idea. I am simplifying, of course, but this was the gist of my beliefs. – Cyrus Parvin for The Conservative Woman Stephen Pollard: How can a ‘revolutionary’ Labour Party have nothing plausible to say on the greatest challenge facing Britain? Cut through the guff and Labour’s manifesto has a straightforward foundation: spend more money than any government has done for decades and fund that spending through more borrowing and higher taxes on business and the wealthy. But when it comes to Brexit, the biggest issue of our time – and on which almost all else depends – the party which claims at almost every opportunity that it is determined to change Britain forever has nothing even remotely plausible to say. Labour’s policy is that on becoming Prime Minister, Mr Corbyn will immediately begin negotiations with Brussels on a new deal – the “best deal”, as he puts it. He has pledged that these negotiations will be concluded within three months. A referendum on his new deal would follow within six months. – Stephen Pollard for the Telegraph (£) Brexit in Brief Why the Lib Dem implosion could change everything in this election – Tom Harwood for the Telegraph (£) EU Parliament will vote on new Commission (minus UK) next week – Politico Plaid Cymru manifesto: 11 key policies explained – BBC News Party leaders to face Question Time grilling tonight – BBC News