Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Leaked draft of Labour manifesto states a Corbyn government would not leave the EU without a deal… In it, Mr Corbyn dismisses Theresa May’s Brexit pledge that “no deal is better than a bad deal” and promises to protect EU funding across the UK, guarantee worker’s rights and drop the Conservative Great Repeal Bill which would allow EU laws to be scrapped. The Labour leader also refuses to set a target to cut immigration and instead pledges to scrap rules that force migrants to prove they have enough money to live and work in the UK before they are allowed into the country. – Telegraph Labour would respect the Brexit referendum result and give a meaningful vote on any deal to parliament. EU citizens living in the UK would have their rights guaranteed unilaterally. Theresa May’s Brexit white paper would be replaced with a plan that aims to retain the benefits of the customs union and single market. – Guardian > On BrexitCentral today: What the leaked draft of Labour’s manifesto says about Brexit …as the Labour leader was trying to insist the UK will quit the EU in an attempt to clarify his stance Jeremy Corbyn has attempted to clarify Labour’s position on Brexit by insisting “Britain is leaving the European Union”. The party leader responded to criticism over his approach to the key issue of next month’s election in an interview with BBC Look North on Wednesday. Earlier this week London Mayor Sadiq Khan criticised the PM hopeful by saying people were unclear about Labour’s stance on Brexit. – Evening Standard Theresa May lays into Jeremy Corbyn for ‘destroying voters’ trust’ over refusal to promise EU exit – The Sun You must accept the referendum result! Tony Blair squirms as he admits Matthew Elliott ‘may be right’ Chief Remoaner Blair was chairing a panel discussion on populism at California-based think-tank the Milken Institute’s global conference last week. Among the speakers was Matthew Elliott, former chief executive of Vote Leave, the official Brexit campaign group. Mr Elliott, now the editor of blog BrexitCentral, spoke about how a new consensus must be built around Britain’s decision to cut ties with Brussels. He then firmly told Mr Blair: “You have to start accepting the basic principles of what the public have said, and actually listen to what they said, in this case, in the referendum.” A stunned-looking Mr Blair then stumbles over his words, attempting four times to think of a rebuttal to Mr Elliott. – Express Tony Blair squirms after former chief of Vote Leave warns him to accept the Brexit verdict – City A.M. > On BrexitCentral’s YouTube channel: Matthew Elliott tells Blair: You need to accept the referendum result Theresa May appoints ex-EU official as top aide Theresa May has appointed a former European Commission official and trade expert who worked under Peter Mandelson in Brussels as her most senior civil servant inside Number 10. Peter Hill, who worked in Mandelson’s cabinet when he was European trade commissioner, will become May’s principal private secretary in Downing Street, having served as director of strategy at the Foreign Office since 2013, the prime minister’s official spokesman told POLITICO. The principal private secretary runs the prime minister’s private office in Downing Street, “a hugely important job” in the government machine, according to one senior government official, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity. – Politico Germany’s Schaeuble warns of cracks in EU over Brexit The European Union’s remaining 27 members have managed to hold the project together since Britain voted to leave the bloc, “but the pendulum is swinging back”, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday. Speaking at an university in the east German city of Frankfurt Oder, Schaeuble said Germany had an interest in a prosperous Britain and a strong financial hub in London, but added that there would be some movement on this front. – Reuters Scottish fishermen given Brexit assurances by Andrea Leadsom The UK government has assured fishermen that it will remove the most unpopular parts of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) after Brexit. Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom said “no decision has yet been made” on the extent to which the CFP would be incorporated into British law. But she pledged to “disapply the key elements” which are “most unpopular”. The CFP has been extremely unpopular among Scottish fishermen, who are said to have overwhelmingly backed Brexit. Anger has generally been focused on quotas for fishing catches and on other European fleets being given equal access to fishing grounds in Scottish waters. – BBC Tories are wooing Brexit-supporting fishermen across the north-east with the promise that Theresa May can deliver a good deal from Europe – Daily Record Taking back control? Not unless you eat more fish – Politico Ruth Davidson accuses Nicola Sturgeon of ‘grubby’ spin over leaked Brexit fishing deal letter – Telegraph Fishermen discard SNP ‘trash talk’ – The Times (£) Ireland woos Michel Barnier as Brexit talks loom Michel Barnier is Ireland’s new best friend. If the EU’s chief negotiator in the exit talks with the UK is not aware of that fact, his visit to Dublin on Thursday — garlanded with the trappings of a visiting head of state — will leave him in no doubt. Mr Barnier’s schedule includes an address to the Irish parliament, an honour normally