Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Queen to outline Prime Minister’s agenda at State Opening of Parliament today… The Queen is to set out the Conservative government’s agenda for the year ahead following last week’s decisive election win. Legislation to take the UK out of the EU on 31 January will be among more than 20 bills announced during Thursday’s State Opening of Parliament. Other measures include guarantees on extra health service funding and longer sentences for violent criminals. PM Boris Johnson says he wants to unite the UK and “level up” opportunity. Downing Street said an ambitious programme of “far-reaching” domestic reforms would be put before MPs, with education and infrastructure among other priorities. – BBC News …as Boris Johnson puts MPs on standby to pass his EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill in a week in January The Prime Minister is to use his thumping 80-strong Commons majority to fast-track the crucial legislation through Parliament at the earliest opportunity, party sources said. And he has told his MPs to ensure they have a restful Christmas break to be fresh for a string of late-night votes in the first week in January so the country can leave the EU smoothly. MPs will be working “flat out to get Brexit done,” he told a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers at Westminster last night. One Tory MP said: “The PM was clear we should all make the most of the Christmas break because we’ll be working all hours to get Brexit done in the New Year.” Mr Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, designed to ratify his exit deal with Brussels, will be published today as the flagship measure in a wide range of proposals announced in the Queen’s Speech at the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament. It will be given a formal Commons First Reading this evening before MPs vote at the crucial Second Reading stage tomorrow. Under the fast-track plan, the Bill is due to complete its final Commons stages between MPs returning to work on January 6 and the end of that week so it can progress to the House of Lords. – Express UK seeks new powers for judges to reject EU court rulings Boris Johnson will seek to increase the power of UK courts to overrule the Court of Justice of the European Union, Downing Street confirmed. The prime minister will insert a clause into his Withdrawal Agreement Bill which will allow lower courts to reject CJEU rulings in order to help Britain to “take back control of our laws,” a Number 10 spokesman said. The plan would make ineffective Theresa May’s decision — arrived at after much painful political and legal wrangling in 2018 — to put only the UK’s top courts on the same legal footing as the CJEU. As part of the 2018 EU Withdrawal Bill, May’s government granted the power to “depart” from EU case law only with the Supreme Court in England and the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland. – Politico Brussels claims UK will suffer more from the lack of an EU trade deal Britain will suffer more than the EU if the two sides cannot broker a trade deal by the end of next year, the president of the European Commission has warned in a response to Boris Johnson after the UK prime minister ruled out extending talks. Ursula von der Leyen said the timetable for building a future relationship with Britain was “extremely challenging”, given that the UK’s post-Brexit transition period will expire at the end of 2020. She said negotiators would do their best in the “very little time” available. Mr Johnson this week categorically dismissed the possibility of asking for any extension, and senior UK government ministers such as Michael Gove have insisted that there is enough time to do a deal. – FT (£) Unlike Jereym Corbyn, Johnson makes touching tribute to ‘first rate’ Labour Brexiteers who lost their seats Boris Johnson has expressed his regret at losing “first-rate” Labour MPs in last week’s general election. The Prime Minister wrote an op-ed in the The Spectator, where he admitted he was sorrowful that pro-Brexit Labour MPs such as Caroline Flint lost their seats. He said: “I want to pay tribute to the handful of superb Conservative colleagues who lost their seats — mainly because of unexpected falls in the Labour vote. “One way or another, I am sure that they will all be back. We also lost some first-rate Labour MPs, such as Caroline Flint.” In the piece, the Prime Minister gave special thanks to his media team, saying that they were able to provide damage limitation on a couple of minor gaffes that occurred during the campaign. – Express Emily Thornberry throws her hat into the ring for the Labour leadership days after she was accused of calling Brexit voters ‘stupid’… Emily Thornberry has thrown her hat into the ring for the Labour leadership days after she was accused of calling Brexit voters “stupid”. Ms Thornberry is the first candidate to confirm they want to replace Jeremy Corbyn – following the party’s disastrous election defeat. The Islington South MP could end up fighting for the leadership with Rebecca Long Bailey, Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer, Clive Lewis and David Lammy – who are all expected to announce themselves. Ms Thornberry told The Guardian that she warned Labour colleagues that backing an election focused on Brexit would be an “act of catastrophic political folly”. – The Sun Emily Thornberry announces she will run to be next Labour party leader – Telegraph (£) …as she says senior Labour figures should pay the price for the Party’s defeat In an apparent response to Ms Thornberry’s claims that she had argued against Labour supporting Boris Johnson’s push for a December election which would be fought on the Brexit issue, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said many others had wanted delay. He Tweeted: “For historical accuracy, many of us wanted to delay election until after the Brexit legislation had been won or lost. This would have meant in the New Year but was impossible once SNP & Lib Dems decided to vote for one & gave Johnson the votes he needed.” Meanwhile, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy insisted she was “seriously thinking” of running to be Labour leader. – ITV News Sir Keir Starmer sets out his Labour leadership stall after the election disaster Mr Starmer conceded