Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Boris Johnson agrees to EU’s Brexit extension until 31st January… Labour has “run out of excuses” to oppose an early election, Boris Johnson has said, as MPs vote on whether to back his call for a December poll. The PM said “nobody relished” going to the polls weeks before Christmas but this Parliament had “run its course” and was “incapable” of settling Brexit. The PM has formally accepted the EU’s offer of a Brexit extension until 31 January 2020 agreed earlier on Monday. In a letter to EU officials, he said it was an “unwanted prolongation”. Urging the EU to rule out any further extension, he said there was time to ratify his Brexit deal but he feared the current Parliament would never do so “as long as it has the option of further delay”. EU Council President Donald Tusk said what was being offered was a “flextension” – meaning the UK could leave before the deadline if a deal was approved by Parliament. – BBC News …but pleads with them to rule out further extensions after this three-month delay Boris Johnson last night pleaded with EU leaders to rule out another extension – after he formally accepted their offer of a three-month delay. The PM warned European capitals the British Parliament will “simply extend our membership again and again” and never make a decision unless the EU force it to. He warned the “unwanted” delay imposed on him by MPs was “damaging to our democracy and to the relationship between us and our European friends”. In a letter to Donald Tusk he wrote: “I would urge EU Member States to make clear that a further extension after 31 January is not possible.” Yesterday, EU leaders agreed to grant Britain a three-month “flextension”after French resistance to it crumbled. Eurocrats will draw up the paperwork to enshrine the delay in law by the end of today. EU Parliament negotiator Guy Verhofstadt taunted the PM, crowing: “Relieved that finally no one died in a ditch.” He added: “Whether the UK’s democratic choice is revoke or an orderly withdraw, confirmed or not in a second referendum, the uncertainty of Brexit has gone on for far too long. This extra time must deliver a way forward.” – The Sun Government puts Bill for 12th December election before MPs today after motion failed yesterday… Boris Johnson is to try again for a 12 December general election on Tuesday – despite MPs rejecting his plan. The prime minister will publish a bill that would only need a simple majority to succeed – not two thirds as required in previous attempts. But he would still need support from Lib Dems and the SNP for it to pass. Mr Johnson told MPs Parliament was “dysfunctional” and could “no longer keep this country hostage” but Labour said the PM could not be trusted. The Commons backed the government’s election motion by 299 to 70 – well short of the two-thirds majority needed under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. All Conservative MPs backed the motion – but the vast majority of Labour MPs abstained, along with the SNP and DUP. All but one Lib Dem MPs voted against it. Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said the government wants the House of Commons to debate all stages of a bill for a 12 December election on Tuesday. Usually a bill is debated over the course of several days, but Mr Rees-Mogg said the legislation would be “extremely short, simple, and limited in scope”. The bill would also have to pass through the House of Lords at a later date if it is to come into effect. He added that the government would not be bringing back its Withdrawal Agreement Bill, required to put Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal into law. – BBC News Boris Johnson loses election vote — unveils plan B – Politico Is Parliament moving towards an election? – BBC News > WATCH: Prime Minister responds to the defeat of the Government’s general election vote > WATCH: Jeremy Corbyn reacts to the defeat of the Government’s general election vote …but Johnson is hit by a Tory backlash for ditching his Withdrawal Agreement Bill to push for an election The WAB – which would put Mr Johnson’s deal with the EU into law – won backing at its second reading last week, but MPs voted against the Government’s timetable to get it passed in just three days. MPs will instead be asked to fast-track a new “Early Parliamentary General Election Bill,” aiming to sidestep the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. Mr Johnson has tried and failed on three occasions to call a snap poll, but failed to get the support of two-thirds of MPs, as required under the FTPA. Mr Rees-Mogg said the new bill, which will be introduced on Tuesday, would be “extremely short, simple and limited in scope” and end the “stalemate in Parliament”. But Conservative MP Simon Hoare said: “May I ask the Leader of the House what we are to say to constituents and others about the fact that we may be able to find time for a five to six-week general election campaign and then