Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Nigel Farage set to announce plans for the Brexit Party to contest hundreds of seats at campaign launch today… Nigel Farage is expected to announce plans today for hundreds of Brexit Party candidates to stand across the country in the general election. Senior party figures have suggested that the party should instead focus on fighting 20 seats to ensure that it does not undermine Brexit. However, The Times has been told that the party, which was formed this year, will still contest hundreds of seats amid concerns that it risks being “no-platformed” at the election. There are concerns that the party will be denied the right to make party political broadcasts and barred from taking part in televised leadership debates. However, it is expected to avoid standing candidates against hardline Eurosceptic Conservatives. Mr Farage, the Brexit Party’s leader, will announce its strategy at its election launch this morning. He told The Times that he had shared his plan with only two people and suggestions about his strategy were just “idle speculation”. – The Times (£) Brexit Party standing in 100 seats could help Tories by draining support from Labour Leave voters – Telegraph (£) Trump and Farage show demonstrates the Brexit party’s dilemma – Jack Dickens for Reaction Brexit Party’s Farage still deciding strategy – BBC News Nigel Farage urged to stand Brexit Party candidates in all target seats in bid to help Tory MPs win them – The Sun We are now the Brexit party, say Eurosceptic Tories – The Times (£) Boris Johnson taking ‘enormous gamble’ in hoping Brexit gains will balance out Remain losses – Telegraph (£) > Jack Walters on BrexitCentral today: Boris Johnson should accept Farage’s overtures and let the Brexit Party wreak havoc in Labour’s heartlands …as Donald Trump says Boris Johnson and Farage would be an ‘unstoppable force’ together… Donald Trump has urged Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to combine and become an “unstoppable force” to prevent Jeremy Corbyn taking Britain to “bad places”. The US President said the Prime Minister and the Brexit Party leader would make a “terrific” team if they could agree a pact before the general election. In an interview on Mr Farage’s radio show, Mr Trump said: “I wish you two guys could get together. I think it would be a great thing… you would really have some numbers because you did fantastically in the last election.” – Telegraph (£) Unite Brexit vote with Farage pact, Trump urges Boris Johnson – The Times (£) Over half of Tory members agree with Trump – and want a Conservative/Brexit Party pact – ConservativeHome Interview With President Donald Trump: Watch In Full – LBC …but criticises Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal… In August, Mr Trump promised a “very big trade deal” with the UK and predicted that leaving the EU would be like losing “an anchor round the ankle”. But speaking to friend and supporter Nigel Farage on LBC, Mr Trump was critical of the withdrawal agreement Mr Johnson recently reached with EU leaders. Mr Trump told LBC: “We want to do trade with UK and they want to do trade with us. “To be honest with you… this deal… under certain aspects of the (Brexit) deal… you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t trade. “We can’t make a trade deal with the UK because I think we can do many times the numbers that we’re doing right now and certainly much bigger numbers than you are doing under the European Union.” – BBC News Trump: Brexit deal ‘precludes’ US-UK trade agreement – Politico No 10 defends Brexit deal after Trump criticism – BBC News …although Trump dismisses claims of the US taking over the NHS as ‘so ridiculous’… US President Donald Trump has condemned the “ridiculous” claim the US would take over the NHS in a potential future trade deal with Brexit Britain. Mr Trump also suggested Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn may have “put” that information “out there”. Speaking on LBC, the US President was asked by Nigel Farage about whether the US would “take over our NHS” if there was a future trade deal once the UK has left the bloc. Meghan ‘taking scrutiny personally’ says Trump – praises ‘great’ Harry. Mr Trump quickly replied: “No, not at all. We wouldn’t even be involved in that, no. “We are trying to fix our health service, we all have our health service problems. And you do over there, and we do. “One of the things we are running so successfully is how great a job I have done on healthcare. It is not for us to have anything to do with your healthcare system. It’s about trade.” – Express …after Jeremy Corbyn said Johnson will sell off the NHS to Trump Jeremy Corbyn today repeated claims Boris Johnson will sell off the NHS to Donald Trump – but a