Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team MPs defeat Government as they back bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit by proroguing Parliament… MPs have backed a bid to stop a new prime minister suspending Parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit. A majority of 41 approved an amendment that blocks suspension between 9 October and 18 December unless a Northern Ireland executive is formed. Four cabinet ministers, including Philip Hammond, abstained and 17 Tory MPs rebelled, including minister Margot James, who has resigned. Leadership contender Boris Johnson has not ruled out suspending Parliament. His rival Jeremy Hunt has ruled out this move. – BBC News Philip Hammond, Greg Clark and David Gauke abstain in prorogation protest vote – The Times (£) …with Philip Hammond orchestrating the Tory no-deal rebellion… Philip Hammond was accused of “total betrayal” on Thursday night after he orchestrated a coup against the Government in the hope of blocking a no-deal Brexit. The Chancellor sent text messages to fellow ministers urging them to defy a three-line whip before Theresa May was defeated by 41 votes in the Commons. He was one of 36 rebels who either abstained or voted against the Government, in what one furious Eurosceptic described as an attempt to “booby trap” Brexit for Boris Johnson. Margot James, a culture minister, resigned after voting against the Government. Mrs May was under pressure on Thursday night to sack Mr Hammond for his act of disloyalty, even though her tenure in No 10 – and Mr Hammond’s in No 11 – will end next week, and was accused of a final act of weakness in failing to discipline either the Chancellor or seven other ministers who rebelled. – Telegraph (£) …and Margot James resigning as a junior minister to vote against the Government… Margot James has resigned as culture minister to vote to stop Boris Johnson suspending parliament to force through no deal. She has stood down as Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries after traipsing through the opposition voting lobby. Ms James joined a Tory rebellion on an amendment to the Northern Ireland Bill prevents the next PM from proroguing Parliament to force the UK to leave the EU without a deal. – The Mirror …while Jeremy Hunt fails to turn up after saying he thought whips had told him he could skip the vote Jeremy Hunt failed to turn up for Thursday’s crucial vote despite being told by whips that he had to be there. The Foreign Secretary claimed he had abstained by accident because he thought he had been “slipped” – or given permission by the whips’ office to be absent. But Chief Whip Julian Smith was understood to be unimpressed by Mr Hunt’s explanation after sources revealed Mr Hunt had been texted about the vote and had acknowledged the instructions. The vote on the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill was a three-line whip, but the Government lost a crucial amendment by 41 votes after Mr Hunt and 46 other Tory MPs abstained or voted against it. – Telegraph (£) Top Brexiteers push Boris Johnson to make Iain Duncan Smith his deputy PM… Senior Tory Eurosceptics are pushing Boris Johnson to make Iain Duncan-Smith his deputy PM to ensure he doesn’t waver on his Brexit pledges. The Tory leadership frontrunner has begun drawing up his Cabinet in tight secrecy, with only chief of staff Sir Eddie Lister knowing his full thinking. If Boris gets into No10 next week as most expect, it has emerged that as many as 12 Cabinet ministers will resign or be fired by him – the biggest clear out in nine years. Senior figures in the arch-Tory eurosceptic European Research Group have told him they want to see former Tory leader IDS become his deputy to make sure he sticks to his “do or die” pledge to deliver Brexit on October 31. – The Sun …as Johnson plans to turn DExEU into Ministry of No Deal… Boris Johnson will turn the government’s Brexit department into a ministry focused solely on no-deal planning after his expected victory in the Tory leadership race next week. Under proposals being worked on by Mr Johnson’s team, ministerial responsibility for Brexit talks with Brussels will transfer from the Department for Exiting the European Union to the Cabinet Office. The Brexit department will be charged with increasing preparations for a no-deal departure, including a mass public awareness campaign. While some have suggested that the new prime minister will make an early trip to Brussels or other European capitals, allies say there is little appetite to expose Mr Johnson to hostile briefings from EU bosses. – The Times (£) …and three Cabinet ministers prepare resignation letters for Johnson (so he can’t sack them) Three cabinet ministers are preparing to quit on the day Boris Johnson becomes prime minister if, as expected, he wins the Tory leadership race next week. David Gauke, the justice secretary, is set to resign soon after Theresa May completes her final prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, are also considering departing before Mr Johnson arrives, according to allies. The resignations will deny the new prime minister the chance to sack the most hardline opponents of a no-deal Brexit. All three defied a three-line whip today as MPs voted for a plan that could stop Mr Johnson suspending parliament to ensure that Britain leaves the European Union with or without a deal on October 31. – The Times (£) Jeremy Hunt warns that Britons won’t forgive the EU for a generation if Brussels forces a no-deal Brexit Jeremy