Theresa May agrees political declaration on future ties with the EU… The prime minister and Brussels signed off today [Thursday] on a much-anticipated 26-page future relationship document that commits both sides to forging an “ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership” but defers critical decisions on Britain’s long-term relationship with the EU until after Brexit. Mrs May’s allies hoped that the vagueness of the document could help her to sell the deal to hardline Brexiteer backbenchers, and that a commitment in the text to consider a technological solution to the Irish border problem could assuage doubts about the backstop insurance plan. However, Mrs May’s attempt to fashion a deal that both Brussels and her backbenchers could support faltered within hours. – The Times (£) Theresa May declares Brexit ‘within our grasp’ – Express Draft agreement on future relationship right for UK, says May – BBC News > WATCH: Theresa May: A deal is “within our grasp” …but Leavers maintain her deal amounts to total ‘surrender’ to the EU… Theresa May faced another backlash from her MPs on Thursday as she insisted that her Brexit deal was “the right deal for the UK”. Mrs May told the House of Commons that the Withdrawal Agreement would take back control of the UK’s laws, borders and money. “The deal that will enable us to do this is now in our grasp,” she told the House of Commons, “and I will do everything possible to deliver it to the people.” But Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, claimed the divorce settlement made “a complete nonsense of Brexit”. Other Brexiteer MPs described the agreement as a “betrayal” of the referendum that amounted to total “surrender”. “Everything the EU wanted from the negotiations has ended up in the Withdrawal Agreement – which is a legally enforceable international treaty,” said Conservative MP Priti Patel. “That’s why we’re going to stay in the EU customs union, remain subject to judgments of the European Court, imperil our Union and allow the EU to have a veto over when we can leave the backstop…this is a costly surrender by the UK Government.” – Telegraph (£) May attacked from all sides after EU exit deal unveiled – The Times (£) > WATCH: Dominic Raab MP: “Isn’t it the regrettable & inescapable reality that this deal gives even more away” …with half of Tory backbenchers set to vote it down Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been rejected by a string of senior Tory MPs in the Commons as it emerged that half of her backbenchers could vote against it. The Prime Minister was told by MPs, including Boris Johnson, to “junk” her backstop plan for keeping the Irish border open, which he said “makes a nonsense of Brexit”. The Prime Minister attempted to rally Tory MPs after signing off a 26-page future relationship with the EU that commits both sides to an “ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership”. But in the Commons the agreement was attacked by those who support both remain and leave. A total of 87 Tory MPs are now publicly opposed to the deal, meaning half of her backbenchers could vote against Mrs May’s plan in the Commons. One Cabinet minister told The Telegraph that they fear it now has “zero” chance of getting through the critical vote next month. – Telegraph (£) Eurosceptics find only strained relations with May on Brexit – FT (£) Theresa May to appeal over the heads of MPs for Brexit deal backing Theresa May is to turn to Britain’s business leaders and the public to sell her Brexit deal, after a new political declaration on a future UK-EU relationship failed to win over Conservative Eurosceptic MPs. Mrs May believes she can turn the political debate in the next three weeks by going over the heads of MPs, mobilising corporate Britain and persuading her critics at Westminster that the public are clamouring for a deal “in the national interest”. The prime minister on Thursday night hosted Northern Ireland business leaders in Downing Street as she put pressure on her allies in the Democratic Unionist party to drop their opposition to her plan. But her drive to win business backing ran into trouble when it emerged that a senior figure at the CBI employers’ lobby, which has publicly backed Mrs May’s strategy, was less supportive of the prime minister in private. Nicole Sykes, the CBI’s head of EU negotiations, said in an internal email obtained by ITV News there was “no need to give credit to the negotiators . . . because it’s not a good deal”. – FT (£) Theresa May appeals over MPs’ heads for Brexit support – Politico Email blunder reveals that even the CBI think ‘It’s not a good deal’ The Confederation of British Industry claims to be the ‘Voice of Business’. Before the