Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Cabinet ministers split over customs union Brexit deal with Labour… Cabinet ministers are bitterly divided over whether Brexit talks with Labour should broach the possibility of a customs union, with several sceptical that such a deal could even command a majority in parliament or survive hostile backbench amendments. A senior cabinet minister suggested a deal involving a customs union could be backed by as few as 90 Tory MPs and would mean a slew of resignations from the government payroll. It is also likely to be opposed by the SNP, the Liberal Democrats and other smaller parties, as well as dozens of Labour MPs who would only back a deal if it included a confirmatory referendum. Concerns that a deal with a customs union would still not command a majority were publicly aired by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, on Tuesday, one of the cabinet member’s who is most strongly opposed to a customs union. Other opponents include the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, and the Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom. – Guardian …as Theresa May reportedly prepares to keep EU customs rules ‘for years’… Theresa May is preparing to accept that Britain will remain in lockstep with EU customs rules for years after Brexit in a deal with Labour. Under the terms of a tentative agreement Mrs May is close to signing up to a long-term customs union with the EU in all but name in return for Labour supporting her withdrawal agreement. Details of internal discussions began to leak as Mrs May gave her strongest hint yet that she was prepared to give ground. She told MPs that both sides now agreed on “some of the benefits of a customs union”. It is understood that under the proposal, which has yet to be agreed, the government would agree to enter a “customs arrangement” with the EU at the end of the transition period. This would include Britain aligning all tariffs on goods with the EU and allowing it to negotiate trade deals on Britain’s behalf. – The Times (£) Theresa May admits Britain could stay in customs union after Brexit and claims No Deal is impossible – The Sun …and suggests to MPs that her “no deal is better than a bad deal” mantra only applied “in the abstract” Yesterday afternoon Theresa May appeared before the Liaison Committee of Select Committee Chairs… Challenged by Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Chair Sir Bernard Jenkin as to whether she would contemplate leaving the EU of her own choice without a Withdrawal Agreement, she used the following formulation of words: “I stand by the references I have made in the past that no deal is better than a bad deal, but I actually happen to think that we have a good deal. When I first made that reference, I was talking in the abstract — it was at Lancaster House. We now are no longer talking in the abstract”. – BrexitCentral > WATCH on BrexitCentral’s YouTube channel: Sir Bernard Jenkin and the Prime Minister clash at the Liaison Committee Brexit ferry fiasco costs taxpayers another £50m after Chris Grayling cancels no-deal contracts The no-deal Brexit ferries fiasco will cost taxpayers an extra £50m after transport secretary Chris Grayling axed all the controversial contracts. The Department for Transport (DfT) will be forced to accept termination clauses agreed with the companies, which included a firm which had no ferries. The settlement comes on top of a £33m payment to Eurotunnel, earlier this year, to settle its legal case over the cross-Channel contracts. And it piles further embarrassment on the beleaguered Mr Grayling, who has endured repeated calls for him to resign over his mishandling of the issue. The transport secretary, who has enjoyed Theresa May’s strong backing as an arch-Brexiteer, personally signed the pre-Christmas contracts, including one with “startup firm” Seaborne Freight, which had no ships. – Independent Chris Grayling scraps No Deal Brexit ferry plans because we’re not quitting the EU on time and leaves UK with £50m bill – The Sun Government may abandon three-year spending review due to Brexit The government could abandon plans for a three-year spending review in favour of a one-year programme because of Brexit turmoil and uncertainty over Theresa May’s future. The prime minister appeared to concede a longer review would not be possible until a Brexit deal could be agreed, while under questioning at the liaison committee on Wednesday. “The chancellor shares my hope we will be able to get this deal through within a timetable that enables preparations for a spending review and departments [to be] able to address that fully and properly,” May said. “If it were the case that we were still in a position [where we] had not agreed the deal then it would be necessary for us to take a decision in relation to the spending review.” Two well-placed cabinet sources suggested there was no prospect of a longer spending review until May had left office. Departments are understood to be preparing for both eventualities. – Guardian May says students ‘priced out’ of EU universities are better off in the UK Students “priced out” of EU universities by higher fees after Brexit should stay in Britain and enjoy higher-quality courses, Theresa May says. The prime minister dismissed a protest that only rich children will be able to afford to study abroad in future by insisting no EU country could match the standards on offer at home. EU countries are expected to hike their fees for UK students if – as a leak revealed last weekend – the