the rigmarole of forming a government and yet not for bringing back the withdrawal Bill? The North Dorset MP added: “That is despite the fact that, against all the odds, including my expectation, the Prime Minister played a blinder. “He got a new deal and secured for the first time in this House a cross-party majority for it. “My hunch is—my fear is—that many people in the country will be slightly perturbed by the course of events that my right honourable friend has set out before us.” Former Cabinet minister Damian Green meanwhile said Mr Rees-Mogg had become “less convincing as he goes on” – and urged the Government to press on with getting the Brexit Bill through the Commons. “Surely the fact that the House rejected the programme motion on offer means that the sensible course of action—which, frankly, voters on all sides would expect of us—is to have a different programme motion and put into effect the Bill that has already given a Second Reading,” he argued. That view was echoed by Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk, who said while some MPs had voted against the Withdrawal Agreement Bill out of opposition to Brexit, others had “not unreasonable” concerns that the timetable for scrutinising it was too short. – PoliticsHome Civil war inside People’s Vote campaign as staff accuse chairman Roland Rudd of putting a ‘wrecking ball’ through the campaign A public row has broken out at the top of the People’s Vote campaign for another EU referendum. Media chief Tom Baldwin has accused chairman Roland Rudd of putting “a wrecking ball” through the campaign. Mr Baldwin said he had been fired by Mr Rudd – but would be going in to work as normal. Mr Rudd denied firing Mr Baldwin, saying “he has an opportunity for a different type of role”. He also denied reports of strategic differences within the organisation over his desire to openly campaign for Remain. On Sunday, the Observer reported others within the group want to concentrate on winning support for another vote among Leave voters and wavering Labour and Tory MPs. But Mr Rudd told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There’s no row about the Remain side and PV [People’s Vote]. Everyone knows where we stand on this”. “This is an absurd argument. Everybody knows perfectly well that we’re made up of people who want to vote to Remain. There isn’t a problem”. – BBC News Leave campaigners ditch ‘betrayal’ rally as Farage seeks electoral pact Leave campaigners have abandoned plans to hold a rally against MPs’ Brexit “betrayal” on Friday as Boris Johnson seeks to turn the delay to his advantage. Mr Johnson, who said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than see Britain’s departure from the EU delayed, admitted yesterday that the country would not leave on Thursday. When Theresa May failed to meet the original deadline of March 29 she faced a protest outside parliament. However, pro-Brexit campaigners have pulled plans for a similar rally. Yesterday sources confirmed that the event, for which Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party had been expected to supply a speaker, would not go ahead. At the same time the Brexit Party urged the prime minister to strike an electoral pact with it at the general election. In March Mr Farage told a rally in Parliament Square, organised by the cross-party Leave Means Leave group, that the date would be seen as “a day of great betrayal”. John Longworth, the chairman of Leave Means Leave and a Brexit Party MEP, said: “Leave Means Leave were considering the possibility of a rally on November 1. It was being seriously considered.” – The Times (£) Government pauses £100m 31st October Brexit public information campaign… The government says it has paused its campaign urging the public and businesses to Get Ready for Brexit on 31 October. It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson accepted the EU’s offer to extend the Brexit deadline to 31 January. The Brexit advertising blitz across social media, billboards and TV is reported to have cost £100m. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called it “£100m of misspent public money”. “How many nurses could have been hired, how many parcels could have been funded at food banks, how many social care packages could have been funded for our elderly?,” Mr Corbyn asked MPs. “[Boris Johnson] has failed because he has chosen to fail and he now seeks to blame Parliament.” Meanwhile, the BBC understands that Operation Yellowhammer, the government’s contingency plan for a no-deal Brexit, has been stood down. – BBC News …while Operation Brock plan for the M20 motorway is launched in Kent A series of measures aimed at keeping a Kent motorway moving in the event of a no-deal Brexit were put into force today just hours before the UK was granted an extension. Operation Brock came into force at 6am on the M20, with the plans designed to keep traffic flowing in both directions in case there is any disruption to services across the