Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team EU threatens to withhold Britain’s budget rebate in Brexit bill wrangle… Europe is threatening to keep back Britain’s final rebate payment of €5 billion as part of the negotiations over the Brexit bill, The Telegraph can disclose. Senior British sources said that negotiations over the bill, which the EU sets at €60 billion (£53.6 billion), had still not settled whether the UK would receive the €5 billion (£4.46 billion) payment as part of the final settlement when it leaves the EU in March 2019. “There is a problem here, and the issue over whether the EU will pay us the 2018 rebate has not been resolved,” the source in Whitehall confirmed. – Telegraph (£) Britain’s battle for EU budget rebate: How Margaret Thatcher ‘handbagged’ Europe – Telegraph (£) Britain could drastically reduce the price of the Brexit divorce bill demanded by the European Union as the cost of leaving the bloc – Express …as Donald Tusk gives Theresa May two weeks to up the divorce bill and stop talks stalling… EU Council president Donald Tusk has told Theresa May she has two weeks to act on the issues of the Brexit divorce bill and Ireland for negotiations to progress. Mr Tusk told the Prime Minister he was “ready” to move onto the next phase of talks but that the UK needed to show more progress on key issues. He said “good progress” had been made on citizens’ rights but that this had not been mirrored in other areas. “We will be ready to move onto the second phase in December but, in order to do so, we need to see more progress from the UK side. – Evening Standard …and EU chiefs push Theresa May to say clearly how much the UK will pay in ‘divorce bill’ Theresa May has been urged by European Union leaders to spell out how much the UK will pay Brussels in a so-called divorce bill in order to secure progress on trade talks. The Prime Minister repeated her promise that the UK will “honour our commitments” to the European Union as it leaves the bloc but came under pressure to go further. Mrs May wants EU leaders to agree to move on to the second phase of Brexit talks covering the future trade relationship and a possible transitional period at a summit in Brussels next month. She used a gathering of EU counterparts in Gothenburg to push her case – but was told “clarity” was needed on the divorce settlement and there was no guarantee of a breakthrough in December. – Belfast Telegraph Brexit: The crunch is coming for Theresa May – BBC News Donald Tusk ‘optimistic’ after Theresa May meeting – Politico Irish PM Leo Varadkar says Britain is asking for too much in Brexit negotiations Ireland’s Prime Minister has told Sky News that Britain is asking for too much in its divorce talks with the European Union. In a striking intervention, Leo Varadkar said the UK wants “a divorce and an open relationship the day after”, which was a “very difficult position to accept”. Mr Varadkar was speaking after Prime Minister Theresa May said not enough progress has been made to move the negotiations onto the second phase – Britain’s future trading relationship with the bloc. – Sky News Ireland’s naive young prime minister should shut his gob on Brexit and grow up – The Sun says Ireland warns it could block trade talks without answers on the Brexit border – Daily Mail Irish premier demands commitment over ‘hard border’ issue – Belfast Telegraph Downing Street insists the Government will push ahead with plan to fix specific Brexit date and time… Theresa May will push ahead with plans to fix into law the time and date of the country’s European Union exit for March 2019, her spokesman said on Friday, despite opposition from some members of her party. “We think it provides important certainty,” the spokesman said. “We would encourage all MPs to support it,” he added, referring to members of parliament. – Reuters …despite opposition from the majority of MPs on the Brexit Select Committee Theresa May is facing renewed pressure to abandon her plan enshrine the date of Brexit in law after a cross-party committee of MPs warned it could cause “significant difficulties” in the talks with Brussels. The Exiting the EU Committee said a Government amendment setting the moment of the UK’s withdrawal at 11pm on March 29 2019 would take away ministers’ “flexibility” if the negotiations went down to the wire. However the report split the committee, with four of the eight Conservative MPs present – as well as the single Democratic Unionist – voting to reject it. – Telegraph France and Germany are blocking EU deal, suggests David Davis as he lists countries that want a Brexit deal France and Germany are blocking a Brexit deal, David Davis has suggested, as he listed five European Union countries that want to “move on”. The Exiting the EU secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Britain would not compromise