Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Pro-EU Tory rebels unsatisfied with the Government’s latest Withdrawal Bill compromise amendment… Theresa May could yet suffer a damaging rebellion on key Brexit legislation after Tory rebels were left unhappy at ministers’ “sneaky” efforts at a compromise. The government tabled an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill on Thursday following crunch talks with pro-EU Conservative backbenchers. The rebels, spearheaded by former attorney general Dominic Grieve, are demanding a greater say for the House of Commons in the event the prime minister fails to agree a Brexit deal with the EU. Ministers have resisted accepting their demands wholesale, having warned against tying Mrs May’s hands in negotiations with Brussels. The peace talks broke down spectacularly on Thursday afternoon, with the government’s attempt at a compromise agreement immediately junked by the Tory rebels… It is now likely peers will return the Grieve amendment to the House of Commons, setting up a parliamentary showdown on Wednesday. – Sky News Tory rebel Dominic Grieve rejects May’s Brexit compromise – BBC News May move puts Tory rebellion back on – Politico Tory rebellion back on after MPs reject May’s Brexit amendment – Guardian Theresa May faces showdown with rebels over ‘no-deal’ Brexit – FT (£) May faces a Brexit showdown as home-front negotiations sour – Bloomberg Theresa May accused of ‘sneaky’ betrayal over Brexit vote as deal with Tory rebels collapses – Telegraph (£) Tory rebel Dominic Grieve has private meeting with Remain group intent on blocking Brexit – Telegraph ‘650 MPs cannot negotiate Brexit!’ – MP hits out at Dominic Grieve amendment on Newsnight – Express The Tory psychodrama over Brexit bill – Laura Kuenssberg for BBC News Will Theresa May’s fudge save her bacon? – Catherine Neilan for City A.M. Government plays divide and rule with Remain rebels – Katy Balls for the Spectator Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry are holding the UK to ransom and 17.4m Brits are sick of it – The Sun says > WATCH: Dominic Grieve’s “meaningful vote” U-turn …while senior Tory Tom Tugendhat rejects the need to “beef up” the amendment as he predicts Theresa May’s Government would fall if MPs rejected her Brexit deal Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said there would be a “new government” if Mrs May lost the so-called “meaningful vote” on the terms of withdrawal, due to take place in October. Mr Tugendhat’s warning came as the Prime Minister continued to wrestle with a demand from Tory Remainer rebels to hand Parliament the ability to direct negotiations if it rejects the final deal. Tory Brexiteers are fiercely resistant to the idea because they believe it could effectively be used as a Brexit veto to keep the UK in the European Union. Mr Tugendhat suggested that there was no need to “beef up” the “meaningful vote” which currently offers Parliament the choice between the Government’s deal and Britain leaving the EU with no deal. He told Sky News: “I think we are going to get a meaningful vote anyway. The meaningful vote is going to be either the Government’s deal is accepted in which case that is the meaningful vote to accept it or it isn’t accepted, in which case frankly there is going to be a new government.” – Telegraph Theresa May’s government will fall if MPs reject her final Brexit deal, senior Tory warns – Sky News EU officials claim Brexit postponement may be an option if talks get messier Senior European Union officials have informally discussed whether the U.K. might need to stay in the bloc past March 2019 if Brexit negotiations don’t accelerate over the summer… A move to extend the deadline, which Article 50 of the EU Treaty sets at two years after a formal notice to leave the bloc, would have to be requested by the U.K. and agreed to unanimously by the 27 remaining EU governments. While officials acknowledge that an extension is still unlikely, they don’t think the rest of the bloc would oppose the move as long as the prolongation was for a short period, for example two months, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private… EU officials increasingly see [the talks] not being concluded until December, a fourth person familiar with the matter said. This would probably still provide enough time for ratification before March 29, the person said. – Bloomberg PM plans to pour billions of cash freed up by Brexit into the NHS in a blow for Philip Hammond Theresa May will unveil plans next week to use the ‘Brexit dividend’ to pour billions more into the NHS. The Prime Minister is finalising the details of a new ‘long-term plan for the NHS’ designed to avoid a repeat of last winter’s crisis. The deal will include a funding package expected to involve annual funding rises of around three per cent in real terms. Mrs May will also make it clear the new settlement will be funded in part by the ‘Brexit dividend’ generated by the UK no longer having to pay EU membership fees. In doing so she will overrule Chancellor Philip Hammond, who has been fighting to prevent a direct link between Brexit and extra cash for the NHS. The decision will help deliver on one of the most high-profile pledges of the Leave campaign, which was emblazoned across its tour bus. It represents a victory for Brexiteer ministers such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, who have been urging the PM to make good on the referendum pledge for months. – Daily Mail Labour frontbencher Laura Smith who quit over EEA vote defends her decision… Laura Smith, the Labour frontbencher who resigned in the biggest parliamentary revolt Jeremy Corbyn has faced since he became leader, has defended her decision to vote against remaining in the European Economic Area… Smith, the now former shadow Cabinet Office minister who had backed remain in the referendum and won her leave-voting Crewe and Nantwich seat by a majority of just 48 in last year’s election, said her first duty was to her constituents. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that staying in the EEA would not be in their interest, and she refused to accept that if she thought Brexit was a mistake she should say so. “I think a bad idea is giving people a choice and then telling them they’re wrong. I think that is against democracy … and we need to understand the reasons why people voted in the way that they do. And, no, I’m not then telling people that voted to leave that they’re wrong. It’s my job to understand why they voted to leave and fight to make their lives better.” – Guardian Labour Brexit rebel vs Polly Toynbee (video) – Spectator Brexit plague on all party houses – Tom McTague for Politico …as Labour’s Janet Daby wins the Lewisham East by-election and promises to oppose ‘hard’ Brexit Janet Daby, Labour’s newest MP, vowed to oppose “hard Brexit” after winning the Lewisham East by-election. Only a third of eligible voters cast their ballot as Ms Daby held the seat with a majority of 5,629, well below the 21,213 Heidi Alexander achieved at the 2017 general election when turnout was 69%. The Liberal Democrats leapfrogged the Conservatives to take second place in a seat which voted heavily for Remain in the European Union referendum. – Telegraph Lewisham East by-election sees Labour’s Janet Daby win majority – after just 33 per cent turn out to vote – The Sun New Labour MP Janet Daby vows to oppose ‘hard Brexit’ after by-election win – Sky News SNP in Brexit trade threat as party warns of more guerrilla tactics The SNP has set its sights on sabotaging the Brexit Trade Bill as its Westminster leader warned his MPs are prepared to use further guerrilla tactics to “frustrate” the Government. Speaking the day after SNP MPs staged a mass walkout from the Commons, Ian Blackford vowed his group and Nicola Sturgeon’s administration in Edinburgh will take “whatever action is necessary” in the wake of a row over Brexit powers. He warned the UK Government that “this is not the end of the matter, this is the beginning” and concluded: “I will make sure we can frustrate as much as we possibly can what the Government are doing.” UK Government sources fear the next major battleground will be the upcoming Trade Bill, with the SNP’s trade spokesman already warning that the Scottish Parliament will withhold consent. – Telegraph (£) SNP promises more guerrilla tactics over Brexit powers – Guardian We must expect guerrilla tactics from the SNP from now on – Tom Harris for the Telegraph (£) The SNP’s protests: signs of weakness and strength – Guardian editorial Ryanair endorses Brexit Britain with huge new base Ryanair will open a huge new operations base at Southend Airport next April. The airport will become Ryanair’s hub for eight countries, flying 16 routes including the extremely popular Barcelona, Corfu, Milan and Venice services. More than a million Ryanair passengers will pass through the terminal on 55 flights a week. The project will create 750 jobs… Oh, wait. David O’Brien, remoaning Ryanair chief commercial officer, said of his own plans: “Don’t confuse this great news as some sort of vote of confidence in the future of UK aviation, it’s a vote of confidence in Southend airport… [it was not] a reversal of opinion on the merits of Brexit”. Not sure they’re even convincing themselves with that line… – Guido Fawkes EU fights to avoid post-Brexit security talks split The European Union was last night fighting to avoid a damaging internal split emerging over the post-Brexit security partnership, the Telegraph can reveal. The threat of a split comes after it emerged that Horst Seehofer, the hardline German interior minister, has told French and Dutch counterparts that “nothing must change” after Brexit that would endanger the security of EU citizens. Mr Seehofer’s position puts him firmly at odds with both Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and the European Commission, which will hold a high-level Brexit seminar Friday on future security co-operation in Brussels… Mr Seehofer is said to have accepted British arguments that freezing the UK out of real-time crime-fighting databases like the Schengen Information System II for “theological” legal reasons will put lives at risk on both sides of the Channel. – Telegraph (£) EU rejects post-Brexit defence plan – Bloomberg EU ‘using Galileo as negotiating tactic’, says Defence Minister – BBC News Bruno Waterfield: Vain MPs are giving the EU free rein All the sound and fury of the debate has been conducted, apparently, in total ignorance of what the government is actually doing and intends to do in negotiations… While the EU is critical of the government’s rather thin “temporary customs arrangement” paper last week, the direction of travel is established and accepted. With the paper it became official. Unofficially, Oliver Robbins began