Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team EU gives Boris Johnson an ultimatum: show us your Brexit plan in 12 days or ‘it’s over’ Top EU leaders have given Boris Johnson an ultimatum to come up with a new Brexit plan by the end of September, or face up to a no-deal. The deadline, agreed at a meeting in Paris on Wednesday evening, comes as the bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier told Mr Johnson to stop “pretending” to negotiate. On Wednesday evening Emmanuel Macron – who has taken the hardest line against the UK – met with Antti Rinne, Finland’s prime minister and the current holder of the rotating EU council presidency. “If the UK wants to discuss alternatives to the existing Brexit agreement then these must be presented before the end of the month,” Mr Rinne told reporters after the meeting in which the deadline was agreed. – Independent Boris Johnson is given just 12 days to spell out his Brexit plan or face No Deal as Macron sets ultimatum for end of month – The Sun Johnson eyes Northern Ireland ‘special economic zone’ to end the impasse… Boris Johnson could designate Northern Ireland a “special economic zone”, according to British officials, as the prime minister seeks to defy the odds and unlock a Brexit deal in Brussels. The concept of keeping Northern Ireland anchored politically in the UK but with easy economic access to the Irish (and therefore EU) market may be seductive but Mr Johnson has so far failed to set out in detail how it would work. Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, warned on Wednesday that his meeting with Mr Johnson this week had made “no progress” on the vexed question of the Irish backstop, the insurance policy to maintain an open border in Ireland. Here the FT looks at what Mr Johnson has in mind. – FT (£) …as Arlene Foster signals possible DUP shift towards backing a deal The Democratic Unionist party’s leader, Arlene Foster, has signalled it is ready to do a Brexit deal, indicating for the first time a willingness to accept a bespoke solution for Northern Ireland. She was speaking just hours before she held an “unplanned” meeting with the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, amid signs of a Brexit thaw between Belfast and Dublin. In a break with previous rhetoric where she has strongly opposed treating the region differently to the rest of the UK, Foster said the final deal would have to recognise Northern Ireland’s unique historical and geographical position and the fact it will be the UK’s only land border with the EU. – Guardian Guy Verhofstadt says Boris Johnson should channel Mrs Doubtfire instead of being the angry Hulk… Boris Johnson was told to emulate Mrs Doubtfire rather than the Incredible Hulk by Guy Verhofstadt after Jean-Claude Juncker mocked the UK for being anti-democratic during a European Parliament debate on Brexit. Leading MEPs attacked the prime minister’s decision to prorogue parliament until October 14 and likened Britain to the totalitarian Soviet Union, two days after Mr Johnson was humiliated in Luxembourg. The barbs reverse traditional British Eurosceptic criticisms of the EU’s democratic deficit and an oft-made comparison of the bloc to the USSR, which has long rankled with Brussels. Mr Juncker, the outgoing president of the European Commission, told MEPs in Strasbourg, “This House is open and in action, and not prorogued.” – Telegraph (£) …while Nigel Farage rages at ‘pipsqueak’ Luxembourg PM for trying to ‘ritually humiliate’ Boris Johnson at Brexit talks Nigel Farage has today blasted Luxembourg’s “pipsqueak” PM for trying to “ritually humiliate” Boris Johnson at Brexit talks. The Brexit Party leader attacked Xavier Bettel for insisting on holding a press conference in front of a baying Remainer crowd – and “empty-chairing” the British Prime Minister after he refused. Speaking at the European Parliament today, Mr Farage slammed Mr Bettel’s behaviour, after Boris held crunch talks on a deal to leave the EU on Monday. The former Ukip leader said: “I’m of course referring to the pipsqueak prime minister of Luxembourg, who set out ritually humiliate a British prime minister in the most astonishing way only to be greeted like a hero by President Macron.” – The Sun > WATCH: Highlights of yesterday’s Brexit debate in the European Parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg praises Nigel Farage as he urges Brexit Party supporters to return to the Tory fold Jacob Rees-Mogg praised Nigel Farage this evening as he urged Brexiteers to come back to the Conservative Party after Britain left the EU. The Leader of the House of Commons said the Brexit Party leader was the most important political figure outside Parliament in the past 30 years and that Brexiteers “owe him a great debt”. However, speaking at a Telegraph subscriber event, he warned Tory and Brexit Party supporters that they “all want the same thing … to leave the EU”, but risked enabling Labour to win a general election. He said that a vote for the Brexit Party would be “a vote effectively for Jeremy Corbyn”. Mr Rees-Mogg declared “we must deliver Brexit” and acknowledged that it would be “full steam ahead” for the Brexit Party if the Conservatives failed to do so. He spoke of his