Theresa May faces her day of reckoning on Brexit – and is warned it will not end well… Theresa May will face a day of reckoning on Friday as she tables one last vote on her Brexit deal despite warnings from her closest aides and ministers that she is destined for yet another defeat. The Prime Minister has promised to resign if she gets a deal through Parliament, but Eurosceptic MPs have insisted she must announce the timetable of her departure on Friday regardless of the result. On the day that Britain was supposed to have left the EU, the vote marks a final roll of the dice for Mrs May after two years of Brexit negotiations. In a move described as “desperate” by critics, Mrs May announced on Thursday that she will ask MPs to vote on only one part of the Brexit deal – the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement – in the hope that the whole deal will be agreed at a later date. If MPs agree to her plan, Britain will be able to leave the EU with a deal on May 22. If it is rejected, a long extension is the most likely outcome, with Britain having to take part in the European Parliament elections in May. – Telegraph (£) … as she raises the stakes with a vote on the WIthdrawal Agreement without the Political Declaration Theresa May is preparing to put a stripped-down divorce deal to MPs tomorrow as she raises the stakes with the DUP. Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House, told MPs that it would sit on March 29 — originally slated as Brexit day — to consider a motion on withdrawal from the European Union. Crucially, Mrs Leadsom did not commit to bringing back the meaningful vote for the third time. Instead, to comply with Brussels’ conditions for a short delay to Brexit, the government needs only to pass the divorce element of her deal – the withdrawal agreement. The second part of the deal – the political declaration – is needed for formal ratification but the EU could allow the UK more time to hammer out the final details before May 22. The option of splitting the votes will heap pressure on Labour and the DUP, since both would be forced to oppose the divorce deal and could then be blamed for forcing either a no-deal exit or a lengthy delay of a year or more. – The Times (£) DUP leader Arlene Foster urged to save Brexit by backing May’s deal in crunch vote Arlene Foster was last night begged to save Brexit by backing Theresa May’s deal in a crunch vote today. The PM yesterday decided to put her EU agreement back before MPs on the original Brexit day of March 29 – in one final gamble. And Tories urged the DUP leader to change her mind and hand 10 crucial votes to the Government – after she vowed her party would oppose it. One senior Tory said: “Come on Arlene – think of the national interest”. An MP told The Sun: “They could go from the Democratic Unionist Party to the Deeply Unpopular Party in one afternoon.” A third crushing loss for the PM’s deal today is expected to open the door to Parliament imposing a ‘super-soft’ Brexit on the nation – or a second referendum. Frantic last minute attempts were under way last night to try to talk round the DUP – led by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, a former chief whip with close links to the Ulster unionist party. – The Sun Arch ’No Deal’ champion Lord Lilley urges MPs to back Theresa May’s deal or lose Brexit Tory ‘No Deal’ champion Lord Lilley yesterday urged MPs to back the PM’s deal – as one said he’d rather put a “gun in my mouth”. Outspoken arch Eurosceptic Mark Francois said there was no way he would follow Boris Johnson and back Theresa May’s agreement. He declared: “I wouldn’t vote for it if they put a shotgun in my mouth”. But Lord Lilley yesterday begged Eurosceptic colleagues to switch sides – or lose their Brexit dream altogether. He branded the PM’s deal with Brussels “appalling.” But he said there was “effectively zero” chance of a No Deal Brexit. And he warned Parliament would take over if the PM’s deal fell for a third time on Friday. Speaking to The Sun he said: “If the Withdrawal Agreement is defeated there will be a long extension leading ineluctably to remaining in the EU- probably via a rigged referendum.” He added: “In this fallen world we often have to make choices between two evils – This appalling Withdrawal Agreement is the lesser evil.” The Tory peer – who lost his seat in the 2017 Election – has been one of the most outspoken advocates for a No Deal. – The Sun > Jonathan Isaby on BrexitCentral today: Why I’ve reluctantly concluded that MPs need to vote for Theresa May’s deal EU plans further year’s Brexit delay for deadlocked Britain… Britain faces another year in the European Union if MPs refuse to approve a central part of Theresa May’s deal during an emergency sitting of parliament today. On the date the country was due to leave the bloc, the Commons will be asked to vote in favour of a stripped-down version of the deal, consisting of only the withdrawal agreement. Approving this is an essential condition set by the EU for a short extension of the Article 50 process. However, as protesters led by