Ukip vow not to challenge Brexiteers in key seats to secure Brexit support in Parliament UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has vowed to put “country before party” and not put up candidates in key Labour versus Tory battlegrounds. Writing for the Sunday Express, Ukip leader Paul Nuttall said it was his duty to “advance the practical cause of Brexit in Parliament, in the country at large and in the negotiating chambers of the European Union. That means, to put it in shorthand, adhering to the principle of country before party in the changed political circumstances that pertain today.” – Sunday Express “Theresa May did not make a pitch to me about why she needed a bigger majority to secure a full, clean Brexit. So I must make judgments based on imperfect information… If Ukip were to stand everywhere, might we risk damaging good Brexit MPs and allowing Remainers in? Might we also risk allowing Remainer MPs to cling on?…I will talk to my party grassroots. If, for example, Ukip in St Albans does not wish to oppose Anne Main who worked with them in the referendum and faces a Lib Dem challenge, am I going to insist they do? Probably not. If North Norfolk decides that standing against Lib Dem Remainer Norman Lamb will help him hold the seat against a Tory Brexiteer, will I force them to? Again, probably not. Were I in Vauxhall would I bust a gut to field a candidate against Kate Hoey? I doubt it.” – UKIP leader Paul Nuttall MEP in the Sunday Express Revealed: The ‘hit list’ of Pro-EU Tory MPs the Lib Dems are targeting in Brexit election purge The Liberal Democrats have drawn up a hit-list of pro-EU Tory MPs who they want to unseat as they plot a Brexit purge for the election campaign. The Telegraph can reveal that four Conservatives in parts of the country which most voted to stay in the European Union have been singled out. Among those targeted will be Tania Mathias MP, whose Twickenham constituency overwhelmingly backed staying in the EU at last year’s referendum. According to Lib Dem party analysis just one in three voters in Twickenham wanted Brexit – something the Tories are now promising to deliver at this election. – Sunday Telegraph …as Tory MP’s local chairman calls for Conservatives opposing a ‘hard Brexit’ to be banned from standing in the Election A leading Tory MP was under fire last night after his constituency chairman called for Conservatives who oppose a ‘hard Brexit’ to be banned from standing in the Election. Right-wing MP Steve Baker was urged to distance himself from the incendiary comments made by Garry Heath, who runs the party in his Wycombe constituency. Mr Heath urged Tory chiefs to ‘seize this chance to purge our Party and deselect the Remainers’ and dismissed Tory MPs who opposed a ‘hard Brexit’ as ‘CINOs: Conservative In Name Only.’ The jibe is based on the attack on US Republicans opposed to Donald Trump, who were dubbed RINOs – Republican In Name Only. – Mail on Sunday Guy Verhofstadt accuses Theresa May of ‘opportunistic power grab’ over general election The European Parliament’s Brexit chief has accused Theresa May of a “power grab” motivated by “opportunism” after the Prime Minister decided to call an early general election. Guy Verhofstadt, the Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, dismissed Ms May’s claim that an election was needed to enable her to secure a better deal with the EU as “nonsensical”. “What has been billed as a ‘Brexit election’ is an attempted power grab by the Tories, who wish to take advantage of a Labour party in seeming disarray to secure another five years of power before the reality of Brexit bites,” Mr Verhofstadt wrote in The Observer. – The Independent Stronger pound could save Britain from cost of living squeeze Britain’s households could be spared a further blow from higher inflation because Theresa May’s snap election has pushed up the pound, limiting the chance of more rises in the cost of imports. Economists believe that a bigger Conservative majority could strengthen sterling – or at least stop it falling further – protecting living standards and so holding back one of the main threats to the UK economy this year. The pound rose by around 1pc on the day the general election was announced, pushing it to almost €1.20 against the euro and $1.28 against the dollar. – Sunday Telegraph Come what May: The outlook for Britain’s economy by 2022 – Sunday Telegraph What Brexit means for the rest of the EU The difficulty of untangling 40 years of having Britain at the core of the EU has been described as an exercise in putting scrambled eggs back into their shells. This is becoming increasingly clear on the UK side, as political, legal, economic, and, not