Theresa May to reveal plans for post-Brexit Great Repeal Bill on Thursday Prime Minister Theresa May will publish her plans for a post-Brexit legal shakeup next week, just one day after formally launching negotiations. May is expected to trigger Article 50 in the middle of next week, and she will launch an immediate follow up with the publication of a white paper on her Great Repeal Bill on Thursday. The white paper will lay out how the government plans to convert the “acquis communautaire” of European laws and obligations into British statutes in the aftermath of Brexit. The Bill, first announced at last year’s Conservative party conference, will replace the European Communities Act, and is expected to be introduced in the Queen’s Speech at the opening of Parliament in May. – City A.M. UK set to keep EU regulations after Brexit – FT (£) …as Labour set to oppose ‘Henry VIII powers’ being used to rewrite EU laws… Labour will oppose plans in the “Great Repeal Bill” to give ministers sweeping powers to rewrite laws with minimal interference from Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn has said. The Labour leader was responding on Sunday to reports that the Government will publish a white paper setting out its plans for the bill on Thursday, a day after Theresa May starts the formal process of taking Britain out of the EU by triggering article 50. The white paper will set out how the Government intends to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act and transplant laws that have force because of the UK’s membership of the EU into domestic law. It is expected that this will involve extensive use of “Henry VIII powers” – laws allowing ministers to change primary legislation (government bills) using secondary legislation (orders that go through Parliament with little or no scrutiny). – The Guardian …with Corbyn being accused of trying to sabotage Brexit negotiations by demanding ‘impossible’ deal Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of trying to “sabotage” Brexit talks that begin this week by setting Theresa May a near-impossible target if she wants Labour’s support for the final deal. The Leader of the Opposition said Labour MPs would only vote for a deal if it guaranteed “unfettered access” to the European market – something that has already been ruled out by the EU. By raising the prospect of a Parliamentary rebellion against the deal Mrs May secures, the Labour leader has given EU member states a stick with which to beat the Prime Minister as she tries to get the best deal for Britain. – Daily Telegraph Theresa May tells Nicola Sturgeon Britain will be a ‘more united nation’ after Brexit as PM prepares to trigger Article 50 Theresa May will make it clear to Nicola Sturgeon that Britain will become “a more united nation” outside the EU as the two women meet two days before the formal Brexit process is triggered. The Prime Minister will describe the Union as an “unstoppable force” whose strength will be “even more important” during the Brexit negotiations. The Prime Minister – who will trigger Article 50 on Wednesday – will travel to Glasgow today where she will meet the First Minister and tell her face to face that there will be no new Scottish independence referendum before Brexit. – Daily Telegraph Spain to Scotland: You’re not special – Politico Europe Theresa May to offer Scotland more powers after Brexit in showdown meeting with Nicola Sturgeon – The Sun Tom Harris: Brexit could deliver a raft of new powers for Scotland – and that’s the key to stopping independence Early indications are that despite dire, doom-laden warnings, Theresa May’s refusal to countenance the SNP’s demands for a second independence referendum has put the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on the back foot. In Scottish politics, this is an unusual, unexpected and welcome development. Sturgeon and her ministers have proved less sure of the next steps than their previous rhetoric might have suggested. Leading nationalist politicians such as Jim Sillars, the party’s former deputy leader, have threatened to abstain in a future referendum if independence means rejoining the EU. And up to 30 per cent of the one million Scots who voted Leave last year are SNP voters. – Tom Harris for the Daily Telegraph (£) Article 50 + Section 30 = Indyref 2 – Akash Paun for the Institute for Government Amber Rudd brushes off doomsday predictions and tells EU chiefs to ‘calm down’ ahead of Brexit talks Sabre-rattling EU chiefs were told to “calm down” by the Home Secretary ahead of Brexit talks beginning on Wednesday. Amber Rudd brushed off doomsday predictions of what would happen if Theresa May failed to agree terms with the EU’s other 27 leaders. Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned last week of lorry queues at Dover, air traffic chaos and nuclear fuel shortages. Dismissing the rhetoric as “positioning” ahead of the talks, Ms Rudd said: “I don’t recognise that apocalyptic description at all. “Over the next two years I hope people will calm down and we’ll see a really good deal that’ll work for us and the European Union.” A passionate Remain supporter during the EU referendum campaign, the Home Office boss said she has now “made up” with lead Brexiteer Boris Johnson. – The Sun Cost of wide access to EU single market not yet clear, says Amber Rudd – Reuters Dyson ‘enormously optimistic’ about post-Brexit trade In an interview with the BBC, Sir James said: “Europe’s only 15% of the global market and the really fast-expanding markets are in the Far East. “I’m enormously optimistic because looking outwards to the rest of the world is very, very important because that’s the fast-growing bit.” Sir James said it would be possible to remain close to Europe after Brexit, while also forging closer ties with Commonwealth countries. “I’m a patriot, which is why I’m rather keen on re-connecting with the Commonwealth,” he said. And he rejected the suggestion EU staff could be forced to leave the UK – saying it was “absolute nonsense to suggest countries are going to chuck out foreign citizens”. – BBC News Dyson blows up in China and reinvests in UK sites – City A.M. Let go of Customs Union during Brexit, Open Europe advises May If you’re going to quit the European Union, just avoid “half in, half out” arrangements. That’s the message from think tank Open Europe to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, two days before she hands European allies divorce papers. It’s a variation, but for different reason, on what European leaders have been telling her for months: you can’t have your cake and eat it, and no cherry picking. Staying in the European Union’s customs union is a bad idea, the group says. Picking a fight to stay in the area where all goods circulate freely would mean the U.K. would have less of a say in striking its own trade deals, including with the EU itself, the group said. There’s no option that would provide completely “friction-less” — a word often used by May to describe her goal — movement of goods that Britain currently enjoys with the EU, it said. – Bloomberg BBC in fresh row over Brexit balance The BBC is embroiled in a fresh Brexit bias row after a study found that just one in six contributors to the Radio 4 Today programme’s business news slot in the six months after referendum saw the result as positive for Britain. A report by News-watch into the BBC’s coverage on Brexit covering the six month period after the referendum vote found overwhelmingly negativity about Britain leaving the EU. The findings suggest BBC has breached its own impartiality rules, the campaign group said. There were three times more pro-Remain contributors to the business new slot than Leave-supporting experts. – Daily Telegraph > John Longworth on BrexitCentral today: The BBC needs to break out of its institutional culture of Brexit negativity Gulf Arab states push for UK free trade deal after Brexit Gulf Arab states are pressing for an early deal on free trade with Britain to secure preferential arrangements after Brexit, and could have a draft agreement ready within months, Gulf officials say. Britain cannot formally sign trade agreements while it remains a member of the European Union, but the British government has said it is keen to start preparatory work so deals can be reached quickly after it leaves. One of the first agreements could be with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Qatar and the two biggest Arab economies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, according to the officials. Trade between Britain and the GCC totals about 30 billion pounds annually. – Reuters The UK aerospace sector is on track to soar to new highs in 2017 after a record last year The UK aerospace sector is on track to surpass the lofty heights of a record 2016 after a positive start to 2017. According to ADS, the trade body for aerospace, defence, security and space sectors, the UK industry has made a solid start to the year, recording deliveries of 100 aircraft in February, with a value of up to £2bn to the UK economy. The total delivered to customers this year so far is 169 aircraft – four under the total achieved in the first two months of last year, which was a record total, and major aircraft firms will look to rise their production rates as the year goes on. Current forecasts expect the final year total for commercial aircraft deliveries to be 1,528, ahead of 2016’s 1,443, with the demand for aircraft unrelenting. – City A.M. Michel Barnier: An orderly UK withdrawal has to be agreed before any trade deals are struck Reaching an agreement depends on the unity of the 27 throughout the two-year period. This is not just a matter of interest for the remaining member states. At the end of the day, the UK will need the EU to agree jointly to a deal. Therefore a united EU is essential for the UK to get a deal. The unity of the 27 will be stronger when based on full transparency and public debate. We have nothing to hide. When we sit down at the negotiating table, we need to immediately address a series of uncertainties created by the UK’s decision to leave. First and foremost, we must protect the rights of the 4.5m citizens who have found themselves faced with an uncertain future in the place they call home. The 27 member states, and the European Commission, will work tirelessly to preserve the rights of European citizens across our continent. We are ready to discuss this issue from day one. – Michel Barnier for the FT (£) Roger Bootle: We were right to join and