these negotiations in March. Self-conceited MPs who want a meaningful vote have expended little energy on trying to find out what is going on. In a mark of the EU’s preparations, a European Commission proposal was silently slipped out last week that creates post-Brexit arrangements for British car-makers to become regulatory rule-takers. This is the reality. Forget the Commons posturing, the government is preparing a Brexit future that will be quasi-single market membership (with full ECJ powers) and a customs union. – Bruno Waterfield for The Times (£) Tim Worstall: EU outrage over Trump’s tariffs is a shameless double standard The EU will now challenge the US action in front of the WTO and take retaliatory measures. The bloc is determined to present itself as the defender of the global trading system. Perhaps this position would have more credibility if the EU were not a consistent and egregious violator of trade rules when it suits its members’ protectionist interests. In the next few weeks, the EU will vote on a proposed ban of palm oil, a biofuel which none of its member states are able to produce, as they all lack a tropical climate. EU countries do grow a lot of competitor crops, however, including rapeseed, sunflower, and sugar beet. By some strange coincidence, palm oil alone is being singled out for a ban on supposed “environmental grounds”… The EU’s hypocrisy on trade has not gone unnoticed by the south-east Asian countries where most of the palm oil is produced. Just as the EU prepared its retaliation to Trump’s aggression over steel tariffs, so Asian governments are preparing their own retaliation to the EU’s aggression over palm oil. Reports suggest that this retaliation could include the loss of up to £7bn of defence and aerospace contracts for British exporters… For the EU to then present itself as the paragon of virtue, and the standard-bearer for the international trading system, is a giant and unjustified leap. The EU cannot credibly claim to be defending global free trade while at the same time flagrantly bullying smaller countries in Africa and Asia into accepting its protectionist tariffs and regulations. – Tim Worstall for City A.M. Christian May: Without the UK, the EU can resume its march to ever closer union Earlier this week I chaired a discussion at TheCityUK’s annual conference, where several people, including the lobby group’s chairman, John McFarlane, stressed the point that “there’s life beyond Brexit”. It can’t be said often enough, given how much of our national attention and energy has been sucked into the black hole of Brexit: the uncertainty, the parliamentary theatre and the small but vocal campaign to reverse the referendum result. The reality, as those in business know only too well, is that life goes on. The European Central Bank may have signalled yesterday the end of its epic (and controversial) quantitative easing policy, but the project still faces a number of challenges that it would have to confront with or without the departure of the UK. With the UK set to leave, however, member states who do not exhibit enthusiasm for ever closer union will feel keenly the loss of Britain’s restraining influence in Brussels. – Christian May for City A.M. European Central Bank announces end of quantitative easing – City A.M. Can Mark Rutte save Europe from itself? – Kai Weiss for CapX The Times: Merkel’s Last Stand The European Union is belatedly waking up to the fact that its immigration policies are a shambles. Three years after Angela Merkel welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants into Germany, the continent is struggling with the problem of how to process the numbers of incomers, how to identify deserving asylum cases from economic migrants, where the rejected should be returned to and what measures should be taken to integrate those who remain… A fierce spat in Berlin highlights Europe’s failure to devise a coherent migration strategy. Unless the chancellor shows more steel, her job will be on the line. – Times leader (£) Wounded Merkel backtracks in migrant crisis – The Times (£) Angela Merkel’s political near-death experience in Bavarian brawl – Politico Comment in brief The Lords’ amendments are legally unnecessary and economically counter-productive – Sheila Lawlor for ConservativeHome Westminster’s rebellion against the people – Get Britain Out’s Stephen Mitchell for the Commentator Playing chicken over the post-Brexit Irish border – Martin Wolf for the FT (£) It was Phillip Lee, but could have been me – Iain Dale for ConservativeHome We must change our crazy policy on immigration – Ross Clark for the Express Change to visa rules shows May has learned from her recent immigration messes – Isabel Hardman for the Spectator Britain and Europe need to stop bickering – Mark Fox for Reaction Treachery is at heart of the civil service – Frederick Forsyth for the Express Belt-up for no-deal – Alex Barker for the FT (£) Donald Trump does Brexit, Part 1 – Freddy Gray for the Spectator News in brief Two thirds of voters think Theresa May is making a mess of Brexit – The Times (£) Ed Argar replaces Philip Lee at Justice – ConservativeHome Ministers lift cap on doctors from outside EU – The Times (£) Fears erupt over Brexit border security as Home Office working at ‘full stretch’, damning report warns – The Sun And finally… Love Island’s Hayley was RIGHT about Brexit affecting trees — and here’s why – The Sun