English Channel. As part of the measures, lorries heading for Europe will face a 30mph limit on a 13-mile stretch of the motorway’s coastbound carriage. All other traffic on the motorway – including lorries carrying out UK deliveries – are required to use a 50mph contraflow of two lanes in each direction on the London-bound side of the road. The scheme also includes several holding areas to park lorries are also available to be activated if required, including at Manston Airfield. Hauliers must be ready to show they have the correct paperwork before reaching the border or face being turned back According to the Highways England, the current operation “will be kept under continual review” and “will be stood down when it is no longer needed”.. – iNews Brexit commemorative 50p coins dated October 31st to be destroyed Thousands of 50-pence coins minted to commemorate Brexit on Oct. 31 will be melted down after Prime Minister Boris Johnson accepted an extension from the European Union, two people familiar with the matter said. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid had announced plans for millions of coins engraved with the date Johnson pledged to leave the bloc, but production was paused last week when it became clear there would be a delay. The coins were already being minted so they could be put into circulation as soon as the UK left the EU. – Bloomberg Leave-voting Labour MP John Mann resigns from the Commons as he takes seat in the Lords Brexiteer John Mann has announced that he will stand down after nearly 20 years in Parliament. His departure could pave the way for a “brutal Brexit by-election”, experts have warned. Mr Mann told the Yorkshire Post he has formally resigned as MP and will be taking up a new position in the House of Lords, assuming the title of Lord Mann of Holbeck Moor. He also called for a radical shift in British politics, warning the “power of the Prime Minister, Speaker and the whips will all need to be reconsidered if our democracy is to properly function”. “I am not holding my breath at such maturity,” Mr Mann — the former chairman of pro-Brexit group Labour Leave — has represented the north Nottinghamshire constituency since 2001. he added. – BBC News John Longworth: My fellow Brexiteers need to recognise that this is the endgame There is no doubt that the Prime Minister’s deal is not ideal. As someone who advocated right from the beginning of the referendum campaign and at the outset of the triggering of Article 50, that the government adopt the stance of being prepared to leave on World Trade terms, the current deal is not what I would have ideally wanted. Under a WTO policy position, the government could have offered the EU a chance to negotiate a free trade arrangement while thoroughly preparing for our exit during the Article 50 preparation period. This could have then been implemented the moment we left. The resultant economic boom would have completed a successful exit and ensured permanent liberty. Not only this, it would have meant that the UK would have negotiated from a position of strength and gained a very good outcome in respect of continuing relations with the EU should a deal have been desirable to both parties. The continued actions of Remain fanatics have radicalised all participants in this sorry saga and amongst leavers, fuelled a desire to distance the UK as much as possible from the continent. In order to win Brexit, we need to keep focused on what is important. This is not religion this is politics. Politics they say, is the art of the possible. – John Longworth MEP for the Telegraph (£) Douglas Carswell: People’s Vote is flailing for one fundamental reason As public relations campaigns go, it could hardly be much worse. At the start of a crucial week in the great Brexit battle, the campaign group set up to fight for a re-run of the referendum, the so-called People’s Vote, is fighting itself. Over the weekend, Tom Baldwin, the campaign’s head of communications, was apparently sacked by Roland Rudd, one of the campaign’s leaders and an apparent PR expert. Communications guru Baldwin then decided to pop up on the Today Programme this morning to communicate his displeasure, and suggest he hadn’t been fired at all. Not to be outdone, Rudd then responded on the show, quashing any suggestion he and the rest of those running the People’s Vote are overrated muppets. Will Rudd and Baldwin both arrive their Millbank tower offices this week claiming to be in charge? Is there be some sort of stand-off? Frankly, who cares? Having helped set up both the group that successfully campaigned for the 2016 EU referendum, the People’s Pledge, and then Vote Leave, the official campaign group that then won the referendum, I think I have sufficient insight to suggest that this is not the way to run this kind of campaign. The People’s Pledge was as understated as it was effective precisely because it had something every campaign needs; a crystal-clear idea of whose opinion it was