Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team David Davis says a deal with the EU is ‘incredibly probable’… It is “incredibly probable” that the UK will reach a final deal with the EU, the Brexit secretary says.David Davis defended planning for a stalemate, saying it was like having home insurance when “you don’t expect your house to burn down”. He also hit back at Tory Eurosceptic concerns about what has been agreed so far. Last week prominent backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg accused the government of giving away “almost everything”. But speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Davis said the UK had succeeded in getting a transition deal for the period after March 2019 and moving talks onto trade, adding: “So I don’t think Jacob’s got a point.” – BBC News Hard border can be avoided with ‘whole load of new technology’ – The Times (£) David Davis has sick bucket on hand during BBC interview – BBC News > Watch on BrexitCentral’s YouTube Channel: Davis defends the transition deal …as negotiators prepare to present new Brexit ‘backstop’ plan on Ireland U.K. Brexit negotiators are developing a plan to solve the Irish border issue by keeping the whole of the U.K. aligned with a subset of the EU’s single market rules, according to British officials. The proposal — which also involves a wholly new U.K.-EU customs arrangement — aims to break the deadlock over the border question as both sides embark on a four-week push to rewrite the EU’s contentious “backstop” plan for avoiding a hard Irish border. A team of officials, including some from the U.K. customs authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, is coming to Brussels on Monday for the discussions, under the overall leadership of the U.K.’s chief Brexit official Olly Robbins. – Politico Newspapers reject suggestion that referendum result was illegitimate Those on the Remain side who have never been reconciled to the referendum outcome and still think it can be reversed have latched on to allegations of financial skulduggery in the Leave camp to rekindle their hopes. A “whistleblower” claims the pro-Brexit campaign he worked for during the campaign was really a front for the official Vote Leave group to breach official spending limits. There may be an issue here for the Electoral Commission to consider, but the idea that additional spending by pro-Leave campaigners influenced the result is absurd… Even if it did overspend, and any illegalities are proven, the campaign was run on a shoestring in comparison with the forces of Remain. The inference behind the latest allegations that somehow the Remain side was cheated out of victory is risible. – Telegraph editorial (£) No matter what increasingly desperate Remainers say, it wasn’t a few dodgy Facebook ads and a backroom bargain that swung the vote to leave the EU. It was decades of politicians ignoring voters’ fears about immigration, security and job prospects, combined with the opportunity to live in a sovereign country once again. Frankly, if the deck was stacked at all in the Referendum, it was in the other direction. The Remain campaign was essentially run by Downing Street, which spent a bucketload of taxpayers’ cash on pro-EU propaganda before civil service spending rules kicked in. – The Sun editorial Observer reporter on the back-foot when asked whether she would now investigate Remain campaign spending – Steerpike for The Spectator Activist to make further claims of ‘rule breaking’ during referendum – BBC News Theresa May’s political secretary backed by Cabinet ministers – Telegraph (£) > Jonathan Isaby on BrexitCentral today: What you need to know about Darren Grimes > Watch on BrexitCentral’s YouTube Channel: Cadwalladr won’t investigate Remain Labour wants to amend Withdrawal Bill to stop no-deal Brexit if Parliament votes down May’s deal… Labour will table amendments to the government’s EU withdrawal bill aimed at preventing the UK from crashing out of Europe without a deal if parliament rejects the outcome of the Brexit talks, Keir Starmer will say on Monday. In a speech in Birmingham, the shadow Brexit secretary will pledge to work with colleagues from other parties to try to amend the government’s key piece of Brexit legislation in an attempt to strengthen parliament’s say. Labour is keen to regain the initiative on Brexit after Jeremy Corbyn sacked Owen Smith as shadow Northern Ireland secretary on Friday for breaking with the shadow cabinet line by calling for a public poll on the final deal. – Guardian …while Tony Blair steps up call for a second EU referendum… Tony Blair is expected to step up the call for a second EU referendum and call the Government’s Brexit strategy ‘dangerously irresponsible’ in a speech to Westminster. The former prime minister will argue that Theresa May is trying to avoid spelling out the detail of her plans until ‘we are irreversibly out of Europe’. Someone bid £50,000 for ‘selfie queen’ Karen Danczuk’s used bikini on eBay He will say: ‘People say that there will be disillusion if Brexit doesn’t happen. Personally, I doubt this if it is the result of a fresh ‘say’ on the final deal.’ Mr Blair’s latest intervention comes after Owen Smith was sacked from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet after calling for a second public vote, risking deepening divisions within Labour over the approach to Brexit. In a speech in Westminster, Mr Blair will say the Government’s whole approach to the negotiation so far has been based on trying to satisfy both wings of the Conservative Party. – Metro …and shadow cabinet members are reportedly ‘open’ to the idea of another vote Senior shadow cabinet ministers have suggested they are “open” to holding a second referendum, just days after Jeremy Corbyn sacked a former leadership rival for calling for a public vote on the Brexit deal. Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said the party was not calling for another ballot, but it was sensible to “keep your options open”, adding he was “disappointed” to see Owen Smith sacked. While Mr Watson insisted that Labour’s priority was pushing for a “meaningful vote” in Parliament, he suggested that the party should remain flexible. .. His comments were echoed by Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, who said it was a “great shame” to see Mr Corbyn’s former political rival ousted from the front benches. – Telegraph (£) > Watch on BrexitCentral’s YouTube Channel: Labour fail to rule out second referendum Sir Keir Starmer says UK passport decision should be reversed The decision to award a printing contract for UK passports to a French company should be reversed, says Labour’s Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer. His call will add to pressure on Theresa May to overrule the Home Office, which rejected the British firm De La Rue in favour of Gemalto last week. Speaking on ITV’s Peston on Sunday Sir Keir said: “Of course it should be a British company. The story of the passport sums up the government’s approach to Brexit. It starts by saying that it’s going to be blue, then it’s not going to be blue; starts saying it’s going to be the UK, and now it’s France.” – The Times (£) > Watch on BrexitCentral’s YouTube Channel: Labour would print passport in UK Rees-Mogg to hold crunch talks with Theresa May as he calls on her to stand up to the EU to avoid ‘humiliation size of Suez’ Jacob Rees-Mogg will hold crunch talks with Theresa May this week urging her to stand up to Brussels after she agreed to allow the EU to maintain control of fisheries policy until the end of 2020. The Eurosceptic MP, who is chairman of the European Research Group of pro-Brexit Tories, will lead a delegation to Downing Street in a bid to ensure that the government does not make too many concessions when it comes to negotiating the UK’s final deal with the EU… Writing exclusively in the Sunday Express, Mr Rees-Mogg warns Mrs May that if we remain tied to the EU permanently then it will be a “humiliation on the scale of Suez”. – Sunday Express Tory MP complains to Environment Agency over Farage fishing stunt A Brexit protest which saw Nigel Farage dump dead fish in the Thames has sparked a complaint to the Environment Agency. The former Ukip leader enraged environmentalists by hurling haddock off a trawler to highlight anger over the Government agreeing to remain subject to the EU Common Fisheries Policy during the Brexit transition period. Tory MP Sir Mike Penning, a keen angler, revealed he had written to the Agency amid concerns the stunt was illegal… Sir Mike said: “Putting salt water fish in a freshwater river is an absolute no-no – but when it’s dead fish then that’s arguably pollution. I think this was an own goal. While I’m both a Brexiteer and hugely supportive of fishermen…I’m hugely protective of our rivers and polluting them in this way is not the way to get support.” – Sunday Express London on top of the world for global financial services says major report London has retained its top spot as the world’s leading financial centre, fending off stiff competition from New York and Asian cities, according to an authoritative study to be published today. The global financial centres index, compiled by think tank Z/Yen, will show the City leading the pack of 110 cities analysed for the 23rd edition of the international rankings. The City scored 794 points on the index, pipping New York to the post by one point. The ranking is based on 103 separate factors and draws on data from the World