Nigel Farage gather outside parliament, there seems little chance that the vote will succeed, with Jeremy Corbyn and the DUP rejecting the idea. EU leaders are preparing to force Britain either to accept a delay lasting as long as a year at a special summit on April 10 or to crash out without agreement, senior Brussels officials say. Preparations for the UK to take part in European parliament elections on May 23, a condition of remaining in the bloc to avoid a no-deal, will be stepped up today. Returning officers are being placed on standby across the country. Officials from the Cabinet Office and Electoral Commission will also run through plans for the elections at a Whitehall meeting. – The Times (£) Britain faces another year in the EU unless MPs pass Theresa May’s Brexit deal today – The Sun …while moving into crisis mode with plans too for a no-deal Brexit The EU has moved into full crisis mode, with officials now setting the terms the UK will have to meet for Brussels to open talks on avoiding an economic meltdown in the weeks after a no-deal Brexit. In anticipation of a no-deal outcome on 12 April after MPs voted down eight Brexit options on Wednesday, and the likely rejection of the withdrawal agreement on Friday, EU ambassadors on Thursday morning opened discussions on the terms to be set for the bloc to return to the negotiating table. The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told the diplomats during the meeting that a no deal was now “the most plausible outcome”, and that there was an urgent need to war-game the bloc’s response to it. The EU is to step up its “full-on crisis” preparations, according to a diplomatic note. It was agreed among the member states that for there to be any talks after the UK has crashed out, the bloc’s 27 capitals will expect Downing Street to agree to signal by 18 April that it will pay the £39bn Brexit bill despite the failure of the Commons to ratify the withdrawal agreement. The terms of the Irish backstop, keeping Northern Ireland in large parts of single market legislation and the EU’s customs territory in order to protect the Good Friday agreement, would remain as the bloc’s solution for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. – Guardian Even the French think it’s time for Britain to leave the EU – saying another referendum would be a ‘denial of democracy’ Emmanuel Macron’s top advisor on Europe has said Britain shouldn’t hold a second referendum and signalled France could block a long Brexit delay. Nathalie Loiseau, who is the French President’s lead candidate for the EU elections, said another vote would be a “denial of democracy”. And she warned against the political “chaos” gripping the UK being allowed to infect Europe, insisting the time was right for us to leave the bloc. She said: “There is chaos, there is confusion. I’m against a new referendum because it would be a denial of democracy. Britain must leave.” Mr Macron opposes a long extension and has lobbied other EU leaders hard to keep any delay to Brexit as short as possible. His ex Europe minister intervened as it emerged capitals will insist Britain pays the divorce bill and accepts the backstop even if there’s no deal. – The Sun Labour backs indefinite delay to Brexit by extending Article 50 – to avoid another cliff-edge Labour backed an indefinite delay to Brexit on Thursday – in order to avoid another cliff-edge. Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said “setting another clock ticking would just repeat the mistakes of the last two years”. He wants MPs to decide a plan that gains a majority before returning to Brussels to request an extension. Sir Keir said: “We said we want an extension which is as short as possible. But what I am concerned about is that we have a purpose, that we know why it is that we want an extension and what we are trying to achieve.” He added: “We need to know what the majority is, we need to agree a purpose and then we will know for how long we need an extension. That will be a matter of discussion with the EU.” Labour’s Brexit boss also said the next round of pick-and-mix votes on Monday should include four options – despite MPs already voting on eight on Wednesday. Based on Wednesday’s results, those options could include a customs union, a second referendum, Labour’s alternative Brexit plan and the Common Market 2.0 proposal for a Norway-style deal alongside a customs arrangement. – The Sun Andrea Leadsom tells MPs they could lose out on their two-week Easter break because of Brexit Exhausted MPs were yesterday told their Easter holidays could be axed because of the bitter Brexit deadlock. Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom said Parliament would now probably have to sit during the two-week break, which was due to start from April 8. It comes after MPs had their half-term holidays cancelled in mid-February. The move is likely to enrage MPs, who have complained they were left out of pocket when Parliament refused to refund their axed February holidays. Announcing the plans to weary MPs, Mrs Leadsom said: “Colleagues will note that at this moment in time we’re not bringing forward the motion for Easter recess. I know members have a great deal of responsibilities to carry out in their constituencies and with other matters. However the House rightly needs time to address our exit from the EU and our constituents will expect us to work flat-out.” – The Sun Dominic Raab positions himself as the no-deal Brexit candidate to succeed Theresa May… Dominic Raab has set out his stall as the “no deal Brexit” candidate for the Conservative Party leadership as he broke his silence on Theresa May’s deal. The former Brexit Secretary refused to support the Withdrawal Agreement and said he would prefer to leave the EU without a deal. More than 20 Brexiteers, including Boris Johnson, have this week switched to back her deal. On Thursday Mr Raab said the UK should “go back to the EU again” to press for changes to the backstop – and be prepared to leave without a deal on April 12 if that does not work. The comments will appeal to Brexiteer Tories and could win their backing as their preferred contender to replace Mrs May. One senior backbench MP told the Daily Telegraph: “It’s an interesting alignment”, pointing out 157 Tory MPs voted for no deal in Wednesday’s indicative votes. – Telegraph (£) …as Liz Truss hints she’ll run for PM after backing Canada-style trade deal favoured by Brexiteers… Liz Truss dropped a heavy hint she will run to replace Theresa May yesterday by throwing her weight behind a Canada-style free trade deal backed by Brexiteers. And the Chief Secretary to the Treasury also laid out a raft of popular policies to rocket-boost the economy. She called for hated business rates to be slashed to help the High Street. Ms Truss said the Government should use some of the £18 billion a year of taxpayers’ subsidised business support cash to cut business rates. Speaking at the British Chamber of Commerce conference in central London she also reiterated calls for a major overhaul of planning rules to stimulate more homebuilding. In a clear pitch to Brexiteers ahead of the leadership contest triggered by the PM announcing her departure, Ms Truss said: “I’m a free trader, I believe that we need to open our economy to the rest of the world, I would like to see us do a Canada-style free trade deal once we have left the EU.” – The Sun …while Jacob Rees-Mogg strongly hints he will back Boris Johnson in Tory leadership campaign Jacob Rees-Mogg has given his strongest hint yet that he backs Boris Johnson to replace Theresa May as Conservative party leader, saying he is a “formidably able candidate”. It is the most explicit endorsement of Mr Johnson by Mr Mogg since Mrs May announced on Wednesday night that she will stand down as Tory leader and Prime Minister if her Brexit deal is voted through by MPs. In an interview with Chopper’s Brexit Podcast, which you can watch by logging in or subscribing below, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “I will not be PM. I’m not going to be a candidate – that I wouldn’t have any support among MPs, though I might have some support amongst the party and the country.” Asked to confirm Westminster rumours that he will throw his weight behind Mr Johnson, he said the former foreign secretary “is a formidably able political figure”. – Telegraph (£) ‘We’re ready no matter what’ – Eurotunnel all set for a no-deal Brexit Eurotunnel has declared itself ready for a no-deal Brexit as it unveiled £13m of new infrastructure, including passport controls and additional border inspection posts in Calais. After two years of preparations, often in the absence of any government direction, and the millions of pounds spent on plans that may never be implemented, its parent company Getlink said it was “ready no matter what”. At the launch of the additions to its 650-hectare (1,606-acre) commercial fortress in Calais, the company said it believed it would be able to guarantee no extra delays on traffic going through the tunnel into the UK. And it hopes its new infrastructure combined with more staff will mean the mandatory animal health checks needed by the EU can be easily accommodated. “We do not expect any delays. We are ready. This preparation is for the worst case of no deal so that in that instance the traffic continues to flow through at the same rate as it does now,” said John Keefe, the director of public affairs at Getlink. – Guardian Peter Lilley: The Establishment has killed a proper Brexit – but now we must back May’s deal or lose our independence for good I agree with those who argue that leaving on WTO terms (with the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the EU) would be the best outcome. There was a small but non/zero chance we might get that by accident tomorrow which is why I have continued arguing for it. But our Remainer Parliament/Government and the EU will not allow that. The chance is now effectively zero. If the Withdrawal Agreement is defeated tomorrow there will be a long extension leading ineluctably to remaining in the EU – probably via a rigged referendum with the WTO option excluded. The