Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Queen approves Boris Johnson’s request to prorogue Parliament, cutting time to block a no-deal Brexit… The Queen has approved Boris Johnson’s request to suspend parliament from the middle of next month, which will restrict MPs’ ability to block a no-deal Brexit. In a move prompting a furious political row, parliament will be prorogued in the week beginning 9 September until 14 October. This is the date on which a new Queen’s Speech – detailing the legislative agenda of Mr Johnson’s administration – will be held. Her Majesty approved the government’s request for a five-week prorogation at a meeting of the Privy Council at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, on Wednesday. The Privy Council is an advisory body to the Queen, but is effectively a means by which decisions taken by the government are then formally issued in the monarch’s name. …as he tells the Cabinet that Brussels now knows we mean business… Boris Johnson told cabinet ministers yesterday that Brussels was more likely to offer Britain a deal if it thought that parliament could no longer “frustrate” Brexit. The prime minister insisted that his decision to prorogue parliament was “emphatically not” about bypassing MPs. He said, however, that it would make a “huge difference” in negotiations with Brussels once the threat of MPs stopping Brexit was removed. He added that the fact Britain could leave without a deal was making them think “these guys really are serious”. Mr Johnson said he thought there was a “good chance” that Britain would leave with a deal and also a “good chance” it would leave without one. A cabinet minister warned Mr Johnson, however, that Downing Street was risking a “nasty” general election by pitting the government against MPs trying to stop a no-deal Brexit. – The Times (£) …but the Speaker claims the prorogation is ‘a constitutional outrage’… The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, issued a stinging criticism of Boris Johnson’s intention to prorogue parliament, describing it as a constitutional outrage aimed at preventing MPs from debating Brexit. In a furious statement he said he had not been consulted by the prime minister, who he said risked undermining his democratic credentials. Bercow is expected to ensure the Commons has a chance to discuss the move, and table legislation to combat no deal, as soon as it returns from the summer recess. “I have had no contact from the government, but if the reports that it is seeking to prorogue parliament are confirmed, this move represents a constitutional outrage,” he said. “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country.” – Guardian Petition against prorogation signed by over a million desperate Remainers – The Sun …and MEPs plan to trigger an EU rule of law investigation into the matter… MEPs from across the EU are organising to trigger a formal investigation into the British government for breaching of the rule of law because of Boris Johnson’s “disturbing” move to suspend parliament, The Independent can reveal. EU parliamentarians are circulating an emergency question to the European Commission calling for action under Article 7 of the EU’s founding treaty, which has been used to censure countries such as Poland and Hungary when their governments have been deemed to be undermining democracy or fundamental rights. The bid, launched on Wednesday evening, already has the backing of dozens of MEPs from member states including France, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Denmark – and drawn from all of the parliament’s mainstream political groups. MEPs have until next Monday to put their name to the proposal, when it will be sent to the commission, and organisers say new signatories are being added every few minutes. – Independent EU politicians react with dismay at Boris Johnson’s threat to shut down Parliament for five weeks – The Sun … but Jacob Rees-Mogg accuses MPs trying to thwart Brexit of risking a ‘constitutional crisis’… MPs trying to thwart Brexit have been accused of risking a “constitutional crisis” by the minister who personally asked the Queen to shut down Parliament for five weeks. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the Commons, hit back at those who accused Boris Johnson of being undemocratic, reminding them that Parliament’s duty was to “respect the will of the voters” who had chosen to leave the EU. Mr Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament from the second week of September until October 14 prompted a furious response from Remainers, who vowed to block a no-deal Brexit by any means possible. Protesters also took to the streets in Westminster and around the country. Ruth Davidson, the Europhile leader of the Scottish Conservatives, will announce on Thursday her decision to resign, in a direct challenge to Mr Johnson’s authority that will put pressure on Remain-supporting Cabinet ministers to follow suit. – Telegraph (£) > LISTEN: Jacob Rees Mogg on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme …while Sir John Major says he will join legal action to stop the