Hunt warned the EU on Thursday that Britons will not forgive Brussels for a generation if it forces the UK to leave the bloc without a Brexit deal. The foreign secretary, and Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership rival, told the BBC Britain would not “come on its knees” begging for an agreement, even if it meant an economically damaging no deal. “We would have European neighbours that have deliberately chosen to make the UK poorer and that would change and harden British attitudes to Europe for a generation,” he said in the latest twist in a burgeoning blame game between Britain and Brussels. Britain and the EU are in deadlock over the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Mr Hunt and Mr Johnson have both said the agreement is dead after it was rejected three times by the House of Commons amid fears over the Irish border backstop. But the EU insists that the Withdrawal Agreement, which includes the backstop, is the best and only deal on the table and will not be renegotiated. – Telegraph (£) Ursula von der Leyen suggests EU could trigger emergency funding to protect countries hit by a no-deal Brexit The EU could activate emergency measures to assist countries hardest hit by the “massively negative consequences” of a no-deal Brexit, European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen said. In an interview published Thursday, von der Leyen said a scheme similar to the state intervention used to protect jobs in Germany after the 2008 financial crash could be deployed across the bloc to soften the blow of a disorderly U.K. departure. She heaped praise on the Withdrawal Agreement struck between outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, and insisted both sides must “do everything to strive for an orderly Brexit.” – Politico Irish PM breaks rank with the EU and admits he’s ‘ready to compromise’ over a Brexit deal Leo Varadkar has given the clearest indication the EU is willing to get back to the negotiating table after he stated he is willing to listen to alternatives to the controversial Irish backstop. Tory leadership rivals, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have both vowed to ditch the backstop – a mechanism aimed to prevent a hard border in Ireland. In a major boost to their premiership and chances of finally delivering Brexit, the Irish Prime Minister insisted he is “willing to compromise” if a series of tests were met. Mr Varadkar told RTE: “I am going to have to listen to the prime minister, whenever he is elected, and I’ll have a chance to see if they have any meaningful or workable suggestions.” – Express EU chiefs say Theresa May didn’t threaten a no-deal Brexit once in talks Theresa May didn’t threat to leave the EU with a No Deal Brexit once, according to Brussels chiefs. In a new BBC documentary the soon-to-be former PM “never” suggested that Britain could walk away from talks, Michel Barnier claimed. And he said that the EU wouldn’t be impressed by the threat anyway, hinting that he didn’t truly believe that Britain would do it. He told the Panorama programme: “I think that the UK side, which is well informed and competent and knows the way we work on the EU side, knew from the very beginning that we’ve never been impressed by such a threat. It’s not useful to use it”. – The Sun Barnier says May never threatened no-deal during Brexit talks – FT (£) Nigel Farage: Ursula von der Leyen is a fanatical European federalist – which could make her Boris Johnson’s biggest ally For years, I have warned of the EU’s desire to become a fully militarised entity in its own right. The response to this assertion from the Remain establishment has always been the same: outright denial. Indeed, every time I have advanced this idea, I have been accused of being a liar and scaremongerer. Most memorably, in April 2014, then-deputy prime minister Nick Clegg even claimed during a televised debate we had that my prediction was a “dangerous fantasy”. Yet now that Ursula Von der Leyen has been approved as the next President of the European Commission, it will be difficult for anyone to pretend I was wrong. Make no mistake: despite Von der Leyen being a complete unknown outside of her native Germany, her domestic political record confirms I am no liar. As German defence minister for the last five and-a-half years, she has argued more loudly than many for an EU army while refusing to support payment of the minimum contribution fee to NATO. Von der Leyen – known in Brussels as the Chris Grayling of German politics – is a fanatical federalist. – Nigel Farage MEP for the Telegraph (£) Janet Daley: Remainers just snatched a Pyrrhic victory that could cost us our democracy So they got their way. That stalwart army of tireless parliamentarians who were determined that the new prime minister would not be able to ignore their great legislature have won the day, by passing a cross-party amendment to the Northern Ireland Bill that makes it virtually impossible to prorogue parliament, in order to ensure a no deal Brexit. Or at least they have won for a fleeting moment. Because their ultimate aim is to abolish the sovereign power of the British Parliament forever. – Janet Daley for the Telegraph (£) Fraser Nelson: There may well be an economic cost to no-deal – but plenty of people want it anyway It is almost exactly 65 years since Darrell Huff published How to Lie With Statistics – a classic that is overdue an update, given the dazzling innovations in this field in the past decade. A new generation of politicians has lifted statistical lying into an artform, especially in the Brexit debates. We have seen new tricks whereby “fall” can be made to mean “rise”, 50p can be dressed up as £1, and so on. We saw the “disaster scenario” scam today, another classic of the genre. You might remember hearing (or reading) that the Office for Budget Responsibility has finally done the sums over a no-deal Brexit. And, behold! It forecasts disaster. Billions more in debt. A year-long recession. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, said the OBR has proven that “even the most benign” version of a no-deal Brexit will inflict “a very significant” hit to the UK economy. Chuka Umunna said the OBR has shown a no-deal Brexit “will result in recession”. – Fraser Nelson for the Telegraph (£) John Redwood: The irony of the Remain Parliament Yesterday the Opposition parties and 17 Remain Conservatives voted for amendments to legislation to try to ensure Parliament has to meet in September and October to give them more time to try to delay or cancel Brexit. They call this taking back control and advocating Parliamentary democracy! It is of course the opposite. Labour and Conservative MPs were elected in 2017 on a manifesto for each party that promised to implement Brexit. Parliament voted by a large majority to send the Article 50 Notification of our exit, which means in European law we will leave on 31 October. I remember explaining to the Commons then that was the decision point, the moment Parliament legislated to leave. Now they wish to tear up their promises and refuse to take back control of our laws, our money and our borders despite the referendum. – John Redwood’s Diary Douglas Carswell: Kamikaze Remainers know it’s over, but they have never looked more defiant What are the Remainiac rump of Tory MPs going to do? Will they, like Amber Rudd, discover a pragmatic willingness to serve in a Boris Johnson-led administration after all? Or are they going to go full on Dominic Grieve, resigning and rebelling at every opportunity in order to try to halt Brexit? The signs aren’t good. Already the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has suggested he is ‘terrified’ by the prospect of a Brexiteer led government. He may well resign before he gets sent to the backbenches, from where he could cause all sorts of trouble for the next Prime Minister. Fellow Cabinet ministers Greg Clark and David Gauke seem certain to join him on Thursday, if not before. Does any of this matter? – Douglas Carswell for the Telegraph (£) Nicky Morgan: We’ve found an alternative to the backstop we all can agree on When we embarked on a serious effort to demonstrate that alternative arrangements to the infamous Irish backstop are possible and could unlock the Brexit logjam, we had two ambitions. Our first ambition was to kill off the idea that alternative arrangements are an unproven unicorn. The second was to create a genuine route out of the jam, following the failure of government to start this work earlier itself. The backstop is the principal reason many MPs would not vote for the withdrawal agreement. The fear is that it could permanently hive off Northern Ireland into an EU-controlled regulatory and customs regime separate from the rest of Britain. As chair of the Commons Treasury select committee, I am genuinely concerned about the damage Brexit uncertainty is doing to the economy. The weakness of the pound is testament to that. – Nicky Morgan MP for the Evening Standard Stewart Jackson: With Brexit on a knife edge, Boris must banish Remainer saboteurs from government “It’s a funny old world” Margaret Thatcher once mused. And so it is. Who’d of thought that Boris Johnson – ridiculed, undermined, written off and dismissed as a has-been by the media and Tory colleagues as recently as February – would now be on the verge of a landslide win in the Conservative leadership ballot? The Government’s defeat today on the potential option of suspending Parliament in the event of a failure to agree a new deal with the European Union, is a sideshow and hardly fatal to his cause. It’s the beginning of the end for Tory Remainer MPs who have run out of road in their increasingly desperate efforts to thwart the democratic mandate and the instruction of the electorate to leave the EU, back in 2016. – Stewart Jackson for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: Tory Remainers are idiots if they think that No Brexit ends happily for anyone Tory Remainers think voters are mugs. But the public knows their defeat of the Government, stopping our next PM suspending Parliament in October, is not some noble defence of democracy. It is simply to make it harder to honour the referendum result by leaving the EU with No Deal. But the crunch is coming for these wreckers. Theresa May’s deal is dead, rejected three times. If the EU still refuses to rewrite it, No Deal it must be — as both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt accept. The choice will be that or No Brexit. And the Cabinet Remainer duds and no-mark ministers, all ready to quit instantly if Boris becomes PM, are idiots if they think that No Brexit ends happily for them, their party or Britain. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief Six reasons why the EU will call Boris Johnson’s bluff on no deal – Andrew Lilico for the Telegraph (£) BBC have subjected us to unashamed anti-Brexit propaganda over the Past three years – Rod Liddle for The Sun Revenue chief who received death threats over Brexit steps down – Guardian