government presses ahead with scrapping limits on charges for EU students in this country. Asked if she feared domestic students would then be “priced out of studying at universities in other EU countries”, Ms May replied: “While there are students from the United Kingdom who choose to go and study at universities elsewhere, we are very fortunate in the United Kingdom in having a number of our universities that are actually in the 20 of universities in the world. I’m pretty certain, for the top 10, we are the only EU country that does have universities in that category. We have excellent universities here in the United Kingdom.” – Independent Horror for the EU as anti-Brussels parties are set to destroy the traditional grand coalition in the European Parliament The EU is under pressure after it emerged anti-Brussels parties are set to destroy the “grand coalition” of centre-right and centre-left parties that has run the European Parliament for four decades. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and centre-left Social & Democrat (S&D) are set to lose its majority for the first time in the upcoming May elections after dominating the EU parliament for 40 years. A survey commissioned by the parliament, whose projections were on the money in the 2014 election, shows the EPP and centre-left S&D losing 37 seats each and hence the majority. With Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, Italy’s populist ruling League and, at times, France’s far-right National Rally topping national opinion rankings, polls show a surge for eurosceptics in the EU elections. But pro-EU parties could still be able to hold a majority of seats, mainly due to the likely gains of the liberal ALDE group. Ahead of May’s European Parliament vote, which decides the MEPs for the next five years, new alliances are being formed among Eurosceptics in Brussels, which could see EU legislation blocked if they win 33 percent of the 751 seats. – Express Jean-Claude Juncker says no UK politician is ‘passionate about Europe’ British politicians aren’t “passionate about Europe,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Hungarian media in an interview published Thursday, saying the U.K. had always insisted the EU was “about economic interests, not values.” “Over decades of meeting British politicians, my impression has always been that they don’t feel at home in the EU,” Juncker told Hungarian outlet HVG. “I’ve not met anyone in their political elite who was passionate about Europe.”Juncker drew a link between the U.K.’s 2016 vote to leave the EU and the fact that British politicians “for decades” told voters that the EU was primarily about economic cooperation, not about common values. “This was the reason why they so eagerly supported the 2004 enlargement,” when Brussels welcomed 10 new countries into the bloc, and failed to “introduce any transitional restrictions whatsoever” to restrict access to the U.K.’s labor market, Juncker said. – Politico Ex-Labour MP Fiona Onasanya becomes the first politician to be ousted by a recall ballot, prompting a by-election in Brexit-backing Peterborough… Criminal former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has become the first politician to be booted out of the Commons by voters using a recall petition. Almost 20,000 people in Peterborough signed the petition to kick her out of the seat after less than two years. It came after she was jailed in January for perverting the course of justice after lying to police over a speeding charge. A spokeswoman for Peterborough Council, which ran the petition, said that it had been signed by 19,261 people, far above the 7,000 signatures required to get rid of her. ‘This means that the petition is successful and the Peterborough parliamentary seat is now vacant,’ she added. The decision sets up a mouthwatering by-election prospect in an area which voted 60-40 to Leave in the 2016 EU referendum. Nigel Farage’s Brexit party has indicated it will stand a candidate in the seat, which Onasanya took with a 607 majority in 2017 from Tory Stewart Jackson.- Daily Mail …while the Tories face punishment for Brexit failure in local elections today Senior Tories were last night braced for a drubbing as voters go to the polls today in local elections. They feared anger at the ongoing Brexit deadlock at Westminster and the country’s failure to leave the EU on schedule on March 29 will lead to hundreds of Tory councillors losing their seats in the polls across England. Elections are being held for seats on 248 authorities in England and 11 in Northern Ireland today, with polling stations open from 7am to 10pm. Some Tories predict the party could lose up to 1,000 seats in the polls. – Express > Rupert Matthews MEP on BrexitCentral today: Many angry Brexit voters will wait until 23rd May to punish the Tories, rather than today’s local elections Ann Widdecombe: We have to put ourselves in the line of fire for Britain There is a town in Norway called Flam. It has rather a pleasant fjord and some cheerful shops but I shall forever associate it with the moment I looked down from the hill which I had climbed, felt in my pocket for my mobile phone and called Nigel Farage. By the time I had descended once more and rejoined the boat on which I was travelling, I had jumped ships in a very different sense. A couple of days later I was met at Poole docks by a lady bearing my nomination papers. The allegiance of 55 years was dead in the water. It was hardly what I had planned for my retirement and I had all but forgotten the day-to-day business of