prorogation Sir John Major has revealed that he intends to join a legal action seeking to stop Boris Johnson from proroguing Parliament. The former prime minister, who is pro-Remain, has said that he will be seeking a judicial review, having previously warned Mr Johnson not to pursue a suspension. Sir John has confirmed that he will be joining a claim already initiated by Gina Miller, the businesswoman who previously won a case against the Government over triggering Article 50. He will be represented in court by Lord Garnier, the former solicitor general. Ms Miller launched her challenge earlier this week, stating that it “cannot be legitimate or a proper” to prorogue Parliament to “frustrate” and “fetter it from exercising its sovereign right to fulfil its elective role and enact any law it sees fit.” – Telegraph (£) Opposition MPs reportedly agree a strategy to block No Deal… Jeremy Corbyn says opposition MPs will take the first steps towards trying to pass a law blocking a no-deal Brexit when Parliament returns next week. The Labour leader was speaking after meeting other opposition leaders to discuss ways of averting a no deal. The move could force the PM to ask the EU for a further Brexit delay, beyond the current 31 October deadline. A No 10 source accused the MPs of “seeking to sabotage the UK’s position” in talks with Brussels. Those talks were “now making progress,” the source added. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the EU to re-open the withdrawal deal reached with Theresa May, and to make key changes that would allow it to be passed by Parliament. But he has insisted the UK will be leaving on 31 October even if no new agreement is reached. At present, the default position in law is that the UK leaves the EU on 31 October with or without a deal. MPs opposed to no deal want to pass a new law to change that. – BBC News …with Philip Hammond set to be ‘cheerleader’ of a cross-party bid to derail no-deal Brexit Philip Hammond is preparing to spearhead efforts to block a no-deal Brexit, it emerged on Tuesday night, after Jeremy Corbyn appeared to shelve plans for a no confidence vote in the Government. Allies of the former chancellor have told The Telegraph that he intends to become the “cheerleader” for a cross-party plan to force Boris Johnson to delay Brexit by several months. One said Mr Hammond wants to play “as full a role as possible” in efforts to force through backbench legislation ruling out no-deal, adding that he “wants to do what needs to be done.” Their comments were echoed by a former Conservative minister opposed to no-deal, who said: “He’ll be the cheerleader. I think if anybody does [decide to lead] he will.” Tory rebels determined to block no-deal intend to seize control of Parliamentary business in order to push through legislation compelling Mr Johnson to seek another Article 50 extension. Similar legislation introduced by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory grandee Sir Oliver Letwin – now commonly referred to as the “Cooper-Letwin Bill” – was successfully forced through Parliament earlier this year. – Telegraph (£) Sir Oliver Letwin – the Tory grandee behind plans to stop No Deal – confirms he has spoken to John Bercow… Sir Oliver Letwin, the mastermind behind plans to further delay Brexit by up to six months, has confirmed that he has spoken to Commons Speaker John Bercow about legislating to stop no-deal. The Tory grandee said it was “perfectly true” that he had “for many months” been communicating with Mr Bercow and the Commons clerks, adding that it was “appropriate” for MPs to do so. It comes after The Telegraph revealed that the pair had spoken over the phone after Mr Bercow, who is holidaying in Turkey, branded plans to shut down Parliament a “constitutional outrage”. Two parliamentary sources claimed that Mr Bercow had been in contact this week with Sir Oliver about how to assist MPs rapidly push through legislation before Parliament is suspended. – Telegraph (£) …who is accused of ‘colluding with Tory rebels from his sunbed in Turkey’ Speaker John Bercow has been secretly colluding with Tory rebels from his sunbed in Turkey to try and stop Boris Johnson from shutting down Parliament. Even though he’s been on holiday in Turkey, the Remainer politician has still been in contact with MPs including Sir Oliver Letwin to try and throw a spanner in Boris’ plans, the Daily Telegraph revealed. Earlier this week the Speaker called the idea to shut down Parliament for a week longer than usual as a “constitutional outrage”. However, he said he wouldn’t be commenting any further as he was on holiday. This morning Sir Oliver said he’d been speaking to Mr Bercow for “many months” and he will carry on doing that. – The Sun Furious John Bercow ready to defy advice again after decision to prorogue Parliament – The Times (£) Jeremy Corbyn urges Tory MPs to join alliance to stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal… Jeremy Corbyn has fired off an appeal to 116 Tory and independent MPs, including Theresa May and Philip Hammond, to join forces with Labour to block a no-deal Brexit. In a highly unusual