Security ‘on the table’ during Brexit talks Cabinet ministers secretly agreed that Britain should put security on the table in Brexit talks, despite official Government denials, it is reported. There was “panic” from EU leaders about the impact the UK’s exit would have on security in the face of “increased Russian aggression”, according to The Sunday Telegraph. The paper claims leaked minutes of a Brexit Cabinet committee meeting on 7 March show ministers identified the UK’s “very strong hand” on defence as a key advantage in negotiations. The disclosure comes after Boris Johnson attempted to play down a row triggered by Theresa May in her Article 50 letter to the European Council president, Donald Tusk, by claiming Britain’s support for EU security was “unconditional”. – Sky News Revealed: How the Cabinet plotted to exploit EU’s fear of Vladimir Putin during Brexit talks – Sunday Telegraph Diplomats warn that EU’s ‘poisonous’ Brexit deal maker is plotting to punish the UK A shadowy European Union fixer known as ‘the monster’ is behind a campaign to punish Britain for cutting its ties with Brussels, it was revealed last night. Diplomatic sources said German lawyer Martin Selmayr, chief of staff to EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, is ‘malign’ towards the UK. Selmayr, credited with insisting Britain pays a £50 billion ‘fine’ for leaving the EU, is a key member of the negotiating team who will line up against Theresa May when Brexit talks start. The 46-year-old has been branded a ‘poisonous, merciless, ruthless, manipulative bully’. He despises Boris Johnson, destroys those who fall foul of his boss Juncker – and revels in his sinister reputation. – Mail on Sunday EU’s response shows we are right to leave – Sunday Express editorial Theresa May will launch a global trade blitz to find Britain lucrative new markets in plan for life after Brexit Theresa May will launch a Brexit trade blitz this week to find lucrative new markets for after Britain leaves the EU. She will despatch a senior team of ministers across the world to drum up business with potential customers. They are free to open talks with non-EU countries now the PM has triggered Article 50. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will tour Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Dubai and Oman. He said: “It’s nine months since we voted to leave the EU, and the signs are all positive. “The economy is strong, as is inward investment, employment and consumer spending. “We’re not more free to talk with non-EU countries – we just can’t sign anything yet. “But we can step up a gear in our activities and that’s what we’ll be doing.” – The Sun on Sunday Philip Hammond and Mark Carney to bang the drum for UK in India Philip Hammond and Mark Carney will lead a delegation of top policymakers to India this week to “bang the drum for British business” as the UK seeks to strengthen ties outside the EU. The Chancellor will travel to Delhi and Mumbai to promote Britain as India’s “financial partner of choice”, as the world’s seventh largest economy continues its rapid rise. Mr Carney will join Mr Hammond alongside bosses from financial technology firms including payments company TransferWise. The Governor of the Bank of England has described fintech as having the potential to transform banking and competition in the sector. – Sunday Telegraph …as Canada and Britain hold informal trade talks ahead of Brexit Canada and Britain are holding informal free trade talks, even though Britain is barred from direct negotiations before it formalizes its Brexit divorce from the European Union. International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Thursday Canada isn’t breaking any EU rules by doing that. His comment comes one day after the president of the European Parliament warned Britain against any unilateral action, including trade talks, before it formalizes its departure, after serving written notice this week to negotiate its departure from the 28-country bloc. Champagne said he’s met three times with his British counterpart, Liam Fox, while their officials are also talking because continuing a trading relationship is in the best interest of both countries. – CBC Solid as the Rock? Jitters – and defiance – as Gibraltar readies to see off its latest threat Keeping their weapons close to hand, troops were once again marching through the streets of Gibraltar on Saturday. From the fish-and-chip shops of Casemates Square, they paraded down Main Street – past the Horeshoe pub and a branch of Dorothy Perkins – to the Governor’s residence. The costumes may have been replicas and the “soldiers” re-enactors, but to some on the Rock, the threat they now face seems real enough. Harsh experience has taught Gibraltarians to be wary of Madrid, which has long claimed the British territory, but this time the cause of the upset is rather further afield: Brussels. Since the European Council suggested on Friday that Spain would be given a veto on whether the Brexit deal applies to the territory, Gibraltarians have been somewhat less steady than their Rock. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Spain ‘duped’ May on Gibraltar trade – Sunday Times (£) Labour: Gibraltar ‘not a bargaining chip’ in trade negotiations – Sky News The Spanish can demand all they like, but Boris Johnson and Theresa May know it’s a lot of hot air and that Gibraltar is British… and always will be – The Sun on Sunday NHS recruits must be given special status after Brexit, MPs urge The government is under intense cross-party pressure to guarantee that EU nationals will still be able to work in the NHS, as concern grows that Brexit will cause a critical shortage of nurses and doctors. Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs said ministers must not only guarantee that EU staff already working in the NHS can stay, but also that recruitment from EU countries can continue. The calls for NHS workers from the EU to be given special status as Britain heads towards Brexit were echoed by former Tory health minister Dr Dan Poulter, who now combines his role as an MP with work as an NHS psychiatrist. Poulter told the Observer that unless action were to be taken on both fronts – to reassure those already here and to ensure a future flow from the EU – services to patients would be soon be seriously affected. – The Observer Remainers vow to create gridlock in parliament It can be revealed that the Liberal Democrats are in talks with Tory “remain” MPs, Labour and the Scottish National Party (SNP) to disrupt May’s Great Repeal Bill, which will turn existing EU law into British law. The cross-party alliance is planning to cause “gridlock” in parliament unless the Brexit secretary David Davis makes key concessions. “Contacts between staff” took place on Friday between senior Tory “remainers” and the office of Tim Farron, leader of the Lib Dems. Ministers have to rewrite up to 1,000 laws because they make references to the rulings of EU regulators. They plan to pass them in batches of 75-100 using secondary legislation known as statutory instruments, which do not always require a vote in the Commons. – Sunday Times (£) Britons to sail the seven seas again with navy passport The blue British passport, which was superseded by the burgundy-coloured European Union passport as the UK forged closer links with Europe three decades ago, is to make a return as part of a post-Brexit redesign. The fondly remembered navy-blue passport began to be phased out in 1988 as the then European Community decided to harmonise documentation across its member states. Many Britons disliked the slightly smaller burgundy passports, on the cover of which the words European Community appeared above United Kingdom. The Home Office has put a contract out to tender for the “design, production and personalisation of the UK passport” for 2019, when Britain is due to have left the EU. Today the Sunday Express reports that discussions have already taken place with potential bidders to reintroduce the traditional navy design, which was created in 1920. – Sunday Times (£) Charlie Elphicke MP: Theresa May must call for a general election if she can’t get backing for Brexit deal and must face down opponents Theresa May has fired the starting gun on Article 50 and we’re off — but has she got what it takes to cross the finishing line? Securing a deal for leaving the European Union in two years is not certain. And you don’t have to look far to see why. The Article 50 letter had barely been opened and they were already issuing “guidelines” about how we must pay a £50billion divorce settlement before any talks. We offer free-flowing trade and they bluster about queues of lorries at Dover. We seek continued security co-operation and they claim it is blackmail. We pursue certainty for citizens of the UK and EU and they won’t discuss it. It’s not going very well so far. There are many more pitfalls in the road ahead and it may not be possible to get a good deal. That’s why, deal or no deal, we must prepare now so we are ready on day one if no agreement can be made. Particularly at the Dover front line, where so much trade with Europe is done. – Charlie Elphicke MP for The Sun on Sunday Jeremy Warner: Brexit’s long and winding road will hopefully lead to free trade Last week’s letter to the EU, triggering Article 50, was – to use Winston Churchill’s famous observation on winning the battle for Egypt – an end of the beginning; it is a long, winding and tortuous road that lies ahead. What should instruct the Government’s approach? Start with some of the more unrealistic and undesirable ideas. We can quickly rule out having our cake and eating it, Boris Johnson’s expressed aspiration during the referendum campaign, nice though it would be. For reasons of self-preservation alone, the EU will deny Britain any such option – that is of having all the benefits of staying in the single market but with none of its obligations. It’s not going to happen. At the same time, a clean break with the European Union, leaving Britain to fall back on so-called World Trade Organisation terms of trade, looks a very high risk approach and therefore holds little appeal, both for Britain and the EU. – Jeremy Warner for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Mervyn King: In 30 years this will look like any old blip With Brussels facing the euro mess and mass immigration, he says, Brexit is just an irritant on its priorities list. As we are neither in the euro nor in the Schengen passport-free travel area we have nothing much to say about the two existential EU crises. He also thinks that the effects of Brexit on the UK are being exaggerated. “I don’t think it will make a very big difference in the long run . . . My belief is that 30 or 40 years down the road, if you give people a chart of British GDP and ask them to point to where we left the EU, they won’t be able to see it.” Economists, meanwhile, have to accept that “radical uncertainty” about the future invalidates their excessive reliance on mathematical models. We cannot model the future when we do not know what markets there will be. – Mervyn King interview in The Sunday Times (£) John Bolton: Free of the EU herd, Britain can become a global force alongside America Trade may be uppermost in leaders’ minds, but farsighted statesmen in America and Britain should seize the broader opportunity. The West has experienced a period of listlessness, indecision and disarray. Crafting a post-Brexit UK-US relationship will not alone change all that, but the possibility of again being “present at the creation” of new international paradigms deserves serious attention. Technically, or, perhaps more important, politically, many EU acolytes will be huffy about the UK formalising new trade relationships before definitively leaving. There is no reason to rile continental tempers more than Brexit already has, but there is also no reason why Britain and America could not adopt an early and sweeping “declaration of principles” regarding the shape of their