least, administrative difficulties pile up, ranging from the Great Repeal Bill to how to process lorries at customs. But what is less appreciated is the plethora of Pandora’s Boxes that Brexit departure has opened in the EU. This is most visible in relations between euro and non-euro countries. After the exit of the UK, the EU’s second biggest economy, the GDP of the non-euro member states falls from 38% of the eurozone GDP to barely 16%, or 11% of EU’s total. Unsurprisingly then, non-euro countries in Eastern Europe are worried that future integration might focus exclusively on the euro-core, leaving others in a loose periphery. This is at the core of recent discussions about a multi-speed Europe. – New Statesman Euro facing a ‘knockout blow’ as France heads to the polls and traders fret about Brexit and a possible Eurozone break-up Holidaymakers face a summer of yo-yoing currencies as traders fret about Brexit and a possible Eurozone break-up. Sunday’s French election could lead to the euro dropping precipitously against the dollar, analysts said. Front National leader Marine Le Pen and far-Left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon are both Eurosceptics so a run-off between them for the presidency would hit the euro. – This is Money > A populist win for Le Pen or Mélenchon would be a bigger crisis for the EU than Brexit – Matthew Elliott for Huffington Post Five of UK’s richest men bankrolled Brexit The battle over whether Britain should be in or out of the European Union was funded mostly by multimillionaires, according to an analysis by the team behind The Sunday Times Rich List. Those on the forthcoming list, which features only people worth £110m or more, accounted for 71% of loans and donations to the “leave” and “remain” campaigns in the five months leading up to the vote last June. Almost two-thirds of the cash that bankrolled the successful Brexit campaign came from just five of the country’s richest businessmen. The quintet together channelled nearly £14.9m to Brexit-backing campaign groups. Eurosceptic organisations received a total of £24.1m in donations and loans between February 1 and polling day from all sources. – The Sunday Times (£) Tory MPs want to put halt to £100billion HS2 high-speed rail network to save money for Brexit Tory MPs are demanding a halt to the £100billion high-speed rail network – to save money for Brexit. They have persuaded Theresa May to abandon plans to build a line linking London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Many fear that work on HS2 will be delayed by years following our decision to leave the EU, sending the overall cost soaring. And they want the government to cut its losses by pulling the plug before building the first phase. Downing Street’s policy unit is actively considering a pause to the project being included in the Conservatives’ election manifesto. – The Sun on Sunday Welsh Education Secretary urges PM not to include foreign students in immigration target The number of students from overseas who come to study in the UK should not be pushed down in a drive to reduce immigration, the Welsh Government’s Education Secretary has insisted. Liberal Democrat Brecon and Radnorshire AM Kirsty Williams wants international students to be exempted from the UK Government’s goal of reducing the number of net migrants coming into the country annually to the tens of thousands. According to Universities Wales, international students at Welsh universities – together with visitors connected to those students – contributed £530m to the economy in 2014. This was the equivalent of 4% of all Welsh exports and their spending is thought to have generated more than 7,600 jobs. – Wales Online Scottish Tory revival on course to foil independence With the Tories on course to increase their Scottish representation at Westminster from one to 12, the SNP’s deputy leader Angus Robertson is one of several high-profile Scottish nationalist MPs who could be ousted. In what would be a blow for Nicola Sturgeon and the independence movement, the SNP on 44% — down six points from its 2015 general election result — would emerge with 45 seats, 11 fewer than last time. While that would be the SNP’s second best Westminster result, any losses and momentum shift could weaken Sturgeon’s hand in trying to persuade May to authorise a second independence referendum after May said it could undermine Brexit negotiations. – The Sunday Times (£) Michael Gove MP: Whatever Brexit you want, ‘in Theresa you have someone who listens, in Jeremy Corbyn you have someone who is frankly incompetent’ Gove reiterated to BI that May, who is already leading the country into a Brexit, is the best placed for the job and that by