Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Britain expects to secure deal for 21-month Brexit transition… British negotiators expect to clinch a deal on Brexit transition terms as early as this weekend following a series of climbdowns to secure a deal from the EU, the Telegraph understands. Sources on both sides of the negotiation said there were now no insuperable sticking points in the negotiations over a deal that would provide a largely status-quo transition until at least December 31 2020. Negotiators are scheduled to work throughout the weekend in a bid to finalise a legal text for the 21-month agreement that will be hailed by Downing Street as a significant win for Theresa May, and a key stepping-stone on the road to Brexit. – Telegraph (£) …as David Davis heads to Brussels tomorrow… David Davis will head to Brussels on Sunday ahead of Brexit talks, as EU leaders prepare for next week’s summit. The UK hopes to reach agreement on a transition deal, for the period after it leaves the EU in March 2019. Theresa May has said it should last “around two years” but Mr Davis said this week he could “live with” a shorter one if it helped secure a deal. On Friday EU leaders are expected to adopt “future relationship” guidelines which would allow trade talks to start. EU Council President Donald Tusk unveiled those draft guidelines last week but warned: “Our agreement will not make trade between the UK and EU frictionless or smoother.” – BBC News …but the UK is urged to back down over opposition to ‘backstop’ plan for Irish border or risk deadlock Ireland’s government is insisting that Theresa May publicly renounce her opposition to the EU’s “backstop” plans for the Irish border which would divide Britain and Northern Ireland. Mrs May told MPs that the EU’s draft text of a withdrawal treaty was something “no UK prime minister could ever agree to” because it would create a border in the Irish Sea between Britain and Northern Ireland. The government has said the plan threatens the “constitutional integrity” of the UK. Ireland, France and the European Commission are demanding that Britain agree “publicly and unambiguously” that the draft text can form the basis for negotiations. – The Times (£) Irish border problem ‘put on ice to help Brexit deal’ – Evening Standard UK reportedly set to back down over fishing quotas during Brexit transition The UK government has accepted that British fishermen will not enjoy a larger share of the fish available to be caught in domestic waters during the post-Brexit transition period. Michael Gove, environment secretary, has called for an immediate renegotiation of fishing quotas and access for EU vessels in British waters from March 2019, when the UK will leave the bloc. But the British government is set to accept on Monday demands set out in the EU’s draft transition text, which includes a clause making clear that the UK share of the “total catch” will remain unchanged during the two years after the UK leaves the EU. – FT (£) Brexit negotiators yet to discuss data flows Keeping digital data flowing between Britain and the EU is crucial to the post-Brexit plans of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. But someone forgot to tell the negotiators in Brussels. British and EU officials have yet to start discussions about how such data flows — everything from information on people’s search queries to companies’ payroll details — will continue after the U.K. leaves the bloc, according to several U.K. and EU officials who spoke to Politico. The lack of even initial negotiations on data, now the lifeblood of the digital economy representing hundreds of billions of pounds of annual trade between both sides, has raised warnings that the U.K.’s focus on tech in its post-Brexit plans may run into problems if it can’t retain access to EU data.. – Politico Gibraltar may concede joint control of airport with Spain as Brexit sweetener Gibraltar is set to allow Spain to share the use of its airport as The Rock attempts to placate officials in Madrid who are threatening to hold the territory to ransom during Brexit. The British enclave is locked in a bitter battle with Spain over how it will be treated following the divorce. Spanish officials have threatened to veto any trade deal unless a separate agreement for the territory is reached in advance – a move branded “illegal” by British experts. Spain has already demonstrated its willingness to make life difficult for Gibraltarians, and imposing stricter border checks to disrupt the flow of workers after the Brexit vote. However a new, bilateral deal over shared use of Gibraltar International Airport could pave the way for a warming of relations. – Express Big European businesses are starting firms in the UK to exploit Britain’s global future European big businesses are falling over themselves to set up UK companies so they can continue trading in Britain after Brexit and make sure they are part of the country’s future outside the bloc.German and Austrian firms are particularly keen to get a foothold in the UK since the vote to leave, it is claimed.Alexander Altman from accounting firm Blick Rothenberg said opening a UK subsidiary would allow firms to utilise the country’s business culture, employment laws, banking systems and tax rates. And he claimed the move would allow firms to better manage their imports into the UK and access work permits for staff from their home countries. – Express MPs urge Prime Minister to clarify Chris Grayling’s post-Brexit border pledge MPs have written to the prime minister demanding clarification after the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said any additional physical checks on lorries at Dover after Brexit would be “utterly unrealistic”. The letter came as the Freight Transport Association (FTA) said Grayling’s promise would “open up the UK’s borders to potential abuse and breaches” and that the UK government would be unable to stop any new checks being imposed on the French side. Grayling told BBC’s Question Time there would not be any new checks on lorries, after a study said two-minute checks at the border could cause tailbacks of