Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Boris Johnson defends describing Hilary Benn’s Article 50 extension legislation as a ‘Surrender Act’… The House of Commons descended into angry scenes as MPs accused the Prime Minister of using “inflammatory and dangerous” language to ramp up pressure to get Brexit over the line by October 31. Labour MP for Dewsbury Paula Sherriff demanded to know why Boris Johnson used words like “surrender” and “betrayal” to refer to opposition and rebel plans to stop a no-deal Brexit, including the law introduced by Hilary Benn requiring the PM to ask for an extension to the departure date. The Prime Minister has repeatedly referred to the Benn law as the “Surrender Act” as part of his strategy to pitch the Brexit debate as “People versus Parliament”. Responding to the Prime Minister’s statement in the Commons, a visibly emotional Ms Sherriff said his language was inappropriate given the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox and the death threats issued to MPs across the House. – iNews Boris Johnson under fire for suggesting the best way to honour Jo Cox is to deliver Brexit – Guardian …as he accuses Jeremy Corbyn of ‘running scared’ of a general election… Boris Johnson accused Jeremy Corbyn of “running scared” of an election after he turned down the chance to topple the Prime Minister with a confidence vote on Thursday. In an attempt to break the Brexit deadlock, Mr Johnson gave all party leaders who “fancy a go” at getting rid of him the offer of a vote on his leadership so they could trigger an election and “finally face the day of reckoning with voters”. He was even prepared to allow Tory MPs to vote “tactically” against him to bring down the Government and guarantee an early election. But neither Mr Corbyn nor the leader of any other opposition party was prepared to take up the offer, prompting Mr Johnson to accuse them of “political cowardice”. – Telegraph (£) > WATCH: Boris Johnson’s statement on Brexit to the House of Commons …while Attorney General Geoffrey Cox lambasts the ‘dead parliament’ as a ‘disgrace’… The UK attorney general chastised what he called “a dead parliament” during a robust defence of his advice to ministers that suspending parliament was legal. The UK government “acted in good faith” when it suspended parliament on the grounds it was necessary to push for a new domestic legislating agenda, Geoffrey Cox told MPs before taunting them that they are “too cowardly” to vote no confidence in the government. “This parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. This parliament is a disgrace,” he said, “Since I am asked, they could vote no confidence at any time. But they are too cowardly to give it a go.” – Politico > WATCH: Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox says this Parliament is a disgrace …and suggests Supreme Court justices could be appointed by MPs in the wake of its Brexit ruling Supreme Court judges could be appointed by politicians as part of a rethink of the constitution in the aftermath of a decision to strike down Boris Johnson’s prorogation, Geoffrey Cox has said. The new system could see candidates for the bench in the UK’s highest court asked which way they voted in the EU referendum. The Attorney General admitted yesterday in Parliament that MPs are “going to have to look again at our constitutional arrangements” after judges unanimously ruled that Boris Johnson’s prorogation was unlawful. “It is a matter which this House may need to reflect upon in the coming months and years, depending on the status of our constitutional arrangements,” he said. – Telegraph (£) No-deal Brexit Cabinet Committee has met almost 50 times since July, reveals Michael Gove The Government’s no deal planning committee has met 48 times since July, Michael Gove has revealed as he offered MPs the chance to inspect its Brexit preparations. Answering questions in the Commons, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said he was working to mitigate any negative consequence of leaving the EU without an agreement. Mr Gove was interrogated in the wake of the publication of the Government’s no deal analysis – known as Operation Yellowhammer – which warned of a rise in food prices, disruption to medical supplies and riots in the streets if the UK left the EU without a withdrawal agreement. – Telegraph (£) > WATCH: Michael Gove’s Brexit Readiness statement Boris Johnson must table a new backstop plan before the end of next week, warns Irish PM Leo Varadkar Irish PM Leo Varadkar has told Boris Johnson he must table a new backstop plan before the end of next week. He said Brussels needs detailed written proposals within ten days or “it’s very hard to see how we could agree something” at next month’s crunch EU summit. He insisted the current deal can’t be “amended or cobbled together late at night” when EU leaders gather for a make-or-break meeting on the 17th. After holding talks with Donald Tusk, Mr Varadkar said: “It’s essentially the way the EU works. If the UK does have meaningful proposals we really need to see them in advance so they can be worked through and worked up in advance of the summit.” – The Sun Jeremy Corbyn signals Labour opposition to allowing a mini-recess for Tory Conference next week Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ruled out allowing Conservative MPs a recess to attend their party conference, telling the BBC today they must first make it clear they will obey the law on Brexit. “I won’t support anything that shuts down parliament until it is absolutely clear that the government will abide by the law and apply for an extension,” the leader of the opposition