seeking to change. Vote Leave, after one or two wobbles, succeeded in leaving it to Dom Cummings, Matt Elliott and their team to run the campaign. Donors were there to donate, not strategise. Directors were there to give overall direction, not micromanage. MPs were there to support, not interfere. The People’s Vote campaign seems stuck at the stage of having a millionaire backer wanting to call the shots. Tragic. – Douglas Carswell for CapX Rosa Prince: Labour’s tortured wrangling over Brexit cannot continue much longer Does Labour want a general election? Following “does Labour want a second referendum?” and, before that, “does Labour want Brexit?” that is the latest question dividing Her Majesty’s Opposition. With Jeremy Corbyn apparently shrinking his inner circle until it comprises a lone fellow traveller in the form of adviser Seumas Milne, the Leader is at odds with John McDonnell, his ally through the wilderness years, over both the date and shape of the election to come. The trigger for the schism is Brexit; since the summer the Shadow Chancellor has seemed more bullish about batting for Remain than his long-time Eurosceptic comrade. At the root of their rupture is something more profound, however: a disagreement over how best to achieve the socialist state they both seek. For Mr McDonnell is a master tactician, his every move designed to bring closer not just a left-wing government but one with the tools and hunger to achieve genuine change once in office. That means that if he considers it electorally advantageous for Labour to back the second referendum favoured by the party’s largely Remain voters then so be it. – Rosa Prince for the Telegraph (£) Charles Moore: The maddening tactics of the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign may soon be at an end The idea of a “People’s Vote” (PV) has always caused me agonies. On the one hand, it is undoubtedly the most tricksy and divisive of all the ruses invented to frustrate the Leave vote of 2016; and therefore dangerous. On the other, it is also so transparently dishonest and politically impossible to achieve that I have seen it as a welcome cul-de-sac down which to divert Remainer energies. PV is based on a version of the Marxist idea of “false consciousness”: the poor, stupid workers did not mean to vote the way they did, but were fed lies by capitalists/the Right-wing media. Rightly guided by Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and so on, they would vote the “right” way if given a second chance. Now that it really is almost the last chance to stop Brexit, the PVers have fallen out. The Liberal Democrats and SNP are abandoning ship, preferring what they claim is a general election which may mean we do not leave at all. The remaining Remainers are split between those who think the PV campaign should admit that it is a Remain front organisation and those – including the gentlemen named above – who are inveterately committed to a politics which does not mean what it says. That sort of politics drove many to vote Leave. “People’s Vote”, like “People’s Democracy” in the Communist era, means people doing what they are told. – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£) Rupert Myers: Remainers might wish otherwise, but there is simply no mandate for a second referendum Can it be any surprise that Sky have set up a TV news channel that doesn’t talk about Brexit? Whether you are an ardent Leaver, or a beret-sporting Remainer, there aren’t many people who can honestly claim not to be sick of an argument that has stolen precious years from a public debate that should be focused on much more pressing domestic concerns. The discourse has been bled dry of nuance or fresh-thinking, the tribes are hunkered down in trenches from which they lob the same old predictable shells: John Bercow is a villain or a saint, the deal is salvation or ruin, and the value of our independence is either incalculable or a waste of time and money. What these tribes demand of each other is honesty and clear thinking, but they too rarely apply it to themselves. Is there a way through? One far side demands “clean Brexit” while the other cries for a second referendum, but there is every chance that both of those positions are wrong. It brings me little pleasure to admit that there is no mandate for a second referendum. Remainers complain that the last referendum was not conducted in good faith, and they are not alone in that: from stolen data, dark money, and overspending to a myriad of falsehoods, it could not be described as democracy’s finest hour, but the misdeeds of some of the principal actors do not invalidate the experience of every man and woman who put on their shoes and went to the polling station. – Rupert Myers for ConservativeHome Brexit in Brief Brexit proves that the last thing we need is a written constitution – Lord Hague for the Telegraph (£) Universities condemned for ‘stifling’ pro-Brexit free speech – furious academic hits out – Express