choice MPs face is appalling. I believe that is deliberate. The Establishment was determined to give us such an dreadful choice that we might opt to stay. Put in its starkest terms we must choose between becoming a vassal state or remaining a province in a federalising Europe. If we stay in the EU we will not persuade Parliament or the people to try to leave again for a generation, by which time we may be even more deeply enmeshed. The failure of this attempt will make it seem too impossible a task. If we accept Mrs May’s appalling deal the dynamics are in the opposite direction. Once outside the EU, there will be a ratchet preventing our return – because that would involve accepting the Euro, Schengen, free movement, and an annual contribution without Mrs Thatcher’s rebate. – Lord Lilley for The Sun Iain Duncan Smith: If we don’t back the Prime Minister’s deal, the EU’s got us over a barrel Yes, Theresa May’s deal is very flawed. But after much reflection, I have reluctantly reached the conclusion that when we MPs debate it again today, I should support it. I urge my fellow members of the European Research Group to do so, too. Previously, I voted against the deal because I have passionately wanted Britain to get better terms, particularly on the Backstop. However, as a result of some inept negotiation, that has sadly not been the case. We have therefore been left with a difficult choice. My concern is that if we don’t approve the Prime Minister’s EU withdrawal deal, Brussels will have Britain over a barrel. Westminster would be obliged to come up with an alternative exit proposal by April 12. If that happens, I am convinced that the overwhelmingly Remainer majority in the Commons would try to force through a much softer Brexit, and possibly no Brexit at all. Not only that. The other 27 national EU leaders now have the power to respond by making it tougher for Britain by demanding an extension to Article 50. This could mean us staying in the EU for another two years and British voters taking part in the European Parliament elections in May. – Iain Duncan Smith MP for the Daily Mail Owen Paterson: We must resist the PM’s wretched deal – a clean Brexit is within sight It is no surprise that a Remain Parliament failed to reach any conclusion on the way ahead for Brexit on Wednesday, even when a number of its options were flavours of Remain. It is no surprise, either, that there is still no majority in the House for the wretched Withdrawal Agreement. Not a single word of it has changed since the Prime Minister first brought it back from Brussels. It was a bad deal then and it is a bad deal now. I will not vote for an agreement which sees the UK broken up, have laws imposed upon it by a foreign power, subjected to substantial fines for non-compliance, from which there is no unilateral right of exit, and pay £39 billion for the privilege. Tinkering with the Political Declaration is futile while the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement provides an intolerable starting point for future discussions. No future Prime Minister could start his or her tenure by tearing up a legally-binding international treaty. What is shocking is how many Conservatives – including Government Ministers – voted to revoke Article 50. Having voted to trigger it and having stood on a Manifesto promising to deliver Brexit, they are now openly contemptuous of the 17.4 million people who voted to Leave and all those voters who put them in office. – Owen Paterson MP for the Telegraph (£) Shanker Singham: MPs should back the PM’s deal. With the right leadership, we can still prosper Theresa May has now said she will step down if her deal is voted through so a new prime minister can take charge of the all-important negotiations on our future relationship with the EU. While attention will inevitably fall on the identity of the next Conservative Party Leader and Prime Minister, that new PM’s negotiating strategy will be crucial to realising the Brexit prize. My view of the Withdrawal Agreement has not changed. It cedes much of our negotiating leverage and certainly guides the future negotiation to a permanent customs union with the EU. As someone who passionately believes in the power of liberalising international trade to lift people out of poverty and boost prosperity, it is a matter of deep regret that we have ended up here. I have been asked many times whether I believe that, even under the shadow of the backstop, a successful negotiation of Phase Two would be possible. While this will be incredibly difficult, I do believe with the right team and the right approach, it is possible. But how? – Shanker Singham for the Telegraph (£) Nigel Farage: Only a revolution can save British politics now When Brexiteers wake up tomorrow, the ghastly reality that Britain is still a member of the EU will sink in. Those empty promises made by Theresa May that we would leave the bloc at 11pm this evening – deal or no deal – will doubtless echo in their minds. The sense of betrayal will be palpable. I have never known such levels of anger and disgust at our