said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “I don’t see why Boris Johnson and his team should be allowed to run away from accountability yet again.” – Politico Shadow Brexit minister quits over the Labour leader’s refusal to back Remain… Jeremy Corbyn suffered a major blow last night after his shadow Brexit minister quit in fury at his boss’ refusal to campaign to stay in the EU. Matthew Pennycook said he resigned so he can campaign “unequivocally for the UK to stay in the EU”. His departure is yet another sign of the bitter Brexit civil war tearing Labour apart. The party enraged many of its Brexit-hating MPs and activists by refusing to fully back Remain at their conference in Brighton this week. Mr Corbyn and his allies rammed through a Brexit fudge which only commits the party to deciding whether to back Leave or Remain after an election. His seething backbenchers warned the party will be slaughtered in the looming snap election if they fail to pick a side. – The Sun Jeremy Corbyn hit by Brexit resignation as shadow minister Matthew Pennycook quits to campaign for Remain – PoliticsHome …while Labour’s conference votes to loosen rules on immigration Labour will campaign to extend free movement to more countries and give foreign nationals living in the UK the right to vote, under plans endorsed by the party’s conference yesterday. As politicians rushed back from Brighton following the Supreme Court ruling on prorogation, party and trade union delegates pressed on with their work as Labour moves towards its most radical manifesto in decades. A motion on immigration said that Labour must at the next election vow to “campaign for free movement, equality and rights for migrants”, to “maintain and extend free movement rights” and to “extend equal rights to vote to all UK residents”. It also commits Labour to closing down immigration detention centres, to ensure an “unconditional right” to family reunion and to “actively challenge anti-immigrant narratives”. In a sign that the motion will become Labour policy Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, told The Guardian: “Be assured, our plans for government include these provisions and a lot more, to make this country a better, more decent and more prosperous place.” – The Times (£) Labour to scrap all controls on immigration. – Telegraph (£) Andrea Jenkyns: The last thing this Parliament needs is yet more mindless Remain windbaggery I very rarely find myself in a melancholic mood, but travelling down from my Yorkshire constituency to Westminster on Monday night, I wasn’t in my usual high spirits. I love being in Parliament, serving my constituents and our great country. But I couldn’t avoid asking myself a troubling question – what is the point of this Parliament sitting? After spending yesterday in Westminster, I still can’t think of a decent answer. I had originally intended to spend the day not in London but at Leeds General Infirmary, visiting sick youngsters and meeting some of the selfless people who work and volunteer for the children’s cancer charity Candlelighters, a cause that has long been close to my heart. It was deeply disappointing, after hosting people from the charity in Parliament to mark childhood cancer awareness month last year, not to be able to make a return visit. – Andrea Jenkyns MP for the Telegraph (£) Benedict Spence: Geoffrey Cox is right – this Parliament is a disgrace There was a time when Eurosceptics thought that they were the new Roundheads, fighting to return power to Parliament, pitted in combat against the Remainers, a new generation of Euro-Cavaliers committed to the divine right of the EU to rule over us. It was a compelling tale, so it’s no wonder that the more extreme Remainers are seeking to appropriate a warped version of it for themselves. Their real aim is to cancel Brexit, and they’ve found a brilliant new way of dressing up their power grab in pseudo-democratic garb. Remainer MPs, we are told, are the true friends of Parliament; Brexiteers are on the side of the bullying executive; and the courts have stepped in to complete the 1611 Case of Proclamations that limited the Royal prerogative. So what’s wrong with the Eurosceptics? Didn’t they spend years demanding greater parliamentary sovereignty? Why, then, are they so angry at John Bercow for enhancing MPs’ role? Why don’t they support the Supreme Court’s revolutionary reinterpretation of the Bill of Rights? – Benedict Spence for the Telegraph (£) Rod Liddle: Boris Johnson’s only hope is an election pact with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party The Tories say there’s no chance of a deal. But they need to hold their noses and accept one. And for his part, Nigel Farage should give credit to Boris for at least trying, for all he was worth, to get Brexit over the line by October 31. The Brexit Party have a full raft of candidates ready and waiting to do battle. But Farage should be moderate in what he demands from the Conservatives. The most likely scenario now is that the Brexit deadline is extended, with conditions placed upon us by a jubilant European Union. And a caretaker government which will be out to kill Brexit entirely. Only a pact with the Brexit Party can get the Conservatives — and the country as a whole — out of this mess. Reach out to your friends, Boris, while you still have them. – Rod Liddle for The Sun John Redwood: Constitutional change The government’s defence yesterday of its action to prorogue Parliament was simple. They thought their actions were entirely legal and based on precedent. This was confirmed by the English High Court. The Supreme Court then decided to create a new legal test over prorogation