on EU talks without Brussels giving ground, saying “nothing comes from nothing”. He singled out France and Germany as blocking progress in talks in Brussels, listing five EU countries that want to do a deal. – Telegraph David Davis could quit because ‘he is being frozen out on Brexit strategy’ by civil servants David Davis could walk out on his job as Britain’s lead negotiator on Brexit because of frustrations that he is being cut out of key strategic talks in Whitehall, his friends fear. Allies of the Exiting the European Union secretary said they were concerned he is not being included by civil servants in key talks about Britain’s negotiations about leaving the European Union. One source said that Mr Davis had not been shown a key Brexit Cabinet paper sent by Boris Johnson, the Foreign secretary, and Michael Gove, to the Prime Minister. – Telegraph (£) David Davis interview: Can ‘bad cop’ David Davis reboot talks? – BBC News Davis reveals he will quit when Brexit is complete saying he has ‘no ambitions’ to take over as PM – Daily Mail > On BrexitCentral’s YouTube: Davis: We compromised but they haven’t Norway ‘is not a good example’ on border checks On a visit to London for talks with Mr Davis and Sir Keir Starmer, his Labour shadow, Ann Linde, the EU and trade minister, said that the Sweden-Norway border was “as good as it gets”, but businesses still found it harder to trade with Norway than with Russia and China. A paper leaked by the European Commission said that the UK could have either a Canada-style free trade agreement or Norway-style participation in the single market through membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), but not something in between. Ms Linde said: “There will be something in between . . . because we have never been in this situation where a member has left, where we already have a lot of agreement that we can build on. And I think that makes it easier to have a trade agreement.” – Times (£) UK contributed £1.5bn to European aid schemes including Caribbean coconut project The UK spent £1.5 billion supporting European Commission aid programmes – including one to help the coconut sector in the Caribbean – according to newly released figures. Numbers released by the Department for International Development show the UK paid £13.3 billion in overseas development aid in 2016, meeting the target of 0.7% of the country’s gross domestic product. This represents an increase of £1.25 billion on 2015, with the amount given to European aid programmes increasing by £177 million. – Times and Star Visitors splash out highest-ever monthly spend of £2.8bn as UK becomes cheaper destination for bargain hunters Brexit Britain is proving a big visitor attraction: a record number of tourists arrived in the UK in August and they splashed out £2.8bn, the highest monthly tourist spend ever. The number of visitors from the EU climbed 6% to 2.4m, helping to push the total number of overseas visitors arriving in the UK in August to 3.9m – up 5% on last year’s levels. The Brexit vote, and the decline in the pound since then, has made the UK a far cheaper destination for overseas tourists, and driven a boom in bargain hunters from Europe, the US and China who want to snap up luxury leather goods and designer brands for lower prices than they can get at home. – Observer UBS upgrades its pessimistic forecast for UK growth The Swiss bank UBS has admitted that the outlook for the UK is not as bad as it thought in the immediate aftermath of the European Union referendum and that the economy is well-positioned to benefit from strong global growth. While uncertainty about the final outcome of Brexit might weigh on economic progress, the bank did not believe it would derail future economic expansion. – Telegraph Spotify is the latest tech giant to invest in London Spotify is the latest tech company to commit to London after Brexit with fresh expansion plans. The streaming giant which is expected to soon go public, will double its current 200 staff in the UK over the next two years with a major focus on research and development. The capital will become a “major hub” for R&D and other parts of the business, in particular growing its revenue generating subscriptions. – City A.M. James Dyson: Brexit is a disaster for Europe, not Britain ‘I don’t think they’ll do a deal,’ he says of David Davis’s chances around the negotiating table. ‘You can’t negotiate with that lot, as I’ve found out from 24 years of sitting on European committees with Dyson. No non-German company has ever won anything, and nobody has ever been able to block any suggestion from the German cartel. Never. They stifle innovation, the EU. And the European Court of Justice, well, that’s frankly crooked…’ – Sir James Dyson for the Telegraph Roger Scruton: Brexit will restore a proper sense of patriotism When David Cameron asked the British