Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are confirmed as the final two in the race for the Tory leadership and Number 10 Boris Johnson will go head to head with Jeremy Hunt in the race for Number 10 after exacting revenge on his arch-rival Michael Gove by ending his leadership dream. Mr Gove’s supporters accused the Johnson camp of “lending” votes to Mr Hunt after the Environment Secretary was beaten into third place in the final ballot of MPs, despite coming second earlier in the day. Mr Gove’s team smelled a rat when it emerged that five MPs had publicly declared they were switching their allegiance from the defeated Sajid Javid to Mr Johnson, yet Mr Johnson only put on three extra votes in the final ballot. The two “missing” votes promised to Mr Johnson were enough to condemn Mr Gove to defeat, as he lost to Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt by exactly that margin. – Telegraph (£) The Brexit plans of Johnson and Hunt – and what Brussels will think of them Tory leadership candidates have been setting out their plans to solve the Brexit conundrum but what does Brussels think about their strategies? Brussels’ stance can be summed up as an insistence that the withdrawal agreement, which includes the Irish border backstop, is not up for renegotiation. The backstop, if triggered, would put the UK in a bare bones customs union with the EU to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland. The EU says the aspirational political declaration, which sets the terms of future trade talks, could be redrafted, if Britain was to change its Brexit red lines. The withdrawal agreement was rejected three times in the House of Commons and Theresa May’s fourth attempt to put it before MPs led to her resignation and the race to succeed her. – Telegraph (£) The new PM will not be given a Brexit extension, warns Leo Varadkar… Britain will not be given extra time for a new prime minister to renegotiate the Brexit deal, Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, has warned. Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, has pledged that the UK will leave the European Union by October 31 “come what may”. Mr Johnson’s rival, Jeremy Hunt, has said he would be prepared to accept a short extension. Both have said that they want to reopen negotiations on the withdrawal agreement. Mr Varadkar said that there was “a strong view across the EU” against another extension. “While I have endless patience, some of my colleagues have lost patience, quite frankly, with the UK, and there’s enormous hostility to any further extension,” Mr Varadkar said as he arrived for a summit in Brussels. European leaders will discuss Brexit briefly today. Dublin is expected to be the first port of call for the new prime minister who would tour Europe’s capitals to make the case for renegotiating Brexit within a matter of three or four months. – The Times (£) EU leaders ‘enormously hostile’ to another Brexit delay and will only give one for second referendum or general election – Independent …while Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte claims Johnson’s Brexit plan won’t work… Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has warned that there can be no transition period without a full withdrawal agreement, contrary to what Boris Johnson has suggested. “Hard Brexit is hard Brexit. I don’t see how you can sweeten it,” he told the BBC. Mr Johnson, the frontrunner to succeed Theresa May as prime minister, has argued for taking the “good bits” from the existing withdrawal agreement and finalising alternative arrangements to the backstop during a transition period. He intends to delay the end of the transition — which is scheduled under Mrs May’s deal for December 31 2020 — until December 2021. Mr Rutte called on the next prime minister to show some flexibility in the next phase of trying to implement Brexit. – The Times (£) Future PM seeking to delay Brexit would face EU hostility, says Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – ITV News …as EU leaders conclude the UK is heading for a no-deal Brexit on 31st October Britain will crash out of the EU on 31 October unless Theresa May’s Brexit deal is ratified or a new prime minister calls a second referendum or general election this summer, the bloc’s leaders have concluded. The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, speaking at a summit in Brussels, said that there was now “enormous hostility” among the EU27’s heads of state and government to any further delay to Brexit. He said that while Ireland had “endless patience” it had become the firm position of a number of EU governments that the indecision in London needed to come to an end. An extension of the UK’s membership requires the unanimous support of the 27 member states. The European council president, Donald Tusk, had warned the UK not to waste the nine-month extension