almost 30 miles. He said trade would be managed electronically after March 2019. – Guardian Lorry checks at Dover ‘unrealistic’ says Grayling – BBC News No-deal Brexit could see us abandon all border checks on goods, say mandarins – The Sun Brussels publishes US tariffs retaliation lists totalling €6.4 billion… Brussels Friday published two lists with American products that it will target if U.S. President Donald Trump imposes increased tariffs on EU exports of steel and aluminum. A senior European official said the EU’s response list was for “stakeholder consultations” and added that the total value of American exports targeted could reach “€6.4 billion all added together.” The Commission needed to act now to make sure it notified the lists to the WTO within a 90-day deadline, but the decision whether to use the lists would be taken only after three months. Brussels needed to act now because “you may be exempted today and three months later the situation changes.” – Politico …as tech tax deepens EU-US trade rift A transatlantic rift over tax and trade widened on Friday after Washington opposed the EU’s plans for a levy on digital revenues and Brussels set out its retaliatory measures over the US’s steel and aluminium tariffs. Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary, said the US was firmly against proposals by any country to single out technology companies, as the EU stepped up efforts to raise more taxes from American tech groups including Google, Facebook and Apple. While he did not specifically refer to Brussels’ plan to unveil its “digital tax” proposals next week, his comments add to growing tension with the EU days before the Trump administration is set to impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium. – FT (£) The rise of Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s ex-chief of staff It’s been described as a coup – Martin Selmayr, who used to be Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief of staff, has been promoted to be the head of the EU’s civil service. The EU Commission has argued Mr Selmayr’s appointment as secretary general was all above board, but some MEPs are furious. For Politics Europe, Adam Fleming reports on the EU’s own House of Cards. – BBC News Asa Bennett: George Osborne left Theresa May up the Brexit creek. Now he’s angry that she’s found a paddle It’s no small feat to have Liam Fox and Philip Hammond both agreeing with Mrs May that Brexit should mean things like leaving the Customs Union after a quasi-EU membership transition period. Those Chequers summits and Brexit “war cabinet” meetings have not been easy. However, her former cabinet colleague George Osborne doesn’t have much sympathy. He may have carried out as Chancellor a “serious amount of contingency planning” to ensure financial stability following a Brexit vote (which Mark Carney duly enacted), but no one considered under his watch how it would be delivered. Mr Osborne didn’t regret his dereliction of duty when grilled yesterday about it by LBC’s Iain Dale, telling him that “it would have been extraordinary for a government that wanted to stay in the EU to plan for its departure.” – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Lionel Shriver: Why mass immigration explains the housing crisis Oxford demographer David Coleman estimates that 85 per cent of the UK’s population increase from 2000 to 2015 is explained by migrants and their children. All these new people have to live somewhere. The pressure on housing, among many other social provisions, is intensified by the fact that on average foreign-born mothers have more children (2.06 in 2016) than women born in Britain (only 1.75). Fertility among foreign-born mothers has certainly dropped. Yet the high proportion of incomers in their reproductive years means the absolute number of babies with foreign mothers continues to rise. Thus the ONS asserts that in England and Wales in 2016 a staggering 28.2 per cent of births were to foreign-born women, ‘the highest level on record’. In 1970, that figure was 12 per cent. – Lionel Shriver for The Spectator May faces ‘Mexican stand-off’ after Berkeley says it can’t meet demand for homes – Telegraph (£) Tim Worstall: Let them eat hake Apparently sustainability means that we should be eating the fish we don’t like, while also preventing foreigners from having the fish they do like. That isn’t how I would define good practice, and it defies basic economics, but it is where the logic of the “eat local” brigade takes us. It is a denial of the very point of trade; an intellectual and practical mistake which impoverishes us all. The Marine Stewardship Council is suggesting that Brexit means we should change which fish we eat. Sure, lots of things are going to change post-Brexit, but the idea that we should be having dab’n’chips as a takeaway might be taking things too far. Yet that is what is being suggested; that we should stop eating the fish types we like and start eating the ones we don’t. We Brits overwhelmingly eat only the big five: salmon, cod, haddock, tuna and prawns. That is not true in plenty of other countries, where they quite like eating dab, hake, herring and mackerel. – Tim Worstall for CapX Eat herring and mackerel to support UK after Brexit, urges charity – Guardian Comment in Brief Why you can’t rely on the news media to understand… Europe – Ian Birrell for UnHerd EU needs Britain to keep tabs on the Kremlin – Frederick Forsyth for the Express Gutted in Grimsby – a Brexit opera – Niall McCrae for ConservativeWoman Let’s have employers, not bureaucrats, decide who can come work in Britain – Sam Dumitriu for the Telegraph (£) My speech in the European Affairs Debate – John Redwood’s Diary Brexit means that the UK can’t rely on the EU’s support over Russia – Andrew Grice for the Independent Post-Brexit farming is a chance to change the rules – Julia Platt Leonard for the Independent How Brexit, Donald Trump and the new Cold War have killed off clean eating – Lucy Mangan for the Telegraph (£) News in Brief Irish border with no checkpoints post-Brexit not possible, say MPs – Sky News France and Germany talk … and talk – Politico