people to vote on whether to leave the European Union, he did his utmost to persuade us that the question was a purely economic one: would we be better off in the union or out of it? And he assembled teams of experts to warn about the economic cost if we decided to leave. For many ordinary citizens, however, the question was not about economics at all. It was about identity and sovereignty. For such people matters were at stake that the politicians had systematically marginalised, and which were more important to them than all the economic and geopolitical arguments. – Sir Roger Scruton for the Times (£) Rebecca Park: A Brexit deal on financial services is achievable Historically, coverage of services sectors in free trade agreements has been limited. However, there is nothing to prevent it happening now. The starting point between the UK and the EU is one of deep, integrated markets based on closely-aligned regulatory regimes and global standards. A framework for trade in banking and capital markets services, based on mutual recognition, provides for an ambitious and achievable model that would allow the EU and UK to maintain enough alignment between their regulatory practices for each side to accept the other’s authorisations, respecting that differences may exist. – Rebecca Park for ConservativeHome Telegraph: The Brexit mutineers cannot fight both poll and Parliament This newspaper took the view that it would be in the long-term interests of the country to leave; others, including many MPs – and the Government – argued for Remain. Leave won; and since MPs had handed over the decision to the people in a referendum they are obliged to act upon it. Some like Kenneth Clarke, a long-standing and consistent opponent of referendums, argued that in his words it was just a “gigantic opinion poll” and in a parliamentary democracy MPs were not bound by it. Constitutionally Mr Clarke is right. But the House of Commons subsequently voted by a majority of almost 400 to trigger the two-year process leading to the UK’s departure. They cannot have it both ways – object both to the populist tendencies of a plebiscite and a vote in Parliament. The alternative is dictatorship. – Telegraph editorial Janice Turner: Remainers’ sneering and snobbery must stop I am a middle-class Remainer born of a working-class Brexit town: I understand my friends’ desire to berate Boris or mock a flailing political class struggling to land a deal in a hurricane. But not this “let’s build a wall around London” arrogance, this personal stuff. Even 18 months on, I hear of friendships still unmended. A Remainer grandee told me he won’t have Leave relatives in his home. (By this rule I’d never see my northern family again.) On Facebook I’ve read EU discussions where a person giving a vaguely optimistic diagnosis of Britain’s prospects is summarily unfriended. – Janice Turner for the Times (£) John Baron: No deal – the best deal, at a good price We should not accept any deal at any price offered by the EU – which seems to be the position of Labour’s leadership, one naïve in the extreme to anyone who has ever conducted a negotiation. As the Prime Minister rightly insists, no deal is better than a bad deal, and it is good news that the Government is doing the necessary preparatory work for a ‘no deal’ scenario. This is sensible contingency planning – Britain should never again be left in the same position as immediately after the EU referendum, when the Cameron administration’s refusal to permit any planning for a ‘leave’ win left the Government temporarily paralysed. – John Baron MP for Politeia Charles Moore: It is time to get annoyed with David Davis. What has he accomplished? The BBC (in the form of Laura Kuenssberg) yesterday painted Mr Davis as “playing the bad cop” against the EU. If he’s a bad cop, what role is left for any “good” one? Mr Davis’s self-description was much more accurate: he had been “offering some creative compromises,” to the EU, he complained, “and not always got them back”. I’m afraid his ECJ concession is his most “creative” yet. Our entire experience of more than 40 years inside the EU is that when a process is turned over to its bureaucratic management and legal supervision, Britain loses. That is where we are going with the transition. – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£) Brexit in brief British people will make their own trade deal – Niall McCrae for the Bruges Group The plot to stop Brexit – George Eaton for the New Statesman Theresa May’s weakness proves costly in the Brexit negotiations – Katy Balls for the Spectator MPs must start talking to the nation at large over Brexit – Tom Richmond for the Yorkshire Post Even over Brexit it’s necessary to use actual logic – Tim Worstall for the ASI Dominic Grieve: Putin wants division, and Brexiteers are at risk of being his useful idiots – Times (£)