Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Lib Dems launch ‘Stop Brexit’ election manifesto… Jo Swinson on Wednesday morning unveiled the Liberal Democrat manifesto ahead of the UK general election, with a central pledge to cancel Brexit. The Lib Dem boss said in a statement her prospectus for the country was a “bold plan to build a brighter future for our country, and that starts with stopping Brexit.” Ahead of a launch event in central London on Wednesday night, she added: “Labour and the Conservatives can’t offer the country a brighter future because they both want Brexit. We know that will be bad for our economy, bad for our NHS and bad for our environment.” – Politico > WATCH: Jo Swinson launches the Liberal Democrat manifesto > On BrexitCentral: What the 2019 Liberal Democrat manifesto says about Brexit …and claim that they could promise a £50 billion ‘Remain dividend’… The Liberal Democrats on Wednesday vowed to scrap Brexit and generate a £50bn “Remain bonus” for the public finances, as they unveiled a party manifesto aimed at winning over pro-EU voters at the general election. Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said the UK economy would be 1.9 per cent larger by 2024-25 if her party won the election and halted the UK’s departure from the EU under the terms agreed by prime minister Boris Johnson. Ms Swinson has claimed in recent weeks to stand a real chance of becoming prime minister after the December 12 election, although recent opinion polls suggest the Lib Dems are being squeezed by Labour. – FT (£) Will there be a £50bn ‘remain bonus’ from revoking Brexit? – Guardian …which John Redwood takes apart as ‘based on false economic forecasts’ One of the more absurd claims in this election is there would be a big bonus to share if we stopped Brexit. This is based on various false economic forecasts that claim our growth rate will be impaired by Brexit, leading to the equally false idea that if we tore up the referendum result growth would suddenly accelerate. The UK economy performed well in the year after the Brexit vote, despite all the official and independent forecasts of an early recession in that first year if we voted to leave. Since then the UK economy has slowed, but by less than many other economies, as a result of a world downturn in manufacturing aggravated by a fiscal and monetary squeeze at home. The current government is now going to lift this squeeze which should lead to improvement next year. – John Redwood’s Diary > Ruth Lea earlier this month on BrexitCentral: The Lib Dems’ economically illiterate “Remain bonus” is based on very dubious forecasts George Osborne admits he’s considering abandoning the Tories to vote Lib Dem George Osborne risked sparking fury last night by revealing he is thinking about voting Lib Dem. The former Tory chancellor astonishingly announced he could break with his party and back Conservative defector Sam Gyimah on December 12. And he slammed Boris Johnson for booting Tory moderate MPs out of the party after they delayed Brexit. Mr Osborne, who now edits The Evening Standard newspaper, lives in the key marginal seat of Kensington. Writing in The Spectator, he said: “The Lib Dem candidate is Sam Gyimah, who sat in meetings with me in Downing Street every day when he was a Tory MP and [David Cameron’s] parliamentary private secretary. “I like Sam. He’s bright and sensible. So do I vote for him, or for the party that — however wayward it’s become — gave me incredible opportunities for 20 years? We’ll see, but old habits die hard.” – The Sun Why I may vote Lib Dem – George Osborne for The Spectator Ofcom rejects Labour complaint about Sky News ‘Brexit Election’ branding The broadcasting regulator has rejected Labour complaints about Sky News’s “Brexit election” branding. The party had told Ofcom that the branding gave undue weight to the Tories’ political agenda because it frames the election “in terms chosen by Boris Johnson and the Conservative party”. The prime minister has made “get Brexit done” his key campaign slogan and sought to portray a battle with Labour’s promise of further delay to Britain’s exit from the EU to make time for a second referendum. – Huffington Post Record £9bn tech investment in Britain as industry shrugs off Brexit fears Investment in UK tech firms has more than doubled since the Brexit vote, surging to a record £9bn this year and putting the country far ahead of rivals in Europe. Data collected by venture capital firm Atomico shows Britain has retained its place at the head of the continent’s league table, despite fears over an exodus of start-ups and established technology firms as the country leaves the European Union. Technology companies have secured $11.1bn (£8.6bn) in venture capital investment so far in 2019, according to a report published this morning, more than the amount invested in runners-up France and Germany combined. The report reveals Britain still attracts the most venture money in Europe, with investors backing high-risk, high-reward technology firms. – Telegraph (£) James Forsyth: Remain’s last stand – the collapse of the anti-Brexit campaign If Remainers could organise themselves into a single political force, they would be almost unstoppable: 45 per cent of the public identify as Remainers, easily enough to win a majority under first past the post. Leavers are about 41 per cent, while only 26 per cent of voters