new poll has shown voters trust the PM on the health service. The Labour leader made the sweeping statements today as he kicked off his bid to win the General Election in December. Mr Corbyn told supporters gathered for the party campaign launch in South London: “Boris Johnson’s planned trade deal with Trump will mean yet more NHS money taken away from patients and handed to shareholders. “Despite his denials, the NHS is up for grabs by US corporations in a one-sided Trump trade sell-out.” – The Sun The NHS is not and never will be for sale – this is a categorical red line for Boris Johnson – Liz Truss for The Sun Labour pledges to ‘get Brexit sorted within six months’… Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launched his election campaign with a pledge to “get Brexit sorted within six months.” He said that if elected at the December 12 ballot, Labour would negotiate a new Brexit deal with Brussels and put that to a referendum within half a year. “We need to take it out of the hands of politicians and trust the people,” he said. At a campaign launch event in south London, the Labour leader attacked the Conservatives for failing to resolve Brexit in the more than three years since the referendum. – Politico …as Boris Johnson says Brexit is ‘hanging over our country’… Boris Johnson has said the Conservatives will invest in a “high-skill, high-wage but low-tax economy”. During a walkabout at a hospital, the prime minister said Brexit was “hanging over our country” and that his party’s pitch voters was to have “fantastic public services and a strong wealth-creating sector”. – BBC News Poll suggests Tories will return to 2017 Vote share – Guido Fawkes …and the Lib Dems target up to 70 seats for pro-Remain pacts… The LibDems are targeting up to 70 seats for pacts with Plaid Cymru and the Green party in order to unite a Remain vote against Brexiteer candidates. The three pro-Remain parties are in talks over pacts where they would stand aside to give the candidate with the strongest chance of winning a clear run at the seat and so avoid splitting the anti-Brexit vote. It follows the decision by the LibDems in former Tory MP Dominic Grieve’s Beaconsfield seat to withdraw so the former Attorney General has a clear run on a Remain ticket. The moves are being co-ordinated by a grouping called Unite to Remain, originally set up by Heidi Allen, who defected from the Tories to Change UK and then the LibDems. – Telegraph (£) Liberal Democrats unveil ‘Stop Brexit’ General Election campaign slogan in bid to hoover up Remainer votes – The Sun …as Remainer ex-Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach joins the Lib Dems MP Antoinette Sandbach, who was expelled from the parliamentary Conservative party last month, has joined the Liberal Democrats. The Remain-voting MP was among 21 rebels who lost the Tory whip after rebelling against Boris Johnson in a bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit. She will stand as a Liberal Democrat candidate in her Eddisbury constituency in December’s general election. The move makes her the eighth MP to have joined the party this year. Announcing her decision as campaigning got under way ahead of the 12 December poll, Ms Sandbach said: “People have a very clear choice. “The Conservative party offers years of uncertainty, whilst the Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit. “I will stand on my strong local record, helping to secure local investment, fighting for fair funding for our schools and to secure additional funding in local health services. – BBC News EU will not reopen Brexit talks, says Irish finance minister Anyone looking to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement would have to be aware of the “exhaustive” work that has gone into the present deal, the finance minister has said. Paschal Donohoe said yesterday that the European Union did not want to reopen Brexit talks because the UK had already twice negotiated an agreement with Brussels in the three and a half years since it voted to leave the bloc. “It is important to put the changes that have happened in the withdrawal agreement in context. There were many, many demands for the withdrawal agreement to be reopened, many expectations raised regarding the potential for significant change,” he said in Dublin yesterday. – The Times (£) Property investor Madison earmarks $1 billion for central London despite Brexit Property investor Madison International Realty has more than $1 billion (£773 million) to spend on central London, its president told Reuters, with Brexit uncertainty providing buying opportunities. Madison, a top 10 investor in listed vehicle Capital & Counties Properties (Capco) with a 3.1% stake according to Refinitiv Eikon, started to build up the stake in the aftermath