voting for the Tories, it will allow people to “stay involved in that conversation” because Britain is heading for a Brexit no matter what. “I don’t think there is any way, any of us, could say to the British people that voted to leave — whatever our views on the matter — ‘terribly sorry, we are going to reverse that decision,” said Gove to BI. “I think the media uses the phrase ‘hard Brexit’ and ‘soft Brexit’ a lot and I think we’re supposed to understand why or know what it means but the critical thing is, do we have an orderly Brexit that works for Britain. And the key thing about Theresa [May] is that she’s not ideological, she is absolutely a practical person. – Michael Gove MP for Business Insider Liam Halligan: Snap election isn’t a ploy for a ‘soft Brexit I’ve never liked the term “Hard Brexit”. It’s a label used by those who want to make leaving the EU sound unreasonable and extreme, especially those actively trying to reverse last June’s referendum result. Single market membership requires multi-billion pound annual payments to Brussels, makes UK law subordinate to the European Court of Justice and almost certainly requires continued adherence to the EU’s freedom of movement rules. Leaving the single market isn’t “Hard Brexit”. It is Brexit. Leaving the EU’s customs union isn’t “Hard Brexit” either. Inside the customs union, the UK is unable to cut suitable free trade agreements with the 85pc of the world economy outside the EU. The trade deals the EU has cut on our behalf cover countries that make up less than 10pc of the global GDP and do few favours for a services-oriented economy like the UK. – Liam Halligan for the Sunday Telegraph Janet Daley: This election is no cynical ploy, it is an essential part of re-establishing British democracy There is only one salient point that matters here, and I am surprised that Theresa May’s team has not made more of it. In her critical negotiations with the European Union, the idea of a leader fighting for the principle of national sovereignty and the democratic accountability of government who had not been elected to office by her own population would have been absurd. She could have been confronted with that paradox at every contentious moment: how can you defend the sacred notion of governments being answerable to their own people when you have not submitted yourself to the electoral judgment of your country? – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph Charles Moore: Those who want a clear Brexit will need to make sure it is in the manifesto Mrs May’s decision to call a snap general election is not very welcome, and I had thought she would think it too risky, but it makes sense — obviously because of Jeremy Corbyn and, a bit less obviously, because of public attitudes to her. She has brilliantly convinced people that she is a straightforward, unpolitical person who doesn’t descend to political games. This is untrue. She is, however, a person without childish vanity, celebrity hunger or media obsession. She benefits from a big cultural change, which descends from Mrs Thatcher, via all sorts of others — Angela Merkel, Ruth Davidson, Nicola Sturgeon. Women are now seen as stronger, more real and less silly than men. This is an old folk wisdom, but it only recently became the orthodoxy in politics. It is hard to beat. – Charles Moore for The Spectator Tim Farron: ‘If you want to prevent hard Brexit then the Lib Dems have a clear message’ Tim Farron is on home territory and it is hard to keep him moving. He has hardly set foot outside the door of the Liberal Democrats’ office in Kendal when a local councillor waves him down. “Did you get your credit card back, Tim?” he asks. Farron left it in the car park ticket machine the day before, when preoccupied with thoughts of the general election on 8 June. “Yeah, great, thanks, got it,” Farron says. A bit further on he bumps into the editor of the local paper, the Westmorland Gazette, and more chat ensues. The clock ticks on and his spin doctor, Paul Butters, strides ahead, trying to force the pace. We stall repeatedly along Finkle Street, the lakeland hills in the distance, as Farron engages elderly ladies in light conversation. This is his own seat, a safe Lib Dem one, and Butters wants his boss to get a move on – and get out of town. – Tim Farron MP for The Observer Brexit comment in brief The real victims of this snap election? The bankers’ wives – Toby Young for The Spectator How to vote tactically if you’re a Remainer? Any candidate against Brexit – Oliver Miles for The Observer Deficit reduction and EU rules – John Redwood’s Diary Brexit news in brief Will Brexit reopen old wounds with a new hard border in Northern Ireland? – The Observer