Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team MPs will vote on the Brexit deal before Christmas if Boris Johnson wins a majority at the election… MPs will vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal before Christmas if the Conservatives win a majority at the general election. The Prime Minister wants to give the country an early Christmas present by asking Parliament to approve his deal on the last weekend before the festive break. It would mean Britain would be all but guaranteed to leave the EU by Jan 31, giving Mr Johnson 11 months to agree a trade deal with Brussels. The Conservatives are so keen to get on with holding a vote that if they win a majority they will bring forward a fast-tracked Queen’s Speech on Dec 19, less than a week before Christmas, which could force Her Majesty to postpone her departure for her annual stay at Sandringham. – Telegraph (£) Boris Johnson will rush Parliament back for new Queen’s Speech within a week of the election to deliver Brexit – The Sun …as the Tories warn that Labour would ‘grind the country to a halt’ with nine-month dual referendums plan costing £155m A second Brexit referendum would cost £138million, while a second Scottish independence vote would cost £17million, according to Tory analysis published on Tuesday. Mr Johnson said: “A majority Conservative government would get Brexit done and focus on the people’s priorities – such as increasing funding in our NHS and reducing the cost of living. The alternative is Jeremy Corbyn, a man who can’t even make up his mind on Brexit, submitting to a pact with Nicola Sturgeon, and we already know what terms she will demand – another divisive referendum on Scottish independence alongside a second vote on Brexit EU.” – Telegraph (£) Labour’s plan to hold two referendums would cost taxpayers at least £155million, Tories claim – The Sun Jeremy Corbyn could be lone Labour ‘neutral’ voice on Brexit as John McDonnell signals backing for Remain… Jeremy Corbyn could be the only frontbencher to be “neutral” on Brexit, as John McDonnell publicly signalled that he would back Remain in a second referendum. The shadow Chancellor said he would not remain neutral in any second EU referendum, adding that he had not yet seen a Brexit deal “that could beat Remain.” Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner also refused to say whether a Labour Government would back the new Brexit deal that Mr Corbyn has pledged to negotiate with Brussels. “Well, that’s a hypothetical,” she said. Emily Thornberry, the shadow Foreign Secretary, Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit Secretary, and Diane Abbott, the shadow Home Secretary, have all said they will campaign for Remain against a Labour Brexit deal. – Telegraph (£) …while all Tory candidates write to Labour opponents seeking clarity on Brexit 631 Conservative Candidates have today written a letter to their Labour opponent asking them to clarify their own personal positions on crucial issues at the election. The letters ask Labour candidates to outline: Their Brexit position, whether they’ll also remain neutral during a second referendum, whether they want a Scottish Independence referendum. The letter claims their position as Corbyn’s candidate “needs urgent clarification to help local people make their choice”. Guido advises Tory candidates not to hold out for any replies. – Guido Fawkes Lib Dems fear their promise to reverse Brexit has backfired With a clear pledge to stop Brexit, the pro-European Liberal Democrats entered the general election campaign offering Britain’s Remainers a glimmer of hope. But with just over two weeks to go to polling day, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson’s hopes of taking the UK’s third-largest party to an unlikely victory appear to have been dashed, squeezed between Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. Most pollsters predict that even on a very good night on December 12, the Lib Dems will do well to increase their seat share in the House of Commons from 19 to 40. The Financial Times’ poll tracker has the party on just 15 per cent… Senior figures in the party admitted on Monday that the decision to take such a hardline stance may have started to backfire. The mood in the Lib Dem camp is one of “concern, close to despair”, according to one senior party figure, and is in contrast to the bullish mood of the summer when the Lib Dems were confidently predicting they would win between 60 to 80 seats in the 650-strong Westminster parliament. – FT (£) Revealed: the 32,000 votes in 50 key seats Boris Johnson needs to win a majority on December 12th Just over 30,000 voters in 50 key constituencies will decide our next PM — and the fate of Brexit. If Boris Johnson is to triumph he needs 25 marginal Labour and Lib Dem seats to swing his way. But he also has to cling on to a further 25 constituencies the Tories hold with slim majorities. The Sun can reveal Boris Johnson’s lucky number is . . . 