describe themselves as Tory and 23 per cent as Labour. A great many Remainers intend to stick together: as Matthew Parris has said, a new group of voters have formed a ‘band of brothers’. The cause will endure for them, long after Brexit. But the Remain side has been unable to unite behind any one party or leader. This is a particular problem for them now that Boris Johnson is the Tory leader. – James Forsyth for The Spectator Sherelle Jacobs: Unable to stem its Remainer exodus, the Lib Dems are on the verge of crashing and burning What exactly is the point of the Liberal Democrats? Until a few days ago, the Stop Brexit Party seemed to have buried this enduring question under the bloated hubris of its pro-EU positioning. But as the Lib Dems’ surge starts to sag like a political facelift of questionable quality, the awkward question Jo Swinson doesn’t want us to ask is coughing its way back to centre stage. For all her pugnacious ambition, Ms Swinson is already panicking a little too publicly. You can see it in her haste to launch the Lib Dems’ mellow-yellow manifesto the day after her ITV debate snub. She may be hoping to seduce Remainers with the tripping romanticism of a Brave New Cosmopolitanland – complete with loadsamoney for schools, whizzing electric trains and legal cannabis for everyone. – Sherelle Jacobs for the Telegraph (£) Beth Rigby: Jo Swinson risks becoming the handmaiden of Boris Johnson’s Brexit The ‘Stop Brexit’ party on Wednesday tried to broaden its pitch with a meaty 96-page manifesto detailing how Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats intend to spend the £50bn ‘remain bonus’ they say is coming our way if we don’t quit the EU. There would be more free childcare and the money to pay for 20,000 new teachers in our schools. Investment in hospitals and action on climate change. But when it comes to Ms Swinson, all roads lead to Brexit. Going into this election the Lib Dems were a single issue party – stop Brexit, and the new leader was keen to double down on that message at the manifesto lunch in London where the party is hoping to hoover up pro-Remain seats. – Beth Rigby for Sky News Anand Menon: An inflexible Brussels is damaging its own interests over Brexit The EU has behaved inflexibly during the Brexit negotiations. In doing so, it has ignored its own interests, which favour a close and collaborative relationship with the UK. Because this is a debate haunted by “whataboutery”, let me make this clear: to say the EU has handled the negotiations badly is not to argue that the UK has handled them well. On the contrary, it was divided at every level: public, political and parliamentary. It had few shared aims. The tone adopted by the government was frequently dogmatic and aggressive. Perhaps most strikingly, it failed to understand the EU. – Professor Anand Menon for The UK in a Changing Europe Alastair Campbell: How a PR guru hijacked the People’s Vote campaign I have enough self-awareness to know that the public are unlikely to care too much about a spat between a multi-millionaire ‘PR guru’ and what someone called a cabal of washed-up spin doctors. But I also know that millions and millions care about Brexit, and the fight for a Final Say referendum — which is why the spat matters. The multi-millionaire ‘PR guru’ is Finsbury boss Roland Rudd, brother of the former cabinet minister Amber. The has-been spin doctors are me and Peter Mandelson, Tom Baldwin, who was a press adviser to Ed Miliband, and James McGrory, who did likewise for Nick Clegg. – Alastair Campbell for The Spectator Telegraph: For all their bravado, the Liberal Democrats are floundering Since they are the one party proposing that the UK should stay in the EU, the Lib Dems are making remarkably little headway in an election called on the issue of Brexit. The opinion polls, if they can be believed, show them becalmed on about 15 per cent of the vote and, if anything, going backwards. In theory, there should be some 16 million Remainer votes out there for the Lib Dems to tap into. Many will no longer hold the view that we should stay in, and wish to see the decision of the 17.4 million who voted to Leave upheld. – Telegraph (£) editorial Rod Liddle: Boris Johnson’s ‘oven ready’ tripe minimises Brexit – he must ditch it to win the election What the hell is an “oven-ready” Brexit deal? Makes the most important thing this country has done in 70 years sound like an Aldi vegetable moussaka. Oven pre-heated to 200 degrees, take off the cellophane and allow to stand for two minutes before serving. Try it with our crunchy garlic bread. Boris Johnson kept using the phrase in that awful debate he had with Old Man Steptoe the other night. Steptoe was worse, mind, but only marginally. You look at the two of them and think: “Christ, is this the best we can do?” This is the most important election of our lifetimes. Not just because it will deliver Brexit or kill it for good. But because of what awaits us if the Tories don’t win. Corbyn and the Trots, backed up by the monomaniacal Scottish Nationalists and the Lib Dems’ ghastly Jo Swinson. – Rod Liddle for The Sun Brexit in Brief As a Brexit Party MEP, I wanted to change politics for good. But now I’m leaving over the lies and utter incompetence – Louis Stedman-Bryce MEP for the Telegraph (£) Twitter warns UK Tories over attempt to ‘mislead’ voters – Politico Labour to launch manifesto today – BBC News