of the June 2016 referendum, Ronald Dickerman said, benefiting from the weaker pound. Many investors are remaining on the sidelines, waiting to see how Brexit turns out. But Dickerman said he was looking to buy property now, in anticipation of a bounce on a Brexit deal. “As Brexit gets more clarity, it will start to focus investors back on London,” Dickerman said, adding that Madison had “over $1 billion in dry powder” to spend in the city. – Reuters Iain Martin: Spare me the sobs of Remainer Tory MPs Despite everything that has happened, departing members of the One Nation group are convinced they are indispensable and that without them Tory moderation is a lost cause. It is nonsense. Many Tory MPs who are not quitting, such as Bim Afolami, Helen Whately, Iain Stewart and Kemi Badenoch, have every bit as much right to claim to stand for sensible and moderate conservatism. The list of Tory candidates features considerable new talent too. In contrast, some of their departing colleagues have developed an inflated view of their own status. The complaint of Amber Rudd, once a bright hope, that she had not been restored to the Tory whip in recent days almost defied belief. What did Rudd expect? She accepted a post in cabinet from Boris Johnson, pledging to get Brexit done. Then she quit on the basis that Johnson was not serious. Then he got a deal. At which point she joined in with Oliver Letwin’s wrecking tomfoolery in the Commons. The Tory party should not feel obliged to indulge this one minute longer. – Iain Martin for The Times (£) Patrick O’Flynn: Why a Tory-Brexit party pact isn’t likely Nigel Farage’s European election-winning machine is the guest that has not yet turned up to the 2019 general election party. This can only be because it has certain fundamental questions still to settle about the nature of its campaign. Such as how many seats to fight. And whether to adopt a strategy of being slightly cuddly towards the Tories or one of strict “equi-hostility” towards all parties that do not back its “clean break” version of Brexit. Which, in effect, would mean all other parties.- Patrick O’Flynn for The Spectator Iain Duncan Smith: The Tory party is now the Brexit party – Leavers must unite or let a Remainer into No 10 The Brexit Party has helped enormously to focus the minds of politicians and it led the charge during the Euro elections to deliver Brexit. Yet sadly it could now inadvertently throw it all away. For it is starkly clear that only the Conservatives, of the established parties, genuinely want the UK to leave the EU. Ironically, as disarray in the Remain camp breaks out, there is now the threat of the same happening among Leave supporters if the Brexit Party puts candidates up against Conservatives in this election. Such a move, I believe, will damage the cause which we all support and weaken Boris Johnson’s ability to deliver Brexit. The harsh reality is that the Conservative Party is the Brexit party, for only the Conservative Party has the capacity to deliver Brexit after this election. – Iain Duncan Smith MP for the Telegraph (£) Comment in Brief Labour’s rob-the-rich ruse can’t distract from its Brexit betrayal – Telegraph editorial (£) The Remainer plot to turn October 31 into Brexit’s funeral day has backfired – Charlotte Gill for the Telegraph (£) Under the rules, no CoE minister could be anything other than a Brexiteer – Philip Foster for ConservativeWoman Another Brexit Day comes and goes – Brendan O’Neill for Spiked Thuggery. Abuse.Threats. Unacceptable everywhere. But no-one came to Brexiteers’ defence when we were victims. – Nadine Dorries MP for ConservativeHome The Benn Act: Law officers acting unlawfully – Robert Harneis for Briefings for Brexit A Conservative victory – followed by a proper Brexit – opens the door to a radical reshaping of the economy – Patrick Minford for the Telegraph (£) Why Johnson cannot, and should not, write off the Scottish Conservatives this election – Henry Hill for ConservativeHome John Bercow: defending parliament against the people – Tom Slater for Spiked If you want our votes, Boris, change the faces – Adrian Hill for ConservativeWoman News in Brief Global heavyweights eye ‘massively-undervalued’ pound as the fog clears in Westminster – the Telegraph (£) A heartfelt letter to my MP – Briefings for Brexit European vets learning Dutch in no-deal Brexit push – Reuters General election 2019: Labour gambles on ‘radical’ strategy – BBC News Civil service warns of no-deal Brexit fatigue – FT (£) Sienna Miller makes a statement in a pro-EU hoodie – Daily Mail Boris Johnson vows to pour billions into left-behind towns in bid to win over pro-Brexit Labour voters – The Sun People’s Vote campaign in crisis as Open Britain board call on Roland Rudd to quit – PoliticsHome