32,195. That is the number voters he needs to back him in the 50 key constituencies that will decide the 2019 election. On December 12 voters across the UK go to the polls to elect 650 MPs to the House of Commons. But experts say constituencies are likely to change hands in only a fraction — meaning voters in those seats will choose both the next Government and the fate of Brexit. – The Sun > On BrexitCentral: The 2019 Election Battleground: East of England Tony Blair urges the country to vote tactically for a hung parliament Tony Blair has attacked Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto as an undeliverable wish-list as he suggested Britain should vote tactically for a hung parliament. Labour’s most electorally successful prime minister said his party’s plan for a socialist revolution would “end badly” as he refused to endorse Mr Corbyn as fit to be prime minister and gave him little chance of a majority. He added that Boris Johnson has no chance of agreeing a trade deal with the EU within a year and a no-deal Brexit at the end of 2020 is now probable. Neither main party deserved a majority, he said, and were “peddling two sets of fantasies”. – The Times (£) > WATCH: Tony Blair: “The way to unblock it Brexit is to go back to the people who originally mandated it,” Michael Heseltine urges Conservatives to reject Johnson’s ‘grand delusion’ and back the Lib Dems Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine has urged life-long Tory voters to oppose Boris Johnson and back the Liberal Democrats or independent MPs in the upcoming election. The former deputy prime minister said Mr Johnson was selling voters a “grand delusion” that he could deliver Brexit by the end of January. Lord Heseltine lost the Tory whip earlier this year for saying he would “experiment” with backing the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament elections after 68 years in the Conservative Party. Appearing at a panel event alongside expelled Tories Dominic Grieve, Anne Milton and David Gauke, the peer urged lifelong Conservative voters to abandon the party at the ballot box. – Independent UK’s former man in Brussels warns the EU that it will do damage to ties with Britain by playing hardball in trade talks… Brussels has been warned it will do long-term damage to ties with Britain if it takes a hardball approach to trade talks with Boris Johnson. Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s former ambassador to the EU, said the bloc’s demands could leave voters feeling “screwed” and create a “thin, sour and conflictual” relationship. He warned it was “virtually inevitable” negotiations would collapse this time next year if Brussels laid down red lines on following its rules and allowing access to European fishermen. In a speech at Glasgow University last night, Sir Ivan said the PM was repeating the errors of Theresa May that would see Brussels “maximise its leverage in the next phase”. – The Sun …while accusing Johnson of sowing the seeds of ‘the biggest Brexit crisis yet’ Boris Johnson is sowing the seeds of “the biggest crisis of Brexit to date”, Britain’s former envoy to the EU Sir Ivan Rogers has said in a scathing verdict on the government’s “diplomatic amateurism”. Less than three weeks before polling day, the man who resigned as the UK’s EU ambassador in January 2017 said Johnson was repeating Theresa May’s “strategy errors” and would soon find himself “unwisely” boxed in by his campaign promises. When he launched the Conservative party manifesto on Sunday, Johnson repeated his promise not to extend an 11-month transition period that kicks in if the UK leaves the EU with the withdrawal agreement on 31 January 2020. Negotiating a trade deal with the EU in an unprecedentedly quick time is the centrepiece of the prime minister’s misleading pledge to “get Brexit done”. – Guardian Nicola Sturgeon claims an independent Scotland ‘could rejoin the EU relatively quickly’ Scotland would be able to rejoin the EU relatively quickly if it were independent, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. Ms Sturgeon said that Scotland would be “seeking a way back in” to the EU if Brexit goes ahead. Scotland voted by 62% to remain in the European Union in 2016, and the SNP is keen to halt Brexit. Ms Sturgeon has already said she wants a fresh ballot on independence to take place in the second half of 2020. In a BBC interview with Andrew Neil, Ms