EU referendum, the vast majority of the 190,000 companies who are its members wanted Britain to remain in the EU. But on Monday the CBI gave a warm welcome to the prime minister who plans to lead Britain out – and the draft deal she has negotiated. The Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said: “It’s not perfect, it’s a compromise, but it’s progress. It takes us back from the cliff edge, avoids no deal, charts potential path to future frictionless trade deal. That is progress, we should not go backwards.” Today the government and the EU updated their vision of their future relationship. The political declaration is aspirational, lacks detail and isn’t legally binding. The CBI issued a statement, welcoming it. Josh Hardie, the CBI’s Deputy Director General said “It appears that we’re on the cusp on a much-needed agreement. “This shows that a deal can be done and businesses across the continent will be watching this weekend’s EU Summit closely.” – ITV News Theresa May’s Brexit deal slammed as ‘not good’ in leaked CBI emails – The Mirror Spanish Prime Minister renews veto threat against draft Brexit deal Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, threatened again to veto a draft Brexit agreement between the UK and EU after Theresa May suggested on Thursday that she had reached an agreement with her Spanish counterpart on the issue of Gibraltar. Mr Sánchez had previously warned he would block a deal without language making clear that Gibraltar was excluded from any future UK-EU free trade agreement, unless otherwise agreed between Madrid and London. After Britain and Brussels agreed on a draft political declaration on future relations on Thursday, and following positive comments from Ms May about a conversation with Mr Sánchez, the Spanish PM took to Twitter to voice his displeasure. “After my conversation with Theresa May, our positions remain distant”, he wrote. “My government will always defend the interests of Spain. If there are no changes we will veto the Brexit.” – FT (£) Spanish fight to the bitter end over Britain’s grip on Gibraltar – The Times (£) The real reason Spain is blocking May’s Brexit deal – Express Spain hits out at ‘maliciously’ changed Brexit text – Politico DUP activists set to vent fury over May’s ‘gross betrayal’ on Brexit When the Democratic Unionist party gathers for its annual conference on Saturday, leader Arlene Foster will seek to rally activists behind her rejection of Theresa May’s draft EU exit treaty that tramples over her “blood red” lines. The conference, coming on the eve of the EU summit expected to approve the deal, does not make policy, said Sammy Wilson, DUP Brexit spokesman. But even though Conservatives Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and leading Brexiter Boris Johnson are expected to attend — the former to “calm things down” after DUP MPs voted against Budget measures, according to his allies — Mr Wilson said the meeting would send a “clear” signal to the prime minister. “I’m sure that the party conference will be a strong message that the party wants all its MPs and opportunities in the [House of] Commons to oppose the deal which we will do,” he said. – FT (£) Scottish Tory MP who ousted SNP Westminster leader last year warns he will find it ‘very difficult’ to back Brexit deal A Scottish Tory MP who ousted the SNP’s deputy leader in last year’s general election has said he will find it “very difficult” to support Theresa May’s Brexit deal despite her strong assurances over fishing. Douglas Ross, the Moray MP, told the Telegraph the newly-published “political declaration” on post-Brexit trading relations with the EU was too “ambiguous” to provide the certainty his fishing communities “expect or deserve.” Mr Ross, who unseated the SNP’s Angus Robertson, said that he will have to vote on the deal next month but will not know the outcome of fisheries talks for years. His intervention is a blow to Theresa May’s efforts to get her deal through the Commons amid a concerted campaign to win over wavering Scottish Tory MPs. Mrs May stridently denied accusations the agreement means the UK will be forced to give up fishing quota in return for tariff-free access to EU markets. The Prime Minister told the Commons that the Government had “vigorously resisted” EU demands for such a link and fisheries “is not something we will be trading off against any other priorities.” – Telegraph (£) Keir Starmer warns Labour MPs: Voting for Theresa May’s Brexit deal is against national interest The Shadow Brexit Secretary said that the agreement the Prime Minister has secured with Brussels is “a bad deal” and does not warrant their support. Mrs May faces a Commons showdown in December when MPs