political class as exist now. Remain-backing MPs seizing control of the House of Commons agenda this week marked a new low. And yet even after hijacking Parliament in that horribly arrogant way, these anti-democrats could not find a majority for anything! I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The irony is that since June 23 2016 there has been a clear majority for something in this country, if only MPs would remove their heads from the sand. Brexit voters are more resolute now than they were 33 months ago. – Nigel Farage MEP for the Telegraph (£) Kate Hoey: Labour trying to force a second Brexit referendum is an insult to millions The Labour frontbench’s decision yesterday to whip its MPs to support a second referendum is a victory for those who have been wearing down my party’s commitment to honour the referendum. From the day after the UK voted Leave, most Labour MPs were shocked that the public had not followed their instructions to Remain, and some immediately determined to overturn that vote. They have sought out every procedure and parliamentary trick in order to delay and eventually prevent Brexit. Yesterday they were rewarded for their anti-democratic manoeuvrings. Labour whipped its MPs to support the “Beckett amendment”, which would require any deal to be put to a public vote in what would effectively amount to a second referendum. Although the amendment was defeated in the House last night , the decision to whip for a People’s Vote is a bitter blow to Labour’s loyal Leavers, and those who returned to voting Labour in 2017 after dallying with UKIP, helping to hand Jeremy Corbyn Labour’s biggest increase in vote share since 1945. – Kate Hoey MP for the Telegraph (£) > Laura Bierer-Nielsen on BrexitCentral today: The electoral consequences of backing a second referendum could be severe for Labour Mark Harper: For Brexit to happen at all, we must now back the deal The Commons has had two opportunities to consider the Cabinet’s Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration. On both occasions, the proposals were rejected by significant margins and, each time, I felt that it was necessary to vote against the proposals and my Party’s leadership, for the first time in my 14 years in Parliament. I took these difficult decisions for three reasons. First, because I was concerned about the risk to the integrity of the United Kingdom from the Northern Ireland backstop. Second, because of the risk of being trapped indefinitely in a customs union. Third, because of being left in a weak negotiating position for our future relationship. It is now clear from the events of the last few weeks in Parliament that there are many MPs who wish to frustrate the decision made by the British people in the EU referendum, and are prepared to stop at nothing to do so. The Cabinet’s Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration remain a bad set of proposals. The passage of time hasn’t changed this. – Mark Harper MP for ConservativeHome John Redwood: Another day, yet another debate on Brexit The government has decided to relaunch its deeply unpopular Withdrawal Agreement with new scares. MPs are being told there could be a General election, a big delay to Brexit, a no deal Brexit or revocation of Article 50, depending on who they are and what they most fear. The good news is most of the fears are contradictory and many of the more extreme Remain ones fanciful. The government reports to Eurosceptics almost with pleasure the progresss of the Letwin -Labour provisional coalition government which ran the highly successful debate and vote on options on Wednesday. This proved that if you give a lot of Remain leaning MPs a range of Remain leaning options they cannot agree on their preferred one. They tell us they could do worse things in the future. Surely the official coalition government can do a bit better and wrestle control of business back to itself? And why cant it use the privileges of government to prevent backbench legislation against government policy?It would help if the government dropped the bad Withdrawal Agreement which has created needless tensions with the DUP. Todays debate and vote shows the government has been too clever by half. It decided to bring back the Withdrawal Agreement without the Political Declaration in the belief that it is the Declaration that annoys Labour MPs more than the Withdrawal Agreement. The government hopes Labour rebels will swell its vote. They also hope that by holding the vote on a Friday when many MPs are used to being in their constituencies quite a lot of its critics may not turn up. – John Redwood’s Diary Stephen Bush: The PM’s resignation bid makes consensus around her deal impossible Strange as it may seem, given that the exceptional cases, are, for obvious reasons, the ones who seize the headlines and get invited on the telly, but most MPs don’t like to rebel. Even the frequent dissenters prefer to avoid it when they can: Jeremy Corbyn, who before he became Labour’s leader was the most rebellious MP in the party’s history, never rebelled in more than one