Sturgeon said that if Scotland becomes independent she believes the timescale for rejoining the EU would be quite fast. She said: “I’m not going to give you a specific timescale for that. In all of my experience of discussions with different interests in the European Union I think that could be relatively quick but that will depend on the discussions we have.” – The Scotsman EU Council approves the new composition of the European Commission The composition of the new European Commission, chaired by Ursula von der Leyen, has been approved by the Council of the European Union. The new EC now needs to be voted on by the European Parliament. That will happen on Wednesday. The new 25 EU Commissioners and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security were approved at today’s EU Council meeting. This decision paves the way for an EP vote. The European Parliament will have to vote on the entire composition of the committee. It is expected to be approved, but with a minimal majority. Once approved, the European Commission will be operational on 2 December. – Novinite Matt Hancock: Corbyn has shown nothing but indecision and lack of leadership over Brexit Since the 2016 referendum campaign, Brexit has dominated British politics like no other issue. It’s the biggest issue facing the country today. Which is why it beggars belief that the leader of the opposition won’t tell us where he stands. Before he became Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn appeared to be a Bennite eurosceptic. Then, during the referendum, he campaigned to Remain (even if his efforts seemed half hearted to some of us on the Remain campaign). Ever since he has shown dither and indecision when voters have yearned for leadership and certainty. He said Article 50 should be triggered immediately, before demanding the government set out its plans to parliament first. He used to say the first referendum must be respected, now he proposes a second referendum. – Matt Hancock for The Times (£) Asa Bennett: Jeremy Corbyn cannot fix Labour’s Brexit woes by sitting on the fence There was only so much mockery Jeremy Corbyn could suffer in silence over his reluctance to be straight on how he would handle a referendum on his own deal. Last Friday, he clearly hoped to draw a line under it by revealing to the BBC’s Question Time audience how he would deal with it once and for all: by staying neutral. With Brexit proving to be a running sore for the Labour leader, as shown by the landmark finding by YouGov this January that nearly half (43 per cent) of those who backed his party at the last election cited the issue as their reason for not wanting to do so again, Mr Corbyn needed to take a strong position. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: We urge every Sun reader to vote for Boris Johnson in 16 days and finally get Brexit sorted In 16 days you can vote for Boris Johnson and finally get Brexit sorted. We urge every Sun reader to do just that. Many of you stayed at home in 2017. Most disliked Corbyn — but Theresa May did nothing for you either. But this isn’t 2017. Boris Johnson isn’t Mrs May. And his manifesto, unlike hers, is full of energy, optimism and reasonable pledges to keep taxes low and spend more on public services. Corbyn is still Corbyn. Except two more years of scrutiny have revealed the true extent of his extremism, his economic madness and his party’s sickening racism. That’s why only seven per cent of Sun readers will now back him, while 52 per cent support Boris. But turnout is crucial. Boris is ahead in the polls, but they are tightening. The Tories do not have victory in the bag. – The Sun John Redwood: Better off out I have always believed and argued that we can be better off economically once we leave the EU. As long as we have the right budget and follow pro growth policies on exit, the UK economy can speed up a bit from its current levels. Whenever I argue this case the Remain establishment point to past official forecasts saying we will grow more slowly when we leave and ask who am I to gainsay such work. Let me remind you that I have disagreed with official forecasts on three main occasions in the past, and in each case have been right. The first was the UK joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. The official forecasts said it would deliver lower inflation and steady growth. They dared call it a “golden scenario”! I said it would be destabilising, causing boom and bust. So it proved, bringing about a nasty recession. – John Redwood’s Diary Brexit in Brief Huge number of Labour Leave voters considering abandoning Corbyn – Express EU stars disappear from British disabled drivers’ blue badges – Guardian