get a chance to vote on her blueprint. Labour has vowed to vote against the deal – which is all-but certain to be defeated after dozens of Tory MPs went public to confirm they will not support it either. In an interview with the House Magazine, Mr Starmer sent a bold message to any wavering Labour MPs on both sides of the Brexit debate who might be tempted to back the deal. “I think the most important thing is that this is not a good deal. This is a bad deal,” he said. “And it’s not in the national interest to vote for a bad deal. Even the Prime Minister isn’t really selling it as a good deal. She’s simply selling it as better than no deal – so she’s not even setting a high bar for herself. There is no national interest in voting for a bad deal.” – PoliticsHome Brussels warns fish and chips at risk unless Britain caves to EU fishing demands Brussels has warned Britain that Brexit will stop its people eating fish and chips unless the UK caves to EU demands to fish its waters. Theresa May on Thursday told MPs she had “firmly rejected” a demand for access to fisheries in return for a UK-EU trade deal. Minutes later, Sabine Weyand, the European Union’s deputy Brexit negotiator, tweeted that a fisheries agreement was “in the best interests of both sides” and shared research that showed Britain needs EU imports of cod and haddock to keep eating fish and chips. Britain catches only 5 per cent of the cod it eats, about 21,000 tonnes, and imports the rest, equivalent to 110,000 tonnes. More than half of UK-consumed haddock, which is also used in fish and chips, is imported, amounting to 47,000 tonnes last year. The top two UK catches are mackerel and herring but they are almost entirely for export to the Netherlands and Norway. The UK sends 81% of its mackerel, and 93% of its herring abroad. – Telegraph (£) Surge in migrants trying to reach Britain before Brexit Police will have to cope with a surge in migrants trying to reach Britain because of claims by people-trafficking gangs that the Channel crossing will become more difficult after Brexit, French officials claim. The warnings from gangs have led to an increase in attempts to cross the Channel by boat and car in recent weeks, Pascal Marconville, the state prosecutor in Boulogne-sur-Mer near Calais, said. He said the gangs were telling migrants that if they wanted to get to the UK, they needed to do so before it leaves the EU in March, claiming that British border controls will be reinforced after this. The result has been a sudden increase in arrests at ferry ports in Calais and the Channel since the start of October. There has been no suggestion from Whitehall that there are any plans to increase security around Britain’s borders and the claims are widely seen as attempts by people traffickers to spark panic and raise more money. – The Times (£) Jacob Rees-Mogg says he won’t stand to replace Theresa May – as feuding Tory Brexiteers turn on each other after coup flop Jacob Rees-Mogg today ruled himself out as a replacement for Theresa May – and backed Boris Johnson instead. The top Brexiteer joked that if he put his hat in the ring it would be “thrown back” at him like Bond villain Oddjob. And he suggested that Boris would make a better PM because he “makes politics interesting and has the qualities of leadership”. Mr Rees-Mogg’s comments came as his allies in the European Research Group turned on each other in the wake of the failed coup against the PM. Writing in the Spectator, Mr Rees-Mogg defended his decision to call for a vote of no confidence in Mrs May. He admitted: “It was naive of me to expect the Prime Minister to change her policy. It is not how it works – the wrong policy means the wrong person.” But he added: “If there were a leadership election, which I hope there will be, I would not throw my hat into the ring as I fear it would be thrown back ‘Oddjob’ style.” – The Sun Why Boris Johnson would make a good leader (and I wouldn’t) – Jacob Rees-Mogg for The Spectator > WATCH:Jacob Rees-Mogg at the EU Negotiations Statement UK could still be tied to EU rules at next general election Changes to the Brexit withdrawal agreement mean the UK could still be in the so-called “transition period” by the end of 2022 – more than six years after the EU referendum. That is despite Theresa May insisting that she wants to be out of the temporary arrangement by the time of the next election, which is due in May, 2022. At the moment, the transition period – during which the UK will still be in the customs union and single market – is due to end on 31 December, 2020. UK and European negotiators had failed to finalise the details of how long any one-off extension to it could run when finalising the withdrawal