Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team City of London will remain major global financial centre post-Brexit, says Theresa May… British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday that she believed the City of London would continue to be a global financial centre after Brexit. “I think the City of London will continue to be a major global financial centre. That is an advantage not just for the United Kingdom, it’s actually good for Europe and good for the global financial system,” she told a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Britain. – Reuters May promises to speed up Calais migration claims – Times (£) …as President Macron hails UK defence cooperation but warns on single market access… French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday hailed the strength of Franco-British ties despite Brexit, but warned that he would not allow Britain’s financial industry to have privileged access to the EU single market. “I have one demand and that is that the single market is preserved. It is one of the basic principles of the European Union,” Macron said at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May. “Now the choice in on the British side. There can not be a differentiated access to the single market of which financial services are part,” he said. – Reuters Emmanuel Macron is enjoying a moment of strength and optimism in France, but he should pay attention to the details of Britain’s case for a grand bargain on Brexit – Times editorial (£) Macron visit offers a post-Brexit vision – Telegraph (£) Macron charms, but won’t give ground on the City – James Forsyth for the Spectator Benefits from Canada-style deal might outweigh Brexit bill – Bloomberg John Mills says UK being pushed to soft Brexit deal – Bloomberg > On BrexitCentral’a YouTube: French President Macron and Prime Minister Theresa May on financial services post-Brexit …and Boris Johnson says Britain should consider building a bridge to France Boris Johnson has raised the prospect of building a bridge over the Channel to link Britain and France. President Macron of France is said to have backed the idea. According to a source, when asked about the concept he is understood to have replied: “I agree — let’s do it.” Yesterday, as Mr Macron made his first visit to Britain as president, the foreign secretary met his French counterpart and agreed to set up a panel of experts to look at joint projects. Mr Johnson tweeted: “Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections. Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?” – Times (£) French finance chief says Brexit won’t be a catastrophe for the City Warnings about Brexit’s impact on the City have been overblown, according to French finance chief Christian Noyer. Noyer was formerly the governor of the Bank of France, and is now leading French efforts to persuade banks to pick Paris as a location after Brexit. He has also been tasked with protecting France’s financial services sector in Brexit talks. However, he does not think the UK’s exit from the European Union will be as catastrophic as some have claimed. – City A.M. Macron dealt blow as CEO of multi-billion dollar data company reveals he’s moving to London not Paris The French President… has been dealt a huge blow as the CEO of Dimension Data, Jason Goodall, said he did not even consider Paris as an option for the base of his company’s headquarters… Goodall said: “It was very important for us to be close to our clients, very important for us to have access to the best talent from a technology perspective. London ticked both those boxes so we’re very excited to be investing in London and to have a strategic hub in London with a lot of our executive team now based here.” Asked whether he had considered President Emmanuel Macron’s global tech hub in Paris, Goodall said he had not. He said: “Not really, so we have a local operation in Paris and in France obviously so it’s an important market for us. But from a global perspective, the UK is very easy place to live… Very very easy to attract executives to live in London, people want to live here.” – Express Trump is not coming to London so Theresa May can ‘focus her attention’ on Brexit, claims Rex Tillerson Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered a new explanation on Wednesday for the indefinite delay in Donald Trump’s trip to London: Brexit. Trump said in a tweet last week that he was refusing to cut the ribbon on the United States’ newly opened embassy in London next month because he didn’t appreciate being saddled with a bad deal by his predecessor. But Tillerson told reporters Wednesday during a flight from California to Washington that he postponing his U.K. trip because of the political turmoil in Britain over Brexit, Bloomberg reported. – Daily Mail Taxpayers set to foot £100m bill for EU students’ tuition fees after Brexit Scottish taxpayers will fund the tuition fees of EU students after Brexit despite the SNP previously pleading with Brussels for powers to charge them £9,000 a year to curtail “academic tourism”. Documents released under freedom of information laws show that ministers lobbied Brussels for permission to impose fees on Europeans and regularly complained that laws that meant they had to treat EU students the same as Scots were unfair. – Times (£) Scotch whisky industry warns of major drawbacks to Nicola Sturgeon’s single market plan Nicola Sturgeon’s call to stay inside the EU single market and customs union after Brexit has been dealt a blow after the Scotch whisky industry expressed major reservations. The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), which represents around 95 per cent of the iconic industry, told the Telegraph it had concerns over the EU introducing detrimental trade deals and directives with which the UK would have to comply. – Telegraph (£) EU’s Swiss proposal could serve as Brexit blueprint Brussels has proposed giving the European Court of Justice a big role in settling EU trade disputes with Switzerland in a move that could serve as a blueprint for a Brexit deal, despite many UK politicians’ mistrust of the tribunal. Two EU diplomats told the Financial Times that the commission set out a new approach this month to trade relations with Switzerland. It would set up a three-person arbitration panel to resolve disputes on condition that issues relating to EU law were referred to the ECJ. That would give