and change it from being a matter for government and sovereign to decide into a matter than is justiciable under the new rules of prorogation set out by the Court. The government accepts their ability to do this. It will fall to a future Parliament to decide if Parliament wishes to continue with the approach set out by the Supreme Court or if it wishes to legislate to change the approach. – John Redwood’s Diary Tom Harris: David Cameron has shown voters were right about Brexit Critics of David Cameron will no doubt be disappointed that his autobiography, For The Record, is set to sell a significant number of copies. That’s what prime ministerial memoirs do. Get over it. Given that the vast, overwhelming majority of his critics also voted Remain in the EU referendum in 2016, their disappointment will be further deepened by his first person account of what it’s actually like to negotiate within the Union’s structures. As Fraser Nelson rightly points out elsewhere, For The Record serves as a reminder to leave voters why they were right. My own conversion from unenthusiastic Remain supporter to full-time paid official of the Vote Leave campaign, in the first few weeks of 2016, owes a great deal to Cameron’s negotiations and their outcome. I vividly recall listening to his statement to the Commons and his optimistic claim that he had achieved something of substance from his efforts in Brussels. – Tom Harris for CapX Robert Peston: Why Boris Johnson may have to abandon his promise to Brexit on October 31 Boris Johnson wants a general election now. Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon both say they want an election but not till after they are sure that the provisions of the Benn Act have been effective and the UK is NOT leaving the EU without a deal on October 31. As far as I can see the only way for Johnson to break the impasse is for him to do precisely the opposite of what he has promised. He should request a Brexit delay from the EU – and for the explicit purpose of fighting an election to determine whether or not the British people would give him a mandate for a no-deal Brexit. If he fails to call the bluff of Corbyn and Sturgeon in that way, he will very likely find the decision is taken from his hands, because a growing number of MPs from all parties are coming to the view that a Brexit referendum would be preferable to a general election. – Robert Peston for ITV News Allister Heath: Remainers have turned Parliament into an anti-democratic monstrosity There was a time when Eurosceptics thought that they were the new Roundheads, fighting to return power to Parliament, pitted in combat against the Remainers, a new generation of Euro-Cavaliers committed to the divine right of the EU to rule over us. It was a compelling tale, so it’s no wonder that the more extreme Remainers are seeking to appropriate a warped version of it for themselves. Their real aim is to cancel Brexit, and they’ve found a brilliant new way of dressing up their power grab in pseudo-democratic garb. Remainer MPs, we are told, are the true friends of Parliament; Brexiteers are on the side of the bullying executive; and the courts have stepped in to complete the 1611 Case of Proclamations that limited the Royal prerogative. So what’s wrong with the Eurosceptics? Didn’t they spend years demanding greater parliamentary sovereignty? Why, then, are they so angry at John Bercow for enhancing MPs’ role? Why don’t they support the Supreme Court’s revolutionary reinterpretation of the Bill of Rights? – Allister Heath for the Telegraph (£) Henry Hill: The Supreme Court ruling will have consequences far beyond Johnson’s premiership The verdict handed down by the Supreme Court is as disastrous for the Government as it could possibly have been. Not only was prorogation ruled justiciable by the courts, but even the limited tactical win of the Prime Minister’s advice being ruled lawful was unanimously rejected by the 11 justices. More remarkably still, Lady Hale swept aside the conventional understanding of Article IX of the Bill of Rights, which protects proceedings in Parliament from the jurisdiction of the courts, by declaring that prorogation might occur in the Lords’ chamber but was not a ‘parliamentary proceeding’. The political consequences of this are likely to be eye-catching and severe. Not only has the Supreme Court annulled the prorogation – legally speaking, it never happened – but it has done so on the eve of the Conservative Party Conference. – Henry Hill for CapX The Sun: Labour refusing to oust the Government they’ve crippled is a pathetic display of cowardice — their attack on democracy must end Can Labour really not see how ridiculous they now sound to the British people? Corbyn brands Boris Johnson “a dangerous Prime Minister, unfit for office”. And yet, for all his grandstanding, he and the cowards on his benches refuse to hold a vote of no confidence in case it triggers the election they rightly fear. Labour are keeping Boris in office. The PM’s argument, by contrast, was simple and strong. That MPs should allow his minority Government to deliver Brexit on October 31 or they should face the music at the ballot box. The truth is this Parliament no longer has a moral right to sit: Attorney General Geoffrey Cox is correct about that. Most of its MPs were elected in 2017 after lying that they would respect a referendum result they have since done everything to overturn. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief The public will forgive Boris Johnson for breaking the law – he fought the system they rallied against – Benedict Spence for the Independent Led By Donkeys launches billboard contest – Guardian