vote in every four. While your average MP is not, by nature, a born team player they know that they can only achieve anything of import by working together. The consequences of rebellion and the anger of your activists are also pretty heavy deterrents. That’s part of why just 27 Labour MPs voted against holding a second referendum instead of following Jeremy Corbyn’s instructions to back a second vote on whether the United Kingdom is better off inside or outside the European Union. Many more MPs agree with the 27 that backing a replay of the 2016 vote is a one-way ticket to the political graveyard for them personally and the Labour party in general. But they didn’t want to break the ties of Labour loyalty – or risk the consequences from angry Labour party activists – so they stuck with it. – Stephen Bush for the Telegraph (£) Jeremy Warner: Even as a Remainer, I can see that a customs union Brexit would be a total sham Jaw jaw, it is said, is better than war war. No doubt this is true. Yet the problem with the political compromise of jaw jaw is that almost inevitably it ends up in messy, suboptimal outcomes that don’t properly resolve the pre-existing standoff. So it has already proved with Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement, a textbook example of a compromise that satisfies no-one, and so it proved with this week’s indicative votes. As if straight out of Alice through the Looking Glass, MPs simultaneously managed to vote both for Brexit and against virtually every conceivable form of Brexit available. The exasperation in Brussels is at least understandable. Yet the votes were not entirely meaningless. The no-deal option failed by an overwhelming margin, so we can therefore be fairly certain that MPs won’t allow that. The motion that failed by the least, on the other hand, was Ken Clarke’s call for a customs union Brexit. – Jeremy Warner for the Telegraph (£) Andrew Lilico: Only a new political party will see Brexit through Theresa May’s last throw of the dice to try to get her deal through Parliament was to offer to quit as Prime Minister if it passed. This may have encouraged a block of Boris Johnson supporters and others who want to hope that with a different leader the post-Brexit phase of talks with the EU could go better to switch to backing her, but it won’t be anything like enough for her deal to pass – even assuming Speaker John Bercow allows it to come before the Commons again, unamended (which currently seems unlikely unless there is some solid indication that the will of the Commons may have changed). Consider the numbers. At the “Second Meaningful Vote” – i.e. when May’s deal was brought back after a few tweaks to the backstop guidance – May’s deal was rejected by 149 votes. So 75 MPs would have to switch sides. Conveniently, there were 75 Conservative MPs who voted against it. So if every Conservative MP who voted against switched to backing May’s deal it might pass if everyone else voted the same way. Of those 75, 6 were pro-Remain opponents of Brexit — their ranks thinned a bit by the Conservative defections to TIG. We can safely assume they will continue to vote against under all circumstances. Furthermore, there’s every chance the ranks of pro-Remain opponents will swell. In last night’s indicative votes four Conservative MPs who hadn’t opposed May’s deal the previous time voted to revoke Article 50 outright, and a number of others abstained on revocation or voted for a 2nd referendum. – Andrew Lilico for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: MPs must not betray Britain today by setting aside their politics and backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal MPs of all stripes must set aside their politics today — and vote, in the national interest, for the Withdrawal Agreement. This is not about our future relationship with Europe and the world. Nor should it be about manoeuvring in the detached Westminster bubble. It is instead, on the day that we were supposed to be leaving the European Union, the last chance to preserve whatever shred of faith is left in our Parliamentary democracy. It is increasingly clear that the Prime Minister will need Labour votes to ensure that Westminster honours the Referendum result. The Labour frontbench has no interest in being constructive on Brexit, no matter what’s best for the country. Their sole interest is crashing the Government. But for Labour backbenchers — many of whom are decent, honest politicians — we have one question: Do you side with the North London dinner party set surrounding Jeremy Corbyn, a leader you know in your heart of hearts isn’t fit to lead this country, or with your voters and the communities you represent? – The Sun Brexit in Brief Withdrawal Agreement: third time wrong – Bruce Oliver Newsome for CommentCentral PM has always put the good of the nation first – Express editorial Tonight we should have been toasting our independence – instead we face more time-wasting by the House of Clowns – Allison Pearson for the Telegraph (£) Nigel Farage gaining momentum fast says QT audience member – Express