the EU’s highest court the final say in interpreting large parts of the trade partnership. – FT (£) The Sun says: The Brexit clock is ticking and the Cabinet needs to act fast and hard now Can the Government not hear the Brexit clock ticking? We are 14 months from leaving and just weeks from trade talks starting. The Cabinet must decide what it wants, fast, and go hell for leather to get it. Even as good economic news pours in, too many ministers and civil servants still seem engulfed by Remainer defeatism, viewing Brexit as damage limitation instead of a golden opportunity. Nowhere is this more obvious, though, than the Bank of England, whose exaggerated pessimism before and since the referendum has led to bad decisions and proved embarrassingly wrong. The same goes for the Treasury. – The Sun editorial John Redwood: Macron’s visit is welcome but his gift unusual We are told France is not keen to talk Brexit, as the EU wishes to negotiate as a single entity. It must, however, be tempting for Mr Macron to tiptoe into this territory, as there are many French exporters, particularly of agricultural products, who will not fancy the UK going over to trade with the rest of the EU under WTO terms as that will mean high tariffs on some foods they produce. The EU says it is going to take a tough stance on a trade deal. They are ones with a large surplus, so that too is curious choice. We can always grow more of our food and take tariffs off the foods like citrus fruits we do not grow for ourselves which come from elsewhere in the world if they want to go over to tariff-based trade. – John Redwood MP for the Times (£) Paul Marshall: The Bank of England’s anti-Brexit bias endangers its credibility The bank’s forecasts were so far adrift as to be embarrassing. And because the Bank of England not only makes predictions but also sets monetary policy, poor forecasting can lead to poor policy. Those errant forecasts provided the rationale for last year’s emergency cut in interest rates and additional quantitative easing that were, with the benefit of hindsight, unnecessary. The governor needs to be careful that the bank does not make more serious mistakes. If Mr Carney retains the biases exhibited to date, he is likely to regard departure from the EU in March 2019 as bad news for the UK economy and therefore retain a loose monetary policy bias. – Sir Paul Marshall for the FT (£) Simon Usherwood: A ‘full monty’ Brexit transition would tide Britain over, but it has its own share of problems Any transition arrangement will come with significant implications, for both the UK and the EU. As a short-run proposition, the ‘full monty’ comes with various advantages, both pragmatic and economic, and it is currently the only offer on the table. But it still comes with a number of immediate and not-insignificant issues, which would get even worse if transition were to be extended. Thus the paradox of a ‘full monty’ is that while it represents the most viable way of covering the gap from March 2019, it also contains potentially more political, legal and financial problems that harder (i.e. less EU-aligned) models if transition takes longer than planned. Whether an alternative can be designed by either side in the coming months remains to be seen. – Simon Usherwood for the Telegraph (£) James Rogers: The US and UK have been subsidising Europe’s security for years The wealthier Europeans, of course, want no attention drawn to their inability to protect their integrationist dream. They will respond by claiming that the EU is distinct from Nato, or even that the EU bears greater responsibility for European peace. Yet such assertions are as mythical as they are false. European integration is a product of peace and security on the mainland, not its cause. So while the EU has undoubtedly helped to dampen distrust between ancient opponents, the real reason order finally emerged in Europe, and indeed, across most of the Euro-Atlantic region, is because of the commitment of the UK and US. They have been willing to cough up the cash to provide sophisticated armed forces and nuclear systems to deter countries – both within and without Nato, and by extension the EU – from disrupting the status quo. – James Rogers for CapX Brian Wilson: The one thing that could make me a Brexiteer For years we heard the EU blamed for unwanted diktats, from ferries to environmental designations. Is all this to be forgotten as Sturgeon promotes the new article of faith that Brussels is the font of goodness while life without it would be intolerable? That case has to be argued rather than asserted from Edinburgh in a glossy brochure filled with worst-case scenarios which probably won’t happen. An almost comical touch was added with a map which showed, via a big blob, that we send 43 per cent of our “international” exports to the EU. Sadly, the map did not show the 63 per cent of our overall exports (worth four times as much) that we send to the rest of the UK, the single market which Ms Sturgeon is hell-bent on breaking up. That contradiction does not go unnoticed. – Brian Wilson for the Scotsman Jane Merrick: Royal Mail should deliver on Brexit stamps As easy as it is for Remainers like me to mock Brexit stamps, I’m starting to come round to the idea. As supporters say, it used to be the case that only momentous events — royal weddings and jubilees, anniversaries of the birth of Shakespeare or Jane Austen or the first flight of Concorde — were deemed significant enough for a commemorative set. But from the 1970s onwards, Royal Mail has been issuing roughly one set a month, featuring everything from wildflowers to Pink Floyd, cars to Game of Thrones. – Jane Merrick for the Times (£) Brexit in brief In the post-Brexit world, England deserves its own Parliament – LSE Brexit What should we make of Emmanuel Macron’s Bayeux Tapestry offer? – Dominic Waghorn for Sky News Tories weaponise EU withdrawal bill vote – Katy Balls for the Spectator Parliament rejects possibility of membership of the single market and customs union again – John Redwood’s Diary Historic triumph as the UK prepares to leave the European Union – Express editorial How Kevin Kühnert, the 28-year-old you’ve never heard of, could upend German politics – Telegraph (£) Bundesbank chief links EU migration to pay pressure in Germany – FT (£) EU’s heart might be open, but Britain’s isn’t – Ipsos Mori The unlikely Brexiteers: Life after the vote – Telegraph