move, the Labour leader offered an olive branch to his former opponent, Ms May, and a string of ex-cabinet ministers, who were sacked by Boris Johnson for opposing a chaotic exit from the EU. Mr Corbyn cited new legal advice from shadow home secretary Shami Chakrabati, who said suspending parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit would be “the gravest abuse of power and attack upon UK constitutional principle in living memory”. It comes after Mr Corbyn held crunch talks with opposition leaders in Westminster, where MPs agreed to try to block a no-deal Brexit using legislation rather than installing a caretaker prime minister. In his letter to MPs, the Labour leader said: “We know there is a majority in parliament against no deal. – Independent …as Ken Clarke admits he would support Corbyn as PM to block no-deal Brexit… Kenneth Clarke, the former Tory Chancellor, has said he would support Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister if it was “the only way” to stop a no-deal Brexit. Speaking on Sky News, he said: “So long as we were absolutely certain we could keep Jeremy under control and he would not have any chance of implementing any bits of his manifesto, I hate to tell you that I probably would [back him as Prime Minister]. I don’t think it’s going to happen because I must be one of a tiny number of Conservatives prepared to contemplate that…he is about the least suitable person of all to maximise support in the House of Commons.” He confirmed that he would vote down the Government if “it was the only way of avoiding a no deal catastrophe.” – Telegraph (£) …but Corbyn is accused by Johnson of ‘sabotaging’ EU talks on a deal Boris Johnson has accused opposition MPs of attempting to “sabotage” Britain’s negotiations with the European Union after they announced plans to thwart a no-deal Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn, backed by other opposition leaders, vowed yesterday to use legislation to bind the prime minister’s hands and stop him fulfilling his pledge to take Britain out of the EU at the end of October “come what may”. The decision to prioritise a strategy with a “legal edge” over Mr Corbyn’s initial plan for a caretaker government means that Mr Johnson is likely to avoid facing a confidence vote when MPs return to the Commons next week. After chairing a cross-party meeting, the Labour leader said that he would table a motion of no-confidence “at an appropriate time” but it would “obviously not [be] the first item next Tuesday”. – The Times (£) UK and EU step up Brexit talks to twice a week… Brexit talks will take place twice a week during September, with just two months to go before the October 31 deadline, according to Downing Street. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement the boost in activity was part of his “energetic and determined” approach to scrapping the controversial Northern Irish backstop. “While I have been encouraged with my discussions with EU leaders over recent weeks that there is a willingness to talk about alternatives to the anti-democratic backstop, it is now time for both sides to step up the tempo,” he said. “The increase in meetings and discussions is necessary if we are to have a chance of agreeing a deal for when we leave on October 31, no ifs no buts.” – Politico …with the EU said to be ready to look at a ‘realistic’ backstop plan from Johnson… EU officials are ready to look at “realistic” proposals from Boris Johnson on the Irish backstop – the main obstacle to a Brexit deal – but are pessimistic about his government’s chances of coming up with workable ideas. Downing Street’s optimism over an apparent shift in the EU’s willingness to negotiate could be scuppered by a new Irish push to reinforce the importance of the insurance policy against a hard border on the island of Ireland. Johnson’s Europe envoy, David Frost, is due to return to Brussels on Wednesday for meetings with officials as both sides strive to avoid a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. After the G7 summit and meetings with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron in Berlin and Paris, the EU is taking the prime minister more seriously as a dealmaker. – Guardian …and a Dutch minister indicates the talks are ‘serious’… Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator is having “serious talks” with Brussels over the hated Northern Irish backstop – but the sides are “not there yet”, a Dutch minister has revealed. David Frost was sent to meet EU chiefs and find a solution to the biggest stumbling block in Brexit with just a month remaining to the October 31 deadline. EU Attitudes towards a new deal have softened in recent weeks with the PM making a good impression with his statecraft at the G7 summit in Biarritz. Government sources said they want to take advantage of the positive noises to “prise” open the Withdrawal Agreement. Dutch Foreign Minister Stephan Blok said progress was being made – but there were still some way to go before a new deal can be sorted. – The Sun …although Johnson risks a clash with Brexiteers if he only secures concessions from