that the argument for second referendum had been “swept away” by the election result. But he said Brexit scrutiny would define the coming Parliament. He added: “The Brexit debate changes. We will leave in January and the argument will have to be about the type of deal that we have with Europe: and we will argue, as we argued before, for a deal that protects our economy, protects our jobs, and working standards, the environment and consumers.” He argued today that Labour did not do enough during the campaign to debunk the Tories’ promise to “Get Brexit Done”. The second referendum supporting Shadow Brexit Secretary was rarely seen during the six-week campaign with Labour purposefully keeping him away from the media. Sir Keir Starmer said today: “What resonated on the doors was this phrase ‘Get Brexit done’ and we did not knock that flat.” – Mirror MPs bid for Big Ben to bong on Brexit Day after Bercow banned celebratory chimes More than 50 MPs have launched a fresh campaign for Big Ben to chime the UK out of the EU on January 31 in a bid to overturn John Bercow’s ruling that it should be silent. The group of Eurosceptics have requested that Brexit day is added to the list of special occasions for which the Great Bell of Westminster tolls. The 160-year-old Elizabeth Tower, which houses the bell popularly known as Big Ben, is currently undergoing a £60m restoration. A lift is being installed in the tower, while the clock hands and numbers are being re-painted in their original blue. The hourly chimes have been silenced to protect the hearing of construction workers in the tower and only sound at moments of national significance. – Telegraph (£) Jon Snow’s comment on Channel Four News about ‘white people’ at a pro-Brexit demo is the most complained about broadcast of 2019, Ofcom reveals Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow commenting on “white people” is one of the most divisive broadcast moments of the decade. The experienced anchor said he had “never seen so many white people in one place” when observing a pro-Brexit march in London. His broadcast for Channel 4 News rapidly prompted more than 2,700 complaints to media watchdog Ofcom, and is the most provocative TV moment of 2019. Ofcom released their figures on the number of complaints received regarding Mr Snow’s reportage from March 29, when he closed his show on College Green by saying: “It has been the most extraordinary day. “A day which has seen – I’ve never seen so many white people in one place. It’s an extraordinary story. “There are people everywhere, there are crowds everywhere”. Ofcom received complaints that Mr Snow’s comments were racist and offensive, framed Brexit as a racial issue, that its supporters were linked to the far right, and that racial commentary was not applied to pro-Remain marches. – Telegraph (£) Man who shouted STOOOP BREEEXXXIIIIT for 847 days finally admits defeat For over two years, he has been the bane of every news report broadcast from College Green, outside the Houses of Parliament. But after 847 days of heckling MPs, journalists and leavers, Steve Bray, 50, has decided to hang up his grey top hat and Union Flag. Since September 5, 2017, Mr Bray has become a regular character on the nightly news. He was every cameraman’s nightmare as he hovered behind presenters, constantly trying to get into shot with his anti-Brexit banners. And, of course, there was his famous booming voice, shouting out ‘stop Brexit’ at levels that would make John ‘order, order’ Bercow jealous. This led to him being called an idiot by MP Mark Francois and Piers Morgan said he was part of a group of ‘complete morons’ and ‘every village has one’. – Metro Boris Johnson: Perhaps my campaign was ‘clunking’. But sometimes, clunking is what you need You may wonder why I am up at 4.45 a.m. writing this diary when I have a country to run, Queen’s speech to prepare, vast mandate to deliver, and so on. The answer is simple. It is a question of obligation. When I bumped into the editor (at Sajid Javid’s 50th birthday party) a couple of nights ago, he explained — with a slightly glassy expression — that he had taken a gamble. He had already printed the cover of the Christmas treble issue, he said. I know all about the Xmas cover. It is lavish, laminated, and on much thicker stock than the normal cover. It costs a bomb. Once you have printed it, you can’t change it. ‘Your name is on it,’ said Fraser. What could I say? I became editor 20 years ago. I owe this magazine. If the editor is going to be so kind as to co-opt me as a contributor, my duty is to oblige. – Boris Johnson MP for The Spectator Iain Dale: The BBC is trapped in a Remainer London bubble of its own making “Adapt or die” is a maxim the BBC would do well to adopt if it is to survive the coming years. Following its questionable coverage of the general election, it is going through one of its occasional periods of introspection, where it feels under attack from politicians from all sides. Instead of complaining about it or piously intoning the value of the licence fee, however, it needs to open its eyes to the scale of its detachment from Britain today. For 20 years, the BBC has been told, even by many of its stars, that it is too biased towards the London liberal elites. Andrew Marr was the first to break cover when he admitted that although the BBC might not have a party political bias, it certainly had a “liberal” one. – Iain Dale for the Telegraph (£) James Forsyth: How the PM intends to deliver for his new friends in the North The era of uncertainty has ended. Boris Johnson’s decisive victory has not only broken the Brexit deadlock created by Theresa May’s disastrous 2017 campaign, but also turned the page on almost a decade of weak government. The previous three general elections have all resulted in constrained prime ministers. First, David Cameron was forced to govern in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Then, in 2015, his slim majority left him dependent on Tories who would be on the other side from him in the EU referendum he had had to promise. The May debacle left her at the mercy of — and defeated by — her own warring factions. But now we’re looking at something very different: a Prime Minister who is king of all he surveys at Westminster. – James Forsyth for The Spectator Brexit in Brief The ugly duckling – John Redwood’s Diary