Bank, the United Nations and the OECD, as well as the survey responses of more than 2,300 financiers from around the world. – City A.M. The City faces its future with many advantages – Christian May for City A.M. May fights to stay in range of €10bn EU satellite deal Theresa May is fighting to prevent Britain being frozen out of an EU satellite project with hundreds of millions of pounds of contracts at stake. The EU is planning to withhold contracts relating to the security elements of the €10 billion Galileo satellite programme from UK companies after Brexit. The exclusion from Galileo’s “public regulated service” (PRS), an encrypted navigation system for government users, would also mean that the British armed forces would be cut off from the programme, set up to be a rival to the US GPS. – The Times (£) Theresa May fights to keep UK in EU satellite project – FT (£) Paul Goodman: To Diehard Remainers. You lost. Get over it. Drop the conspiracy theories – and stop assuming Leave voters are thick Many of those who backed Remain two summers ago, perhaps most, have come to terms with the referendum result. They may not like it, but they accept it – and want to move on. Others do not. It is essential to grasp that for some of them, Britain’s decision for Brexit was different from other votes not only in scale, but in nature. It wasn’t just a political verdict. Rather, it was deeply personal: a wound to their sense of self – to their idea of who should run the country, regardless of which party governs, and to their own status within it. To these Remain diehards, the natural order of things has been turned on its head. The Ascendancy is no longer ascending. It has been left bewildered by the change, like a shaggy mammoth unprepared for the end of the ice age. – Paul Goodman for ConservativeHome Jacob Rees-Mogg: Stay awake to transition Since article 50 was exercised a year ago those who favoured transition were people who never wanted to leave the European Union in the first place and know that the delay may mean an ultimate postponement. It is telling that two select committees with strong majorities from remain both called for an elongation of the transition period within a few days of each other. The Home affairs select committee suggests an extension would be necessary for the security aspects of any deal while the Exiting the EU committee, of which I am a member, went as far as advocating an extension to the article 50 time frame that would leave us a full member of the EU. This split the committee down the lines of the referendum and it seems clear to me that those calling for such an extension never accepted the result and are still seeking to overturn it. – Jacob Rees-Mogg MP for the Sunday Express Douglas Murray: Why do politicians refuse to tell it how it is on immigration? One of the presumptions of democracy is that leaders listen to the public. But as poll after poll in Europe shows, this presumption breaks down around the subject of migration. On that — and the numerous issues surrounding it — mainstream politicians consistently ignore the public. And not only ignore them but berate them and act against their concerns.This month sees the publication of the latest poll by Project 28, whose 2017 poll of public opinion I wrote about here last summer. Once again, the Századvég Foundation has polled opinion from 1,000 respondents in each of the 28 countries of the EU.And once again, the findings are startling. Any politician should consider them; a wise politician would listen to them. – Douglas Murray for The Spectator Andrew Green: The Government has lost its way on immigration – and the Home Secretary shows no interest in reducing it – Lord Green for ConservativeHome Comment in Brief It’s cash-strapped and chaotic, but Ukip is needed more than ever – Gawain Towler for The Times (£) Juncker has a nerve congratulating Putin – Camilla Tominey in the Sunday Express There is a creative Brexit compromise that neither Leavers nor Remainers can afford to reject – Juliet Samuel for the Telegraph (£) Have the Liberal Democrats had it? – John Longworth for City A.M. Fear the Eurocrat who kisses the PM’s hand despite our Brexit breakthrough – Trevor Kavanagh for the Sun We need to make much more of the good news on jobs and growth – Nicky Morgan MP for ConservativeHome Donald Trump’s visit to Dublin could be good news for all of Britain – The Sun editorial News in Brief ‘Don’t blame me I voted Remain’: John Bercow’s second pro-Remain car sticker revealed – Sunday Express EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google – Telegraph (£) Made in Britain: What does it mean for trade after Brexit? – BBC News Sadiq Khan reacts to demand to take down EU flag for Brexit day celebration – Express