agreement. It has now emerged that the final wording of the 585-page document says: “The joint committee may, before 1 July 2020, adopt a single decision extending the transition period for up to one or two years.” – PoliticsHome Fraser Nelson: Cabinet Brexiteers are gambling on a managed No Deal – and there’s a good chance their bet will pay off If the Foreign Secretary believes that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is a “Turkey trap” then why is he still in her Cabinet, helping her build that trap? If the Attorney General regards the deal as a pathetic life raft made of “oil drums and a plastic sail”, why is he still assisting in its launch? Jeremy Hunt, Geoffrey Cox, Liam Fox, Andrea Leadsom, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove: all are known to be in despair about the fate of Brexit – but none have resigned. To their critics, they embody the Tory spinelessness that led to this mess; the “pizza plotters” who can eat together, but not much more. But there is another explanation: that they are staying because they expect Mrs May’s deal to be rejected by Parliament and think someone needs to be around in Cabinet to help salvage the Brexit project. They don’t agree on everything (indeed, Mrs Leadsom doesn’t even like pizza) but they think that, if the vote fails, Brexit can then be saved by those ministers who have had the stomach to stay around. Fanciful? Perhaps. But the rationale is worth exploring. – Fraser Nelson for the Telegraph (£) John Crace: MPs pile on from all sides to trash May’s Brexit non-deal deal It was hard to see what all the fuss had been about. The intellectual legend that is David Davis had always said securing a future trade arrangement with the EU would be the easiest deal in the history of David Davis Land. And in the end he was proved right. It was so easy that the government chose not to do anything about it for the best part of two and a half years and then cobbled something together at the last minute. A day after her brief trip to Brussels, Theresa May came to the Commons to present the deal that she and Jean-Claude Juncker had scribbled down over 26 pages. What she had wasn’t a deal exactly – more a vague declaration that things might work out OK at some point over the next 15 years or more. Some things would happen if other unspecified things were also to happen. And if those things weren’t to happen, then some other unspecified things would happen as a result. – John Crace for the Guardian Michael Deacon: At Lancaster House, Theresa May talked tough to the EU. It all feels such a long time ago In January last year, Theresa May gave a speech setting forth her demands for the Brexit negotiations. It was stirring stuff – as was reflected in the next day’s headlines. “May to EU: Give Us Fair Deal or You’ll Be Crushed,” proclaimed the Times. “May’s Brexit Threat to Europe,” announced the Guardian. The most impressed, though, was the Daily Mail. “Steel of the New Iron Lady,” trumpeted its front page. Mrs May, it went on, had “put Cameron’s feeble negotiations to shame with an ultimatum to Brussels: We’ll walk away from a bad deal – and make EU pay.” Yes, that really was the mood of the time. Less than two years ago, it was. What a wild, wild ride it’s been. Today the Prime Minister made a statement to MPs on her latest progress. Gamely she insisted that her proposed deal passed each of the “six tests” Labour had set. She rattled through them, one by one. “Does it ensure a strong and collaborative future relationship? Yes!” she cried. “Does it ensure the fair management of migration in the interests of the economy? Yes!” – Michael Deacon for the Telegraph (£) Ambrose Rose-Pritchard: Believe it or not, this is the easy part of Brexit: Talks with the EU will get harder from now on Just remember one thing. This is the easy stage of Brexit. The Withdrawal Agreement passes by qualified majority voting. It cannot be vetoed by one country taking the accord hostage in pursuit of national goals. (Yes, Ireland has a de facto veto, but this is an EU-27 gesture of political solidarity.) The future relationship and trade deal requires the support of every country and must be ratified by every national parliament. The Walloon parliament – which single-handedly held up the EU CETA deal with Canada – may stick in its oar. This is a nightmare waiting to happen. The last-minute objections raised by the Spanish and the French this week are a foretaste of what it is going to be like in 2020. All that Theresa May’s plan achieves is to postpone the showdown. The battle will be held later on far less favourable terrain. – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph (£) John Redwood: Is that it? The Political