reserved for presidents and prime ministers. The fact that it is being accorded to a mere EU official shows how the urbane, silver-haired Frenchman has become the focus of Irish hopes of securing the country’s most urgent policy goal for four decades: the least worst Brexit deal for Ireland. – FT (£) Barclays CEO sees no reason for Brexit jobs shift to Europe The chief executive of Barclays has said he sees no reason to shift British jobs to Europe as a result of Brexit and described the restructuring required as straightforward compared with other challenges faced by the bank. Jes Staley said Brexit would be “a wholly manageable challenge” and “significantly less costly” than other problems the bank had encountered. Preparing for Brexit, Staley said, was not as complex as setting up a US holding company, as required by the US authorities last year, or preparing to ring-fence Barclays’ high street bank from its risky investment banking arm by 2019. – Guardian Video: Barclays CEO says London banks can work around Brexit – Bloomberg Canadian fund with $6bn war chest picks London for EU hub The Public Sector Pension Investment Board picked London as its European hub and plans to spend as much as 4.6 billion pounds ($6 billion) in the region in the next five years. The fund, which manages the savings of the Canadian armed forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the reserves, plans to hire executives for its private-equity and private-debt business, according to a statement on Wednesday… London will remain the key financial center in the region despite bouts of uncertainty and volatility following the decision to leave the European Union, Andre Bourbonnais, president and chief executive officer at PSP, said in an interview… The U.K. capital “has the financial infrastructure and network that would be hard to replace elsewhere,” Bourbonnais said in London. “We think we can find talent here.” – Bloomberg Bundesbank won’t fight to attract Brexiting financial institutions – Politico Moneycorp insists fresh US focus not linked to Brexit – Telegraph Ford tells UK: We also need Brexit deals with Turkey, South Africa Britain needs to strike post-Brexit trade deals with countries such as Turkey and South Africa as well as the European Union, Ford said on Wednesday, underlining the scale of the challenge facing Prime Minister Theresa May to meet business demands. Ford (F.N), Britain’s biggest automotive engine-maker, operates two manufacturing sites in the country and like other companies has warned that any trade restrictions after it leaves the EU could add to costs and endanger British production. – Reuters Brexit won’t harm Anglo-EU defence co-operation on drones, says BAE A cross-channel defence project to build an advanced drone is unlikely to be hit by Britain quitting the European Union, according to BAE Systems. BAE is part of consortium of British and French companies working on the unmanned Future Combat Air System (FCAS) but according to the defence giant’s chairman, the UK’s vote to leave the EU will not affect the project. – Telegraph US watchdog urges EU to think through euro clearing changes The European Union should think carefully before forcing through any changes to where clearing of euro-denominated securities like derivatives and bonds is located after Brexit, the top U.S. derivatives regulator said on Wednesday. Brussels is looking at whether euro-denominated clearing, an activity dominated by London, should be moved to the single currency area after Britain leaves the bloc in 2019. – Reuters EU citizens living in UK make plea to Brussels to ‘preserve rights’ EU citizens living in the UK are in Brussels to urge members of the European Parliament and Commission to ensure their rights are guaranteed after Brexit. Anne-Laure Donskoy will tell MEPs that EU citizens’ rights “to work, to marry, to have access to health services and education, to build a business” are “at risk” and should be “guaranteed and preserved not just for the short or medium term but permanently”. Ms Donskoy, co-chair of the 3 million group, a grassroots organisation formed after the Brexit referendum to campaign for the rights of EU citizens in the UK, is addressing MEPs, including the Parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt. – Belfast Telegraph Government accused of ‘bowing to Nissan’s demands’ to keep carmaker in the North East after Brexit The Government has been accused of “having to bow to every demand” from carmaker Nissan to encourage it to invest in the North East after Brexit. The Times newspaper has obtained a four-page letter from Paul Willcox, chairman of Nissan Europe, to Greg Clark, the business secretary, setting out how the Government could ensure production continues at the Nissan plant in Sunderland. – Chronicle ‘Brickie visa’ could plaster over skills shortage after Brexit As employers warn of a looming skills shortage following Britain’s exit from the European Union, a “brickie visa” has been touted as the solution. The U.K. could face a shortage of workers in industries such as bricklaying and plumbing in 2019, when the country leaves the bloc, Migration Watch U.K. said in a report on Thursday. It suggested the introduction of an annual visa — extendable to a maximum of three years — as a stop gap measure. Employers would pay a levy and prove that they genuinely tried to recruit in the U.K. – Bloomberg Eurostar taps surge in UK business travel as Brexit blues