regard for Mr Farage and recognised the crucial role he played in the decision of the British people to leave the EU. He said: “I respect Nigel Farage. He is a very distinguished political figure and important to what has happened in this country.” – Telegraph (£) Jeremy Corbyn refuses to say how he would vote in a second Brexit referendum… Jeremy Corbyn has put himself on a collision course with Remainer MPs after signalling that he will remain neutral in a second referendum. Labour MPs have warned that Mr Corbyn’s stance on Brexit was “unsustainable,” after he repeatedly refused to say whether he would campaign for Remain or Leave in a public vote. Their concerns were echoed by former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the leader of the 2016 Labour Remain campaign, who warned that Mr Corbyn’s approach would see the party “steamrollered” in an election. Mr Corbyn also risked a rift with the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, who declared on Wednesday that Welsh Labour “must and will campaign to remain” in the European Union. – Telegraph (£) Confusion over Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit position after suggestion he’d be neutral in new referendum – ITV News > WATCH: Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn interviewed on Sky News on the party’s second referendum policy …as Labour heads for a Brexit strategy showdown at party conference next week The Norwich South MP Clive Lewis, one of the founders of the campaign group Love Socialism Hate Brexit, said some activists were likely to feel “despondent” on reading Corbyn’s words. “There’s no such thing as a good Brexit,” he said. “I understand some people will be despondent that our leader isn’t going to campaign for the position that the vast majority of our members would like him to. But I’m a glass half full kind of guy, and no one should despair, because we’re a movement, and we’ve never been about individuals.” He added: “It’s about whether you want to see an outward-facing, progressive country – or are you an inward-looking, socialism-in-one-country-type movement that’s backward-looking? That’s the challenge now before us.” Some members of the shadow cabinet, including John McDonnell and Emily Thornberry, have already signalled that they would campaign for remain in any future referendum, whatever deal a Labour government was able to secure from Brussels. But the Labour leadership fears that would render the negotiations moot – and see Corbyn swept out of Downing Street if the public voted leave, as David Cameron was in 2016. – Guardian Britain will aim for freedom of movement deal with Australia Free movement between Australia and the UK would be explored by the government in “post-Brexit” business talks, Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, has announced. Yesterday, while on a trip to Australia, Truss told journalists in Canberra that securing a trade deal was an “absolute priority” after Britain left the EU. She believed an arrangement would take months rather than years to complete. The proposal, which would allow British citizens to live and work in Australia visa-free, and vice-versa, was part of ongoing trade talks, she said. At a press conference with the Australian trade minister, Simon Birmingham, Truss was asked about a freedom of movement proposal. She said: “We’ve been clear on the fact we want to adopt the Australian-based points system in terms of our new immigration system as we leave the European union. We’ve recently made an announcement that we’re extending the work period after foreign students come to the UK for two years. – Guardian John Longworth: Unless Boris Johnson has an ace up his sleeve, he’ll be taken to the cleaners by the Brexit Party “Extraordinary” is one of the most overused and devalued words of recent times, I know a number of people who think the sun coming up or the rain falling from the sky is “extraordinary”. However, sat here in the Strasbourg Parliament, watching events in Luxembourg, I can say that we truly do live in extraordinary times. What is transpiring is like a giant game of poker, bluff and counter-bluff, with very high stakes. The tricky thing in this game is that the PM is playing with a hand marked by the players and with others looking over his shoulder. Is it any wonder that the UK appears to be playing a bad hand, even when there is no such thing? What makes this truly “extraordinary” is that it must be rare in the history of our nation that we have people in positions of power who have been and are, colluding with a foreign state against their fellow countrymen and are not called out as traitors. We did of course survive the Reformation, the English Civil War and for a year stood alone despite the europhile, defeatist elite exemplified by Halifax and Chamberlain. – John Longworth MEP for the Telegraph (£) Michael Deacon: Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party just wreaked havoc in Strasbourg – and left the EU fuming They’re smart, the Brexit Party. To the untrained eye, their behaviour in the European Parliament today might have looked boorish and mindless. Personally, though, I’m convinced it was all part of a cunning plan. Namely: to make the EU so heartily