forthcoming trade and investment partnership. Such a statement of intentions should foreshadow a true, robust free-trade agreement, not a pale repetition of multilateral managed-trade deals masquerading as free trade. – John Bolton for The Sunday Times (£) James Forsyth: Theresa May’s Brexit negotiation has got off to a good start There’s an awfully long way to go, but the Brexit negotiations got off to a good start for Theresa May this week I say in The Sun today. Number 10’s great worry was that there would be an immediate no from the EU to what it proposed. That is why May’s Article 50 letter was written in such a conciliatory and constructive tone—it was meant to be impossible to simply say no to. This approach has had some success. In his negotiating guidelines, EU Council President Donald Tusk doesn’t suggest that the UK has to hand over the so-called divorce payment before trade talks can start—something which would have been unacceptable to the UK government. Rather, he says that the UK and the EU need to agree the principle by which the bill will be calculated before trade talks can start. The verdict of one UK government source closely involved in devising the UK’s negotiating strategy is that ‘this is pretty constructive’. – James Forsyth for The Spectator Robert Colvile: Brexit means an end to Britain’s excuses The European debate has, until now, been suffused with passion and principle. But now, a third p-word takes over: process. On Wednesday, Britain delivered its formal notification of withdrawal. The European Council has now unveiled its response – which, as Open Europe point out, is a great deal more constructive than some had expected, given the wilder noises that had been coming from that quarter. The two years of negotiation that follow will not be drained of political tension: far from it. They will be suffused with the stuff. But there will also be a great deal of inevitable wrangling between David Davis and Michel Barnier about the placement of this or that comma, about this regulation or that agency. And, of course, there will be the running commentary about who is seen to be winning and who to be losing. – Robert Colvile for CapX Janet Daley: Eurocrats are ashamed of their history – so they cannot forgive Britain for being proud of its own Even adamant Leavers must have been affected by Donald Tusk’s obviously genuine emotion when he accepted that letter announcing in final but emollient terms that we were off. “We miss you already,” he said. It was a great line – and all the more moving because it seemed unrehearsed. The thought may have struck you that had there been more talk like that, all this might have ended differently. Just imagine if during the referendum debate there had been an unstinting flow of admiration and affection from Brussels and Strasbourg. What if, instead of a barrage of bloodcurdling threats and obnoxious bravado (those strangely contradictory warnings that we would be punished for this even though by leaving we would only be damaging ourselves) there had been a chorus of regard and regret? – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph Simon Heffer: I pity the Remainers who still cling to Project Fear. They grow more desperate every day Those morbidly fascinated by political psychology have had a riveting week. Triggering Article 50 has caused prominent Remainers desperate grief. A period of denial has now, for all but a few hopeless cases – the absurd Tim Farron, who leads what is left of the Liberal Democrats, and his bleating, arrogant, fatuous predecessor Nick Clegg – ended. Instead, since most Remainers know they can’t stop the process, they say it will be apocalyptic. Not only are current politicians doing this (with Scottish Bolshevists such as Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond announcing catastrophe too) but also long-dead ones, such as dear old Michael Heseltine (increasingly a reminder of the need for proper social care) and “Chris” Patten, after whose catastrophic BBC chairmanship a longer period of silence would have been respectful. Because they have been wrong about the EU – wrong about its economic success, wrong about its political cohesion, wrong about it as a bulwark against external enemies (ask Ukraine) and, fundamentally, wrong about its popularity with hundreds of millions who suffer its malign consequences – they now must predict, and urge, failure. For if Britain doesn’t implode, they will have been utterly pointless. – Simon Heffer for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Brexit comment in brief An independent Britain’s top priority: staying friends with the EU – James Forsyth for The Spectator Theresa May must show her steel – as much with Brexiteers as with Europe, while negotiating future relationship with EU – Simon Watkins for This is Money Now that we are to be a sovereign nation again, we must bring back imperial units – Simon Heffer for the Sunday Telegraph If we stopped shouting, we might actually solve Brexit – Peter Hitchens for the Mail on Sunday Here’s my three-point plan to kickstart EU talks – Liam Halligan for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Europe is in the hearts of most Brits… it’s just the European Union we hate – Tony Parsons for The Sun on Sunday Post-Brexit UK must strengthen ties with Turkey – Tuncer Kilinc for The Sunday Times (£) Brexit is happening. The time for regret is over, so let’s plan for the future instead – Henry Porter for The Observer The EU sets out its stall – John Redwood for John Redwood’s Diary The Brexit negotiation. Don’t believe everything you see in the media. (Not that you would anyway.) – Paul Goodman for ConservativeHome Brexit news in brief Duchess of Cornwall visits mural of mafia symbols as she joins Prince Charles on Royal tour of Europe – Sunday Telegraph Labour puts aside £4 million war chest to fight snap election amid belief vote will be called before 2020 – Sunday Telegraph Johnny Mercer MP: Why I have changed my mind over Brexit – Plymouth Herald