declaration with the EU As expected, the latest draft of the Political document about our possible future partnership with the EU is empty of any enforceable content of benefit to the UK. It is an invitation to trade and customs talks extending over an unspecified period, delaying our exit from the EU. Far from taking back control of our money, our laws, and our borders, this Agreement if signed alongside the Withdrawal Agreement which is legally binding means we stay in and have no unilateral right to leave if the talks prove fruitless. – John Redwood’s Diary Asa Bennett: Five things in Theresa May’s Brexit future that will give Leavers hope — and five that will horrify them Fresh from agreeing an outline of the “ambitious, broad, deep and flexible” partnership the United Kingdom and the European Union want to seek after Brexit, Theresa May has declared it “the right deal for the UK”. Would Brexiteers agree? The document is not legally binding, with former trade official David Henig comparing it to a wishlist “addendum to the Withdrawal Agreement saying ‘and we all lived happily ever after'”. However, it gives a strong indication of the future both sides will be set to pursue under Mrs May’s watch from next March. The agreement is riven with ambiguous fudge, allowing both sides to read into it what they want, as exemplified by one of its early paragraphs mashing together the EU’s key demands with those of the UK. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Robert Peston: Why May’s Brexit deal is set to be defeated in Parliament First things first, there has been a widespread misunderstanding of why Angela Merkel made it known yesterday that if the Brexit deal – Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration – wasn’t done and dusted by today, she would not be bothering to turn up in Brussels to formally ratify it on Sunday. Her conspicuous intervention was not aimed at putting pressure on Theresa May to be more emollient in the last leg of negotiations. The German Chancellor was in fact asking the likes of the Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez to stop misbehaving and causing unnecessary bother (Sanchez has been playing to a domestic audience by saying he would block any agreement that deprived him of a veto on the future of Gibraltar). “The chancellor was doing the PM a favour” said an official. – Robert Peston for ITV News Telegraph: Why do we need a backstop in the Withdrawal Agreement? What does the Political Declaration on a framework for the future relationship between the UK and EU actually change? The document, published yesterday and hailed by No 10, contains some good things, some bad things – and a lot that is left up to the imagination. Supporters say the sunlit uplands are in sight: controlled borders and a deep trade partnership. Critics note that it demands a “level playing field” (ruling out much deregulation), an arbitration process that involves European courts, even a guarantee that the UK will defer to the European Court of Human Rights. Most importantly, the Declaration is just a statement of intent and is not legally binding. The Withdrawal Agreement is. Any MP who was once against, but now is tempted to vote for the Agreement because they like the sound of the Declaration, must bear this in mind. – Telegraph editorial (£) The Sun says: Theresa May’s Brexit deal is just a woolly and contradictory wishlist that barely binds Brussels to anything Theresa May did a decent job defending her Brexit deal yesterday. But it is still just a woolly and even contradictory wishlist that barely binds Brussels to anything. The cost of these vague promises? Some 39 thousand million pounds. This “political declaration” about the future is predicated on Brussels negotiating a trade deal in good faith, a quality they have never shown since the referendum result they are even now desperate to overthrow. Why would their puerile desire to “punish” Britain abate once we nominally leave next March Especially when under the terms now agreed they can trap us in the Customs Union for ever? The PM claims the EU wouldn’t want us there, benefiting from it for free, having ended free movement. But that’s a price Brussels will surely pay to cripple us as a trading rival on their doorstep. That said, the deal is NOT all bad. Downing Street rightly trumpets that it ends free movement and our massive membership subscription, protects jobs and secures our fishing rights (for now). And Mrs May, to her considerable credit, pushed the EU into an extraordinary U-turn over a high-tech solution to police the Irish border. Remember how glibly they once sneered at that idea? – The Sun Iain Martin: Tories are preparing for an emergency PM