political life: the cruel but funny cartoons, the minor libels with which diary columnists so cheerfully pepper their work, the media blitzes, the messages of support, the other type of message, the handshakes in the street, the applause and the heckles and the din of a campaign. – Ann Widdecombe for the Express James Forsyth: Will Nigel Farage’s Brexit party sink the Tories? Something’s been missing from Westminster these past few days. Normally, in an election week, there is a buzz about the place. Politicians feast off their encounters with the voters, coming back from the campaign trail with new theories about what the public really want. But this time, few MPs from any party seem keen to talk about this week’s local elections — or the impact they are likely to have on Brexit, Theresa May’s tenure in No. 10 and the future of British politics in general. This is because they know that the European elections, which are just three weeks away, will have a huge influence on all of these questions. The European elections are the vote that was never meant to happen. When the country woke up on 24 June 2016 to the news that the United Kingdom had voted to leave the EU, few would have imagined that almost three years later they would have been voting to send another cohort of MEPs to the European parliament for a term that ends in 2024. That these elections are taking place at all is a testament to the failure of the governing class to deliver on the referendum result. – James Forsyth for The Spectator John Redwood: Mrs May strengthens Remain forces in Cabinet The replacement of Gavin Williamson in Cabinet with Rory Stewart is the net change of yesterday’s mini reshuffle. The purpose is clear. Mr Williamson thought we should get on with leaving the EU. Mr Stewart is wedded to Mrs May’s deeply unpopular stay in and pay up Agreement. The Agreement delays our exit by around 2 years, maybe 4 years, and probably keeping us in the customs union and much else thereafter. There was no leak of sensitive national security information. Someone leaked which Cabinet members opposed Mrs May’s wish to let a Chinese company into the UK 5G system. This is no worse than the regular leaks from Cabinet that we have got used to. Mr Williamson denies he leaked. – John Redwood’s Diary Allister Heath: The Tories should be allying with Nigel Farage, not Jeremy Corbyn It is a question that needs asking: does Theresa May actually think that Brexit voters are stupid? She is certainly behaving that way, apparently convincing herself that the Eurosceptic electorate will welcome any deal she cooks up with Jeremy Corbyn, however appalling, as long as she labels it “Brexit”. The nonsensical, insulting implication is that those who want to leave the EU are as thick, uneducated, and prejudiced as their “progressive” opponents love to claim; gullible fools who only care about ending “free movement”. Fobbing off such half-wits should be easy: just sign a deal, any deal that can be spun as delivering on this one symbolic goal, and they will flock back gratefully. The reality is that it is hard to know for sure what the Prime Minister is thinking, if anything: she is the most evasive holder of that office in living memory, according to a University of York study. It is easier to gauge the dominant view in the bunker at No 10, now mired in deep, catastrophic denial about the imploding support for the Tories and establishment in general. – Allister Heath for Telegraph (£) Iain Mansfield: A second referendum would be far more unpredictable than Remainers or Leavers assume In 2016, the constituency of Welwyn Hatfield voted 52:48 in favour of Leave, mirroring the national result result. Over the last few weeks I’ve spoken to hundreds of voters on the doorstep whilst campaigning to be elected to the Borough Council. Though we’re running a local campaign, focused on local issues, readers will not be surprised to hear that Brexit comes up frequently. The level of frustration and anger is higher now than I’ve ever seen it before. Many voters on both sides are sick of politicians, angry at Parliament and simply want Brexit to be over with, one way or the other. On the Leave side, people feel angry, frustrated and betrayed at the refusal of the political classes to honour a democratic vote. Time and again I’ve been told by someone that they will never vote again. – Iain Mansfield for ConservativeHome Brexit in Brief How ultra-Remainers could score a spectacular own goal on Brexit – Owen Jones for the Guardian Brexiteer Penny Mordaunt becomes first ever female Defence Secretary – Guardian Newly promoted Cabinet minister Rory Stewart says cross-party Brexit talks the ‘smart thing to do’ even if May risks splitting Tories – ITV News And finally… Cheeky brewer mocks Donald Tusk with ‘Special Place in Hell’ beer set to be served to MPs MPs could be served an ale named ‘Special Place in Hell’ in their Commons bar later this year – mocking EU chief Donald Tusk. The House of Commons has agreed to consider it for its guest ale spot in the MPs’ notorious Strangers’ bar for the autumn – coinciding with the delayed October 31 Brexit date. Mr Tusk sparked uproar earlier this year when he attacked Brexiteers by saying: “I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely.” Brewers in arch-Brexiteer Mark Francois’s constituency made the special ale named after the infamous barb. Mr Francois last night invited Mr Tusk, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Posh Boys microbrewery in his Wickford constituency to sample the 4 per cent ale. – The Sun