sick of us that they reject any request to delay Brexit, and just kick us out, instead. It might well work, too. Plenty in the EU seem to have already lost patience with Brexit – strikingly few MEPs turned up for today’s four-hour debate on it in Strasbourg. And of those who did turn up, many sounded deeply long-suffering. “We have once more gathered to discuss the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union,” sighed Finland’s Tytti Tuppurainen. The Brexit Party cheered. – Michael Deacon for the Telegraph (£) John Redwood: Remain MPs are bringing Parliament into conflict with the public I did not expect so many MPs to devote a whole Parliament to trying to thwart the referendum result. They are infuriating Leave voters, letting down the many voters that voted Conservative or Labour on the understanding those parties were pledged to get us out on time, and bringing Parliament into conflict with the public. Why do they do this? Few of them ever dared make a positive case for our membership of the EU all the time we were in it. During the referendum the Remain campaign was almost entirely negative, concentrating on what they thought would go wrong if we left. When challenged about the EU they often accepted Eurosceptic criticisms of it, and said they wanted to reform it, and it was not perfect. When we asked why they had not been able to reform it over the last 40 years there was often a painful silence. – John Redwood MP for Free Market Conservatives Sherelle Jacobs: Euphoric Remainer snobbery has become a fanatical religion If Brexit blew up the old world order, a new species of snob has been forged in its fuming embers. For evidence, look no further than the growing tribe of Lib Dem-defecting arch-Remainers. A few years ago, many were self-proclaimed sensible Blairite centrists, judiciously uninspired by politics and possessing no view whatsoever on the EU. But in the space of three years, their anti-Brexit beliefs have become radically spiritual. From their ecstasy in the exaltation that “people didn’t know what they voted for”, to their terrified delight in inhaling the smoky incense of an imminent no-deal “Armageddon”, hating Brexit – and Brexiteers – has become a religion. – Sherelle Jacobs for the Telegraph (£) Rod Liddle: If Brexit is foiled by unelected judges, our democracy will be crippled So, Brexit is now in the hands of 11 unelected judges in the Supreme Court, all of them pretty much Remainers. We should find out what their royal holinesses, or whatever the hell you’re meant to call them, decide by Monday. I wouldn’t be too hopeful, frankly. Since we voted to leave the European Union the provisional wing of the Remain movement has used every undemocratic trick in the book to stop it happening. First they used unelected judges to ensure Parliament has the final say on whether we Leave or not, rather than you. They’ve also used the unelected House of Lords to try to block Brexit. And they have now dragged the Government into court three times — all to thwart a decision you made, in good faith, believing it would be seen through, back in June 2016. – Rod Liddle for The Sun Asa Bennett: Remainers are giving the EU reasons to delay Brexit — only Boris stands in their way What was most striking about Jeremy Corbyn’s latest Brexit pronouncement was not his increasing flirtation with a referendum, but his clear desire for a general election “as soon as no deal is off the table, and the prime minister has complied with the law” demanding that he extends the Article 50 process. Boris Johnson has so far reassured Brexiteers that he would prefer to be “dead in a ditch” than delay Brexit beyond October 31. But in case he fails to find a way to get out of complying with the Benn Act swept into law by Remainer MPs, Brexiteers have been hoping that his request for a delay would be rejected in the end by European leaders, wary of stringing the drama any longer. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: Clueless Corbyn can’t even decide on his Brexit stance — how on earth would he run the country? After months of agonising over Labour’s Brexit policy, Jeremy Corbyn finally arrives at this historic conclusion: “I don’t know.” On the biggest issue facing Britain since World War Two, the man hoping to become Prime Minister has no opinion. Corbyn has achieved what we believed impossible. His new stance is even more laughable than last week’s, when he pledged to negotiate a “better” EU deal but campaign against it. Now he would put his deal to a second referendum but express no preference between that and remaining in the EU. He hasn’t a clue. He couldn’t say. It’s too hard. The Leader of the Opposition’s mind is a blank — not for the first time. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief Boris Johnson can still be the Tories’ hero, but he needs a Brexit deal more than ever before – Annabelle Dickson for Politico Beyond Brexit – what a US-UK trade deal will really look like – John Hullsman for CapX We need a new Brexit constitution to replace the shattered old order – Allister Heath for the Telegraph (£) The EU and empires – John Redwood’s Diary Robert Kilroy-Silk the godfather of Brexit – Patrick Maguire interviews Kilroy for the New Statesman