To the fundamental theorem of arithmetic – first explored and recorded by the Greek mathematician Euclid in 300 BC – we can now add the ERG formula. That is, if any number is attached to a confident claim made by a group of Tory rebel MPs, members of the pro-Brexit European Research Group in particular, then that number should be cut in half. And even then the accurate number adjusted for reality might still turn out to be on the high side. This week when Tory rebels were supposed to have 48 letters ready to trigger a challenge to Theresa May, they turned out, pitifully, to have only around half of the number claimed. Cue amusement. Brexiteers were revealed as a bitterly divided rabble, with some regarding the timing of a leadership challenge as madness. “It was very stupid,” says a former minister. “Would have been far better to wait a few weeks for May’s deal to fail. I tried to tell them. They wouldn’t listen. They never do.” – Iain Martin for The Times (£) Alan Cochrane: Theresa May pledges fisheries ‘not expendable’ in EU deal A desperate attempt by the SNP to paint a picture of yet another Tory “betrayal” of Britain’s, but principally Scotland’s, fishing industry in her Brexit deal appeared to be shuddering to a halt last night. It has always been an easy insult to hurl, given that even the most ardent Conservative would have to admit that way back in 1971 Geoffrey Rippon, Edward Heath’s chief negotiator for admission to what was then the EEC, had declared that our fisheries were “expendable”. Thus was born Britain’s compulsory membership of the Common Fisheries Policy, the demise of a once great industry, the decimation of the British fishing fleet and the virtual extinction of this country’s deep-sea fleet – so much so that what remains of it is concentrated in the North East of Scotland. As a result it has been a touchstone for Scottish Tories to make sure that the deal with the EU that she’s recommending to the nation does not maintain, in any shape or form, the restrictions of the CFP. – Alan Cochrane for the Telegraph (£) Leo McKinstry: Why DUP’s talk of betrayal may mean no Brexit at all The threat is all the more potent because the DUP, led by Arlene Foster, has been in a formal alliance with the Conservative Government since Theresa May’s botched general election last year. With the Tories in a minority at Westminster they rely on backing from the DUP’s 10 MPs to stay in office. But now the bonds of this partnership are fracturing as the DUP talks of betrayal and broken promises on Brexit. Already this week the Unionists have displayed their willingness to flex their muscles by voting with Labour or abstaining on a string of amendments to the Budget. Holding the balance of power in the Commons, they could make life a nightmare for the Government. Jim Shannon, the MP for Strangford, has told Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley that “you’re going to get a very rude awakening”. Some English Brexiteers appear to regard the DUP’s stance as heroic with the Ulster party portrayed as the true guardians of British independence. – Leo McKinstry for the Express Brexit in Brief May’s monumental mistake is misinterpreting what Leavers want – Ryan Bourne for the Telegraph (£) The Brexit political declaration confirms we are heading to a blind Brexit – Ross Clark for The Spectator Theresa May has survived her most dangerous week In No.10. Can she now get her Brexit deal through the Commons? – Paul Waugh for the Huffington Post Hillary Clinton says Europe must limit immigration to stop rise of Right-wing populism – Telegraph (£) Diplomats puzzled at Theresa May’s Brussels visit – Politico Gordon Brown: Use X Factor votes to break Brexit deadlock – The Times (£) Labour’s Brexit policy demolished by own member on Question Time – Express And finally… Mr Blobby goes on Loose Women to talk Brexit Mr Blobby has appeared on daytime TV to offer his thoughts on the state of Brexit. The children’s TV character, who was famous for his starring role on Noel’s House Party, has turned reality on its head and appeared on Loose Women to discuss his thoughts the hottest political topic in the UK. Although Blobby gained a cult reputation for being a clumsy buffoon, he had some sobering thoughts on what would happen if Britain walked away without an EU trade agreement. After he had stopped speaking about his friend and former co-star Noel Edmonds’ appearance on I’m A Celebrity, Blobby came into his own when he was quizzed on the outcome of a no-deal Brexit. “On Brexit, do you think that if there’s a no deal, slash the 12,651 EU protectionist tariffs, will that result in a loss or a gain to the UK treasury?” asked Loose Women panellist Jane Moore. – i News