EU on the Irish backstop… Boris Johnson risks a row with Conservative Brexiteers after Downing Street indicated that he may seek changes to the backstop but could leave the rest of the Withdrawal Agreement intact. Number 10 said the Prime Minister may only ask the EU to remove the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, which would keep the UK in a customs union with the EU if no other way was found to ensure the Northern Ireland border remained open after Brexit. Mr Johnson has said the withdrawal agreement, negotiated by Theresa May, is dead, but the suggestion that it could be retained will anger Brexiteers. Asked whether the Prime Minister would accept the Withdrawal Agreement if the backstop was removed, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “We have been clear that the changes we are seeking relate to the backstop.” It came as the EU signalled that it will not budge on the Withdrawal Agreement but could be open to amending the Irish backstop. – Telegraph (£) > Professor David Collins today on BrexitCentral: Even if the EU offer to remove the Backstop, here’s why the draft Withdrawal Agreement must still be rejected …while Ruth Davidson warns MPs not to blow the chance of a Brexit deal, as she quits as Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson this morning backed Boris Johnson’s plan to deliver a Brexit deal by suspending parliament as she quit as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. She called a press conference in Edinburgh to announce that she was stepping down. Afterwards, her spokesman said that she supported Mr Johnson’s approach to getting a deal with the European Union. Ms Davidson said: “If it requires a new Queen’s Speech to bring back a deal what I would encourage colleagues is not to blow it.” At the press conference she said that the prospect of being front and centre of another election campaign filled her with dread and that she wanted to spend more time at home with Finn, her baby son. She admitted that she had been a “a poor daughter, sister, partner and friend” during her time in frontline politics. – The Times (£) ‘Get ready’ for no-deal Brexit, next week’s £100m ad campaign will say Michael Gove will launch the government’s £100-million no-deal public information campaign next week with the slogan “Get ready” as MPs attempt to delay Brexit. Billboards and a revamped government website will kick off the campaign, hailed as the biggest advertising drive since the Second World War. It is meant to ensure that businesses and the public are prepared in case Britain departs the EU without an agreement on October 31. One minister said that Downing Street had initially considered using the Vote Leave slogan, “Take back control”, but decided against it amid fears that it would appear too partisan. However, the timing of the launch, as MPs increase efforts to stop a no-deal Brexit, is likely to be viewed as highly provocative. One source close to the campaign said that Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s most senior adviser, was intimately involved in drawing up the plans and ensuring that technical documents were easy to understand. – The Times (£) Dominic Raab promises £3m to ensure smooth Brexit transition to UK nationals living abroad The Foreign Secretary has announced the Government will be providing up to £3 million in grant funding for charities and other voluntary organisations who will inform UK nationals about the need to register or apply for residency in the EU and support them as they complete their applications. Over a million UK nationals live in EU and European Free Trade Association countries and the Government hopes this support will help those who may find it harder to complete all the paperwork. – Yahoo News Sajid Javid warns there will be no blank cheques for Government departments in lead up to Brexit The Government will not break its “fiscal rules” on public spending in the run-up to Brexit, the Chancellor will warn on Wednesday as he says there will not be “blank cheques” for Whitehall departments. In an article for The Telegraph, Sajid Javid discloses that he will announce the outcome of a one-year spending review next Wednesday which will increase expenditure on schools, the police and NHS. However, he plays down expectations of a pre-Brexit spending spree and pledges to stick to the Tories’ fiscal rules which have governed expenditure for much of the past decade. On Tuesday afternoon Mr Javid cancelled a speech he was due to make in Birmingham on Wednesday, his first to set out his economic approach as Chancellor. There had been growing speculation that he was preparing to abandon the fiscal rules to raise spending to bolster the economy amid Brexit uncertainty, but this now appears to have been ruled out. – Telegraph (£) Iain Duncan Smith: Impartiality of the Speaker is crucial to our constitution in this time of faux outrage Nothing so defines the absurdity of the Brexit debate as the howls of anger, sounds of fury and crocodile tears at the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue. These objectors were all in Parliament when