granted in April. – Guardian EU deadlocked over appointing next European Commission President The European Union was deadlocked over who should replace Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday night, with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel at loggerheads over who should be the president of the European Commission for the next five years. As she arrived for an EU summit in Brussels, Germany’s Chancellor insisted that Manfred Weber, the lead candidate of the centre-Right European People’s Party, should be appointed in line with the Spitzenkandidat process. Mr Macron, who is affiliated with the European liberal party, is the most influential EU leader looking to ditch the Spitzenkandidat system and reassert the right of EU leaders to choose the commission president. That system, which was used for the first time to appoint Mr Juncker in 2014, ties the commission presidency to the results of the European elections. The European Parliament, which must approve the appointment, insists the system must be respected. – Telegraph (£) Jeremy Corbyn to be ambushed by hundreds of Labour branches demanding he commits to reversing Brexit Jeremy Corbyn will be ambushed by hundreds of Labour branches demanding he commits to reversing Brexit at a conference showdown. A staggering 287 branches have signed up to a motion demanding Labour backs a second referendum and campaigns to stay in the EU at their annual meeting in September. Activists behind the campaign blasted Mr Corbyn for refusing to budge his position – and warned he is “delaying the inevitable”. It comes after Labour deputy Tom Watson warned they face becoming “electoral history” unless Labour becomes the party of Remain. But while Mr Corbyn has said “any deal” should be put to another vote, he has refused to throw his support behind the Remain camp. He is said to be considering letting Labour MPs campaign on both sides if there is a second referendum as he desperately tries to stop the brexit civil war blowing his party apart. – The Sun Mark Carney says the UK must be clear what a no-deal Brexit would mean Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has said that a no-deal Brexit should be a choice taken with “absolute clarity” about what it would mean for Britain’s economy. Carney, who has previously warned about the economic impact of a no-deal Brexit, made the comment in an interview with the BBC, an excerpt of which was broadcast on Friday. The two contenders to replace Theresa May as the next British prime minister have said they are prepared to take the country out of the European Union without a transition deal, if necessary. – Reuters Matthew Lynn: Britain needs a radical pro-Brexit chancellor, not more of Hammond’s disastrous gloom A tax break on charging your electric car at work. A Future High Streets Fund to help out retailers in trouble. A couple of tweaks to stamp duty so fiddly that even your accountant can’t quite remember the details. If Philip Hammond had felt like celebrating his greatest achievements when he drafted what is likely to be his final Mansion House speech as Chancellor, he would have realised very quickly there was nothing much to report – which is why he probably retreated to the usual apocalyptic, and increasingly hysterical, warnings about a no-deal Brexit. In truth, Hammond has been a terrible Chancellor. When he moved into No 11 in 2016, he inherited a better legacy than any Chancellor since Gordon Brown in 1997; certainly far better than Alistair Darling and George Osborne, both of whom had to cope with either a deep financial crisis or its immediate aftermath. Growth was robust. Employment kept hitting record levels. Tax revenues were buoyant, and the public finances were moving back towards balance. Sure, there was the challenge of Brexit to deal with, but that was an opportunity as well as a threat. – Matthew Lynn for the Telegraph (£) Asa Bennett: How will Boris deliver Brexit? Rory Stewart isn’t the only one who deserves to know Rory Stewart approached the Tory leadership campaign like Socrates, irritating his rivals by constantly asking them questions, and his campaign ended in a similar way to the Greek philosopher: hounded out for asking too many questions. He blamed his expulsion from the race yesterday on the “uncomfortable questions” he had been posing that touched on “truths that people were not ready to hear”. Those questions were being asked from the off, with Mr Stewart taking a special interest in Boris Johnson as campaign frontrunner that made Johnsonites question his motives. His efforts to find enlightenment through Socratic dialogue culminated in the two TV debates, where he seemed more interested in hearing from how their rivals’ plans – especially for tackling Brexit – would work rather than explaining his own. Predictably, Mr Stewart’s irrepressible questions riled his fellow Tory leadership contenders, driving them to use the BBC’s debate earlier this week to fight back by turning the scrutiny on him. Deservedly so, as his Brexit plan – for example – was far from perfect. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Ruth Edwards: How Boris could unlock the backstop and confound Dublin’s Anglophobic elite Writing earlier this week, the Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole was in despair at the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming Tory leader. “Who better [than Boris] to speak for a reckless and decadent ruling class for whom everything is desperate but nothing is serious?” he asked. O’Toole, author of the stylish but staggeringly idiotic Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain – which uses the domination-and-submission theme of Fifty Shades of Grey as a prism through which to view Britain – also happens to be the favourite Irish commentator of the Guardian and New York Times, and of Dublin 4, the Islington of the Irish capital. Ireland’s chatterati have been solemnly assured by O’Toole that Brexit – the appalling consequences of which he expects to last a century – is a fantasy spun by the “English reactionary imagination”, an “upper-class jest” bent on re-constituting a “white empire”. So assuming Boris becomes Prime Minister, the Irish elite will be expecting some kind of cross between Bertie Wooster and Cecil Rhodes. – Ruth Edwards for the Telegraph (£) Costas Lapavitsas: Labour should support leaving the EU – then it can be truly radical in government The resignation of Theresa May, the rise of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party and the Tory leadership election have cast a sharp light on the choices confronting the Labour party. It appears that, notwithstanding frequent assertions to the contrary, the balance between leavers and remainers has not shifted much since the referendum. As soon as political leadership became available, leave’s mass support across England and Wales was reaffirmed, including in the working-class heartlands of Labour. Farage spoke to popular frustration with the parliamentary shenanigans over May’s deal and the associated failure of democracy since 2016. It is deeply unfortunate that a rightwing populist has again been able to make inroads into the natural constituency of the left. His success makes it vital for the Labour party to offer fresh leadership, while maintaining its working-class roots. For that, Labour must not side with remain. – Costas Lapavitsas for the Guardian Telegraph: Johnson v Hunt must be a respectful contest that answers the million dollar question – how is Britain going to leave the EU? Finally, the country has what it needed three years ago: a public contest for leader of the Tory party. Theresa May avoided one and, as a result, she didn’t have to detail her plans for Brexit. If she had, maybe the country wouldn’t have wasted so long on her misguided strategy. Now, at last, Tory members can scrutinise two candidates with two plans and pick the one they judge is the best. It’s astonishing that they’ve had to wait so long to debate the million dollar question: how exactly is the UK going to leave the EU? There were rumours of tactical voting in yesterday’s tight final round, but the race ended as it started – favouring Boris Johnson versus Jeremy Hunt. There were some surprises in between, particularly the Rory Stewart moment, but all Mr Stewart really did was articulate elite opposition to the way the Tory party is going. He was an objection, not the direction. – Telegraph (£) The Sun: Tories don’t want Jeremy Hunt as leader — they want a committed Brexiteer to deliver Brexit Boris Johnson vs Jeremy Hunt looks like a terrible final. We hope we’re wrong. We have great respect for Mr Hunt and congratulate him. He is a decent man and an excellent Foreign Secretary, unfairly maligned by the Left during his long, tough stint at Health. He has run a terrific campaign. But the Tories won’t want a reformed Remainer in charge now. They want a committed Brexiteer to deliver Brexit, then win votes all over the country. Boris is vastly more likely to do that. Which is why he is miles ahead with MPs and, more importantly, members. The Tories should use this contest to produce the best, most achievable Brexit plan. That may be a combination of both candidates’ ideas, though there’s not a huge difference between them. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief Boris Johnson breaks the rules, bonks and may bring Brexit… and that’s why the elite hates him – Quentin Letts for The Sun David Davis’s advice to Boris Johnson ahead of grassroots hustings: ‘Be yourself, be sober and remember the country’ – Telegraph (£) Glasgow whisky giant achieves strong growth in overseas markets – The Herald Chuka Umunna stunned as Sky host claims it is ‘game over’ for Remainers – Express