we are right to leave: where did the EU go wrong? Last Saturday was the European Union’s 60th anniversary. With delicious irony, this week the UK will begin the formal process of leaving the EU. I am afraid that I was not minded to wish the EU many happy returns, having keenly supported Brexit, and seeing the EU as an inhibitor of European economic growth. Indeed, I am greatly looking forward to our rebirth as a fully independent country. But it was not ever thus. So I have been reflecting on where the EU went wrong. Even if we are right to be leaving the EU (and I think we are), this does not necessarily imply that we were wrong to join in the first place. I realise many of you will aver with pride and pleasure you were against the Common Market from the start. Good luck to you. You can reasonably claim to have been vindicated. But this is not my position. In fact, I was in favour of joining in 1973. Moreover, in the 1975 referendum I voted to stay in. I do not believe this was a mistake: I believe that we were right to join and are right to leave. – Roger Bootle for the Daily Telegraph (£) Financial Times: After Article 50, use common sense and find common ground It should concentrate the minds of everyone in Europe that Britain is to launch its withdrawal from the EU just days after the union’s 27 other members marked the 60th anniversary of its founding. Brexit is just one symptom of the profound troubles that have beset the EU in recent times. Yet for all its shortcomings, the EU has been indispensable to peace and prosperity in Europe. As a benevolent if imperfect experiment in shared sovereignty among nation-states, the EU has no parallel in the world. Britain needs the EU to stay strong after Brexit. Long before the Brexit referendum, Britain behaved as if it wanted one foot in the EU and one foot out. This ambivalence reflected geography, culture and patterns shaped over centuries. The British nevertheless played a valuable role in promoting the EU’s single market, encouraging the admission of newly democratic countries and lending weight to EU foreign and security policy. – Financial Times editorial (£) Daniel Kawczynski MP: Britain must renew diplomatic ties around the world Brexit finally gets underway this week. So now is the time for the United Kingdom to make equal haste with rejuvenating its diplomatic and trade ties in the world, beginning with Turkey. For years the potential of the UK’s ties with Turkey has been smothered by the sweaty, asphyxiating blanket of the EU’s accession talks with Ankara. No one in their right mind, on either side of the Bosphorus, believed in earnest that Turkey would join the EU in their lifetime. But the prospect of membership was avidly promoted and kept alive for years, tethering the relationship to the rigid and clumsy structures of accession talks. – Daniel Kawczynski for The Times (£) Mark Boleat: How the City can remain the jewel in London’s crown post-Brexit The City of London is a global leader in financial services, a crown jewel of one of the world’s leading cities, and a true innovator where finance meets tech to create limitless opportunities. Like a typical case of opposites attract, the mix of heritage blended with a new wave of enterprising spirit has helped maintain the capital’s position as an international hub. It hasn’t always been plain sailing, though. In 1986, the City, and indeed the rest of the world, faced a significant amount of change with the financial Big Bang. It marked a huge amount of deregulation: market volatility in the immediate aftermath was inevitable. Now, more than 30 years later, the UK is facing the latest possibility of significant changes to the sector – Brexit. – Mark Boleat for City A.M. Brexit comment in brief Brexit talks to be Theresa May’s toughest test. – George Parker and Alex Barker long read in the FT (£) Everything you need to know about Article 50 – FT (£) Leaving UKIP was inevitable for Douglas Carswell now Brexit is assured – Daniel Hannan MEP for IBTimes No, M Juncker, David Cameron did not “destroy” the United Kingdom – Fraser Nelson for The Spectator Coffee House War-gaming Brexit: Prepare for a Canada-style deal or nothing – John Hulsman for City A.M. ‘Unite for Europe’ march turns sour – Steerpike for The Spectator Coffee House Reuniting and Renewing the Kingdom: Britain beyond Brexit – Dan Jarvis MP for the New Statesman Article 50 will be triggered Wednesday 29 March. Then what? – Oliver Ilott for the Institute for Government Brexit gives the UK an opportunity to attract the best gene-editing talent – Matt Ridley for PoliticsHome “The construction of European Unity is a bold far sighted endeavour” The Rome declaration – John Redwood’s Diary The phoney war of Britain’s departure from the European Union is about to end. The government and its critics will both need to temper their bravado with realism – The Times (£) leader Brexit news in brief Lancashire’s textile industry wins Brexit boost as uniforms return to UK – Daily Mail Sinn Fein pulls plug on power-sharing talks in N Ireland – FT (£) Brexit negotiators ‘risk rushing into harmful deals’ – The Times (£) Don’t leave without a trade deal, says industry – The Times (£) Portuguese Minister says Brexit can’t be only EU agenda – Bloomberg