it overwhelmingly voted first for the referendum, then to uphold the result and then to trigger Article 50. In voting for Article 50, they must have known that at the end of the process the UK was legally bound to leave with or without a deal, which ironically is the policy of Boris Johnson. Then the Speaker entered the fray with the very partial comment that what the Prime Minister had done was a constitutional outrage. Actually, following his comment, it appears almost everything and everyone was suddenly either outrageous or outraged. Prorogation is outrageous, this is an outrageous power grab, the Government is outrageous and their supporters are collectively outrageous. – Iain Duncan Smith MP for the Telegraph (£) Lewis Goodall: Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament shows Downing Street wants a Brexit deal Make no mistake, this isn’t about routine parliamentary procedure, nor introducing a new government’s programme for office – it is about limiting parliament’s ability to interfere with the government’s Brexit plans. To say anything else is deeply disingenuous. But this doesn’t mean we are destined for a no-deal Brexit. Indeed, I think it rather confirms that Downing Street is committed to an agreement. The contour of their plan now seems obvious to me: survive the first few weeks of September, scramble their opponents and prevent them from limiting their room for manoeuvre, ride out the conference recess and get to the European Council summit on 17 October. There they hope to secure a cosmetically-modified withdrawal agreement. They will survive a vote on the Queen’s Speech because, they will say, if they are voted down there will be no government in place to prevent a no-deal. They will then put the deal to parliament in the days before 31 October. – Lewis Goodall for Sky News Asa Bennett: Floundering against a no-deal Brexit, the best Remainers can come up with is yet more fudge Trumpeting his talks today with opposition party leaders, Jeremy Corbyn said that Labour would “do everything necessary” to stop a no-deal Brexit and would not rule out anything that “could stop this no-deal disaster in its tracks”. There is one option that would prevent a no-deal while allowing them to show they genuinely respected the referendum result: passing whatever Boris Johnson manages to renegotiate and put to Parliament. But there is no sign that opposition party leaders are prepared to consider that, leaving them to work out instead what the most pro-Remain manoeuvre they could pull off. The Labour leader’s offer to delay Article 50 and hold a referendum has crashed and burned, understandably so given that his fellow Remainers needed to agree to him becoming Prime Minister for that to happen. Jo Swinson has warned that Mr Corbyn’s insistence on leading the Brexit-delaying caretaker government would “jeopardise the chances” of them clearing the first hurdle: passing a no-confidence vote. If MPs are to clear the way for an alternative prime minister, they need to be able to command a majority in the House of Commons, something the Liberal Democrat leader has argued Mr Corbyn would struggle to do. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Andrew Lilico: The EU’s innumerate claim that we should pay £39bn for no-deal does not add up The question of how much of the £39bn estimated “financial settlement” the UK will make in the event of no deal has once again resurfaced, following Guy Verhofstadt’s tweet yesterday claiming that “if the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal”, and payment in full would be the “first condition” of any talks following a WTO exit. Let’s think about that. Here’s the Treasury’s estimate for the breakdown of the financial settlement (from January 2018 – some other estimates have tweaked it slightly since then but the points I want to make remain unchanged regardless of the estimate used). Many people seem to imagine that the £39 billion (or €45 billion) was for paying EU staff pensions or other similar liabilities the UK took on as a member. But, as we can see clearly from the table, only €2-4 billion of the total was for the UK’s net share of EU liabilities. There could be some debate about even these, since pensions are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis. But I think there’s a reasonable chance we’d be deemed as owing these by a neutral arbitrator and should expect to pay up. So all up, of that €45 billion (or £39 billion) “financial settlement” the EU is claiming, we owe something like €6 billion for our continuing membership from April to October 2019, plus around €2-4 billion in genuine liabilities. – Andrew Lilico for the Telegraph (£) Quentin Letts: Remainers think Boris Johnson hasn’t got a Clouseau – but he’s a PM with purpose and pazazz Politics has gone all Herbert Lom. You surely remember the great actor Lom. In the Pink Panther films his character, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, succumbed to an awful eye twitch whenever Peter Sellers’ Clouseau had another unlikely triumph. In one episode Dreyfus shot his nose off with what he thought was his novelty