fade Eurostar International Ltd. said worries about the Brexit vote are fading as business bookings surge on trains linking London with Paris via the Channel Tunnel, led by the fashion, technology and creative sectors. Corporate volumes rose 9 percent in the first quarter, Eurostar said on Tuesday, accelerating from a 4 percent gain in the initial 10 weeks. Demand from the financial services industry, the focus of speculation about jobs leaving London once Britain quits the European Union in 2019, is also buoyant, Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Petrovic said in an interview. – Bloomberg Brexit gives the BOE even more reason to delay a rate hike Three months ago, Mark Carney found some additional slack in the economy, giving the Bank of England more leeway to keep a dovish stance on policy even as it raised forecasts for both growth and inflation. Now, in the latest quarterly Inflation Report, he can point to more concrete reasons for caution, including a first-quarter slowdown in economic growth and the pressure on consumers from rising prices. While some policy makers have begun to sound the alarm on inflation, the downside risks from Brexit and the imminent U.K. election will probably be enough to keep the BOE from rushing into an interest-rate increase. – Bloomberg Tim Stanley: Jeremy Corbyn wants to throw away the biggest Brexit bargaining chip Britain has Labour’s 2016 draft manifesto sounds like a replay of their 1983 one – heavy on the tax, spend and regulation. But one difference stands out: Europe. Jeremy Corbyn is trying to carve out a path between Remain and Leave voters. The result is a compromise between ideological opposites that just won’t work. – Tim Stanley for the Telegraph Gordon Brown: I worry for British manufacturing under hard Brexit plans – and that’s where Labour comes in Tomorrow I visit two great, historic centres of British manufacturing which are being forgotten and sidelined by the Conservatives’ hard-line position on Brexit . In Coventry I will meet some of the 8,000 workers who depend on our world-beating Jaguar Land Rover models. Then later, in Wirral I will meet Ellesmere Port workers whose future has been thrown into question by the takeover of General Motors by Peugeot Citroen despite their high levels of productivity. – Gordon Brown for the Daily Mirror Alanna Thomas: How do we handle future migration from the EU? Large-scale immigration from the European Union is a relatively new phenomenon. It is not widely known but, in the ten years prior to 2004, before the eight new East European member states joined the Union, net migration from the EU averaged just 15,000 a year — but in the ten years following, it averaged 90,000 a year. Concern about immigration, from both Europe and outside, no doubt played a significant role in the country’s decision last year to vote to leave the EU. The prime minister understands this – explaining her commitment to end free movement of people and to maintain the target of bringing net migration down to the tens of thousands. – Alanna Thomas for The Times (£) Louise Jury: Britain’s creative industries are a success story that deserves our backing Wherever you stand on Brexit, one thing is clear – Britain now has the opportunity to build a different kind of economy, playing to its strengths. And there is no greater strength than the UK’s world-beating arts and creative industries. They are what we are good at, from the music of top-selling pop stars such as Adele to the stage and screen performances of Helen Mirren, Eddie Redmayne or John Boyega. Neither should we forget behind-the-scenes talent like acclaimed director Danny Boyle. – Louise Jury for the Telegraph Sunder Katwala: How the Government can solve its immigration problem Imagine you are the famously-stubborn leader of the Conservative Party, heading into an election with a substantial lead in the polls. George Osborne’s Evening Standard, Tim Farron of the Lib Dems and Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn are all calling on you to drop the net migration target. What do you do? Why, you keep it of course. The Conservatives are determined to repeat the pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, in the hope that it might be third time lucky for a policy promise that has changed the course of British political history. But this broken promise forms a big part of the story of why the public has lost confidence in how British governments manage immigration policy. – Sunder Katwala for CapX Brexit comment in brief English could be a more succesful Esperanto in a post-Brexit EU – Matteo Bonotti for The Conversation How UK tech firms can silence predictions of Brexit doom – Russ Shaw for City A.M. Brussels is strengthened by Macron’s victory, which is bad news for Britain – Simon Nixon for The Times (£) Some reality breaks out in the EU – John Redwood for John Redwood’s Diary Brexit news in brief Business need to start drafting their own Brexit deals, according to international trade lawyer Miriam Gonzalez – City A.M. The Tory and Labour parties fail to face the realities of Brexit – The Economist Listen: Matthew Goodwin, Simona Guerra, James Ball & Marta Lorimer discuss why Leave won – LSE Brexit We need a deal with Europe, say farmers – The Times (£) Lib Dems pledge £100bn EU saving by staying in the EU Single Market… somehow – BBC News UUP ends anti-Brexit stance and sides with DUP to oppose Sinn Fein – Belfast Telegraph