cigarette lighter but was in fact a loaded revolver. All because Clouseau had again succeeded against the odds. Recent days have seen something similar happen to our Remainer elite. With increasing agitation they have watched new Prime Minister Boris Johnson make the weather over Brexit. All their best-laid ruses to scupper Boris (whom they mocked as a bungler) have come to nowt. Finally it has done their heads in. BANG! goes the cigarette lighter. That dastardly devil Johnson actually intends to obey the biggest democratic decision ever taken by the British people? How “anti-democratic” of him! Mad logic, yes. But it basically encapsulates the Remainers’ position. Jeremy Corbyn, Dominic Grieve MP, lawyer-millionaire Gina Miller and that incontinent, foul-mouthed, loose-trousered fool Hugh Grant: All have “gone Lom” over Boris’s plan to have a Queen’s Speech before the end of October. – Quentin Letts for The Sun Julia Hartley-Brewer: This so-called People’s Parliament is nothing more than an anti-democratic coup I have a question. When did adding the word “People’s” to everything start being A Thing? First we had the People’s Vote, then we had the People’s March and now, lo and behold, we have the People’s Parliament. This is somewhat confusing. After all, who is doing all the voting that isn’t being done by, well, people? Are there national squirrel referendums we haven’t been told about? Are cats regularly daubing placards with EU flags and heading off to London on marches I’ve been unlucky enough to never spot? And, other than owls, who else is sitting in parliaments that we have apparently otherwise missed? The People’s Parliament is just the latest manifestation of this Orwellian attempt by Remoaners to pretend that their audacious bid to overturn a democratic vote is anything but a blatant attempt at a political coup. When opposition leaders in banana republics attempt their coups, they usually need to win over the military and seize the state broadcasters first. But the Remoaners didn’t have to bother with such trifling things. After all, they already have the entire Whitehall establishment on their side, not to mention the Commons Speaker, and the BBC already appears to be marching to their anti-Brexit tune. – Julia Hartley-Brewer for the Telegraph (£) Mark Wallace: Johnson calls his opponents’ bluff So the Government seeks to hold a Queen’s Speech on 14th October, with an attendant prorogation from 10th September. Ministers argue that this is a normal thing for a new administration to do, that it is within their usual constitutional rights, and that it is standard practice to prorogue before a Queen’s Speech. They also point to the fact that Parliament normally doesn’t sit for most of this period anyway, due to the Conference recess, and that they want to get on with their job. They’re right. Furious Remainers argue that it’s a deliberate tactic to reduce the Parliamentary time available for the newly-founded Remain Alliance to pursue the plan they announced yesterday to legislatively block Brexit. They’re right, too. By extension, there are some things each side claims which aren’t entirely right. The Government has its tongue in its cheek when it suggests this is solely about its legislative agenda, and not about disrupting its opponents; and its opponents are talking flagrant nonsense when they rave that it’s a ‘coup’, a threat to ‘the very nature of our democracy’, and so on. – Mark Wallace for ConservativeHome Ross Clark: Remainers are the ones telling porkie pies on trade deals, not Boris Johnson I wonder whether Boris Johnson actually knew there are no Melton Mowbray pork pies currently for sale in Iceland or Thailand before he made his remarks on Monday. By drawing his excited opponents into making accusations about yet more of Boris’s “porky pies”, he has skilfully drawn attention to the point he really wanted to make — that there are huge global opportunities for British food exporters if only we are prepared to make concessions in opening up our own food markets to the world. In fact, if we start exporting pork pies to the Far East we will only be returning to what we were doing more than 100 years ago. In 1890, Melton Mowbray bakers Evans & Hill reported they had received a large order of pork pies from Borneo — which is even further from Britain than Thailand. If we could do it then, without modern refrigeration, we can surely do it now. – Ross Clark for The Sun John Redwood: A new session of Parliament with a new Queen’s speech Shock horror, we are going to have the same 3 week break for party conferences we have always had. Bigger shock horror, we are going to end the longest Parliamentary session since the civil war, and have a new Queen’s speech as we used to do every year. Worse shock horror, the Remain forces who have dominated the Parliamentary agenda for three years complaining about the result of the referendum will not have many more days to repeat this. Most of the country will breathe a sigh of relief if the endless rows about Brexit are over and we can get on with a decent agenda for the UK. The irony of Remain is they now dare to say it undemocratic to implement the referendum decision, undemocratic to have a new session of Parliament with a new agenda for a new government, and undemocratic if the majority get their way. It is they who launch the attack on democracy, by denying the result of the referendum and seeking to stop the transfer of powers of self government back to Parliament, which was the whole point of the Brexit vote. – John Redwood’s Diary Dean Godson: The Irish mustn’t get away with dirty tactics on Brexit Imagine the justified howls of outrage if a special adviser to a British minister boasted that a campaign of dissident loyalist violence had shifted the Irish government’s stance on Brexit to one more accommodating to the UK. Right-minded people would have denounced British “collusion” with loyalists and condemned a “discourse of threat” incompatible with the Good Friday agreement of 1998. No British panjandrum has made so outrageous a claim. But, according to the Irish Independent, such a claim was made by a source close to Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister. The source effectively gave violent republican opponents of the peace process credit for causing Boris Johnson to shift his position on Brexit. Attacks have included the attempted murders of PSNI officers in Fermanagh last week. – Dean Godson for The Times (£) Julina Jessop: Corbyn’s bonkers ‘bankers’ Brexit’ Writing in the not-very-Independent, Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to do everything he can to stop a ‘“bankers’ Brexit”. This slogan is presumably designed to appeal to the hard left and the #FBPE echo chamber. Nonetheless, as lazy narratives go, it still takes some beating. For a start, the City is hardly short of Brexit sceptics. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley all donated substantial six-figure sums to the Remain campaign ahead of the 2016 referendum. Other major Remain supporters included the financier Mark Coombs and the hedge fund owner David Harding, both counted among the dreaded ‘billionaires’. And that’s even without mentioning George Soros. What’s more, firms in banking and finance have had to run up substantial costs for contingency planning to prepare for Brexit. Many are relocating legal entities, assets, and at least some jobs, from the UK to the rest of the EU. To be clear, the scale of these moves has been much less than some had warned, and it’s not all one-way traffic. Indeed, the UK is still by far the dominant EU player in this sector (and many others). But there’s surely little here to support the claim that the UK is heading for a ‘bankers’ Brexit’. – Julian Jessop for CapX Eliot Wilson: Where was the Remainers’ constitutional outrage when Bercow broke the rules? It’s not a common word, usually the preserve only of constitutionalists and those strange practitioners of the abstruse parliamentary arts, Commons and Lords clerks. For weeks it was whispered about, then spoken at increasing volume. Would he? Wouldn’t he? And now we know: the Prime Minister has asked Her Majesty The Queen to prorogue Parliament by September 12, to be re-opened with a fresh Gracious Address on October 14. Her Majesty has agreed. So that’s that. Let’s be clear right at the outset. This is not a coup d’état. It is not a breach of parliamentary rules. It is not, in that critical word for Westminster wonks, disorderly. By strict letter of the law, there is nothing to see here, and anyone who tells you differently is simply misinformed. – Eliot Wilson for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: Tory rebels must back Boris Johnson or they risk unleashing Marxist chaos on the economy Maybe Tory Remainers are past caring about their party and Government. Maybe these grey old men are too intoxicated by the apparent romance of their deluded revolution against Brexit. They should sober up and heed their soulmate Ruth Davidson’s parting shot: That Boris Johnson IS seeking a new deal and they and Labour moderates must back him — because only then will Brussels think it’s worth offering. The Sun would go further. We don’t believe the EU will significantly improve the current agreement. But Philip Hammond and his co-plotters must get behind Boris, deal or not. He is their party’s last and only hope. Vowing to “stop No Deal” is already damaging our negotiating hand by removing any EU incentive. And what it really means is “stopping Brexit” on October 31 and bouncing us into the horror of a second referendum. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief Bucks Fizz Eurovision singer selected to stand for Brexit Party at next election – Independent Corbyn knows that the Brexit debate is turning him into an irrelevance – Tom Harris for the Telegraph (£) Boris has been a revelation since he took over Brexit but signing away powers to get it over the line could cost him his job – The Sun says Britain will be better off as a junior partner of the United States than an EU vassal – Andrew Roberts for the Telegraph (£) Brexit is not about damage limitation, Boris – it’s a golden opportunity – John Longworth MEP for The Conservative Woman