Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team German Foreign Minister says EU should discuss whether to reopen Brexit deal.. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the EU will have to talk about whether to reopen the draft Brexit deal, but only if all EU members agreed. “In the end, it is about the question [of] whether the deal should be reopened, which would need the approval of all [remaining] 27 member states. This is what needs to be discussed now,” Maas said late Thursday on German TV. “The British have up to now always said what they don’t want. Now they must also say what they want,” Maas said. – Politico …as EU diplomats concede Withdrawal Agreement can be changed Theresa May has left European diplomats in a state of “disbelief” following a series of phone calls to EU leaders in which she made no change to her demands despite her Brexit plan being voted down by a 230-vote margin this week. Senior EU diplomatic sources said that Mrs May’s unchanged stance was “greeted with incredulity” following a call with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday night. “It was the same old story – the same set of demands – all unchanged despite the defeat,” said the source with knowledge of the calls… EU diplomats privately concede, that in the light of May’s defeat it’s no longer completely impossible that the Withdrawal Agreement could be changed, if it was guaranteed to close the deal – Telegraph (£) German foreign minister says hard to imagine reopening Brexit accord – Reuters Germany – Can’t respond to Brexit delay idea until UK says what it wants – Reuters Theresa May scrambles to agree plan B for Brexit ahead of deadline… Theresa May is scrambling to agree a plan B for Brexit as she holds talks with ministers and senior MPs days before she must present a revised deal to parliament. The PM will spend the weekend at her country retreat, Chequers, but instead of a relaxing weekend she faces crunch meetings as she attempts to come up with a proposal that can win the support of the Commons. It comes after former foreign secretary Boris Johnson gave a “wide-ranging” speech in Rocester, Staffordshire, in which he challenged Mrs May to use Brexit to bring the country together. The speech included a pointed intervention in the Brexit process and is seen by many as a thinly veiled leadership bid. – Sky News How Downing Street calculated 228-vote defeat… but Theresa May is determined to plough on regardless – Telegraph (£) Theresa May grappling with open Cabinet warfare over deal or no deal – Evening Standard Brexit talks in Westminster have so far yielded no breakthrough and PM is stuck in a hole with very few solutions – James Forsyth for the Sun It’s MPs, not Leavers, who don’t know what they voted for – Juliet Samuel for the Telegraph (£) …but Boris Johnson calls on May to remove the backstop Brexiteer rebel Boris Johnson travelled to JCB’s headquarters in Staffordshire on Friday to dump some fresh dirt on Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The former foreign secretary, who quit her cabinet in protest over her Brexit blueprint plans last July, told an audience of factory workers that her deal with the EU was bad for Britain and that’s why parliament had comprehensively voted her down. He then went on to offer his boss some unsolicited advice about how to resolve the Brexit paralysis; Get back to Brussels and negotiate some more. “If we hold our nerve, I believe we can deliver not a pseudo Brexit… but the Brexit people voted for,” he said. “It is time to go back fortified with the emphatic and conclusive mandate of parliament and demand real change to that backstop, and mean it this time so Britain can get out unilaterally and whatever they are saying I believe they will be flexible.”- Sky News Did Boris Johnson talk Turkey during referendum campaign? – BBC News A majority of Conservative members would support May’s deal if the UK could unilaterally to leave the backstop When we last asked a roughly comparable question, Theresa May’s Brexit deal had the support of 26 per cent of our panel members. That’s now down to 13 per cent. Doubtless part if not most of the reason is its defeat by a record margin in the Commons this week. The Prime Minister may believe it can be revived. This finding suggests Party members believe that it can’t. Well over two in five respondents say that the deal is not acceptable – rejecting it entirely. The total is not that far off half. None the less, two in five replies also say that the deal would be acceptable were the UK to have the right to leave the backstop unilaterally. Add the 40 per cent concerned to that 13 per cent, and May wins a majority for such an amended deal among our members’ panel. But one almost as tight as the referendum result. – Conservative Home Jacob Rees-Mogg admits Theresa May’s deal is better than remaining in the EU – Daily Mail Sir Keir Starmer says open and frank debate needed to break Brexit deadlock The shadow Brexit secretary is calling for an “open and frank debate” to break the Commons deadlock. Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer will say there are “no easy routes” out of the current crisis in a speech to the Fabian Society’s new year conference in London on Saturday. In the aftermath of Theresa May’s crushing defeat over the EU withdrawal plan Sir Keir will also say it is now up to parliament to take the “difficult decisions” needed to end the stalemate. His plea comes as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn again refused to meet Mrs May to discuss the way forward unless she takes a “no-deal” Brexit option off the table. – Sky News Delaying Brexit is better than a no-deal, Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood tells Theresa May… A defence minister has become the first member of Theresa May’s government to break ranks and publicly urge her to delay Brexit if no deal can be reached. As Whitehall stepped up preparations for a possible snap election, Tobias Ellwood argued that extending Article 50 would be preferable to Britain leaving the European Union on March 29 without a deal. Leaving with no agreement would “be an act of self harm with profound economic, security and reputational, consequences for the UK at the very time threats are increasing and diversifying,” he told The Times. – The Times (£) …as Andrea Leadsom says Ministers trying to block no deal ‘think they know better’ than voters Ministers trying to block a no deal Brexit wrongly “think they know better” than voters, Andrea Leadsom has said as the issue prompted a public split among the Cabinet. Leadsom, the Leader of the Commons, told The Telegraph that colleagues who want to stop no deal will “fail our country” and weaken the UK’s negotiating hand. It comes after Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said in a leaked conference call that the “threat” of a no deal Brexit could be taken “off the table” within days. Other ministers including Amber Rudd, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, and Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, have also argued publicly that a no-deal Brexit must be stopped. – Telegraph (£) Liam Fox yet to seal no-deal trade agreements The UK has yet to finalise agreements to replace existing free trade deals the EU has with 40 big economies if there is a no-deal Brexit. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said he “hoped” they would but it depended on whether other countries were “willing to put the work in”. He said more deals were coming, after signing one with Australia. Concerns have been raised that the UK will leave the EU without a deal that would protect current arrangements… In 2017, Mr Fox said that the UK could “replicate the 40 free trade agreements before we leave the EU”, so that there would be no disruption to trade. But with just over two months to go until Brexit, not one has been signed, said the BBC’s business correspondent Jonty Bloom. The Department for International Trade says some agreements are at an advanced stage but none of the 40 free trade deals that the EU has with other countries have so far been rolled over so that they will cover the UK after Brexit. – BBC News Denmark hires 50 new customs officers ahead of Brexit Denmark has hired a team of 50 to help the country’s services run smoothly when the UK departs from the EU. The Danish Customs Agency says it has recruited new members of staff ahead of Brexit to deal with admin tasks and border duties. Denmark already has a Brexit hotline to help Danes around Brexit, and will have increased border presence after the UK leaves the EU. In a statement to ITV News, the Danish Customs Agency said that the officers are “already in place and read if a no-deal scenario is the outcome”.- ITV News Nigel Farage might run for European Parliament again Former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said Friday he would contest as an MEP for a new political party if Article 50 were extended and the U.K. participates in the upcoming European Parliament election. “I’m looking at various political options,” Farage told the BBC. “If this [extension] happens, I will make sure that there is a political party there with a list that I can be part of.” Farage quit UKIP at the end of last year and will not run for the same party again. Farage earlier told Politico Rupert Darwall: What’s the real reason Greg Clark doesn’t like Brexit? To those who’ve known Greg Clark for any length of time, the transformation of the mild-mannered business secretary into the Cabinet’s most fervent Remainer requires some kind of explanation. So what’s the real reason Clark finds Brexit a threat? Forget about protecting the automotive industry and manufacturing generally. The car industry is already reeling from the government’s hostile environment towards car ownership. Last year, car sales fell for the second year in a row, with diesel vehicles down 29.6 per cent. Supply was hit by testing to meet new emissions standards and demand dented by the government’s ongoing war on diesel.- Rupert Darwall for The Spectator Esther McVey: Now that May’s Brexit deal has been voted down, we need to win back trust. Here’s how. The fallout from Parliament’s rejection of the Meaningful Vote on the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal continues, but what is clear is that something has gone very wrong in our politics. As most of this this site’s readers know, I resigned from the Cabinet over the deal. And in my resignation letter, I wrote about the danger of trust being lost. As a political class, we have stretched public trust to the limit in recent years but, if we now fail to honour the biggest democratic vote in our history, we risk severing trust entirely. Parliament is awash with competing views about what needs to happen next. What is most startling is how most of these views have nothing to do with implementing the will of the people, and expose just how out of touch that political class is. – Esther McVey MP for Conservative Home Gavin Mortimer: Emmanuel Macron’s fear of Frexit is bad news for Britain Emmanuel Macron launched his Big Debate in Tuesday and for the next two months the French people will have the chance to air their grievances in meetings and online. The consultation, in response to the Yellow Vest protest movement, has captured the media’s attention but nonetheless it was knocked off the top of the news agenda temporarily by events in Westminster.There is an undoubtedly a touch of schadenfreude in the Élysée Palace at the Brexit farrago, a relief that another world leader is in torment.- Gavin Mortimer for The Spectator Ruth Lea: Never mind Project Fear Mark 2, businesses should be looking forward to a No Deal Brexit As Brexit day approaches (we hope) the debate on the pros and cons of a No Deal WTO Brexit seems to grow ever more shrill. Project Fear Mark 2, the direct descendant of the wholly discredited pre-referendum Project Fear Mark 1, has been ramped up, to scare us all. Doubtless, there would be some disruption in the event of a WTO Brexit as businesses adapt to the new set of circumstances. But businesses are good at adapting, otherwise they do not survive. And I would expect such disruption to have broadly dissipated within six months. – Ruth Lea for Conservative Woman Brendan O’Neill: The cheer on Question Time that will terrify Corbyn’s Labour How brilliant was that cheer on Question Time last night? Isabel Oakeshott said Theresa May should just walk away from the EU. Fiona Bruce asked her if she meant we should pursue ‘No Deal’. ‘Yes’, said Oakeshott and there it was, instantly, contagiously, the loudest cheer I can remember hearing from a Question Time audience. This was no polite applause or murmur of approval. It was a statement — a noisy, rebellious statement of the people’s continuing and profound attachment to the idea of leaving the European Union, deal or no deal.It was a cheer that should echo through the nation. That will chill the bones of the political establishment.- Brendan O’Neill for The Spectator Remainiac politicians are traumatised by ordinary people supporting Brexit – The Sun editorial Comment in Brief The only option left to Leave and its supporters is to boycott the final act of this tawdry drama – David Hardy for CommentCentral Does parliament have a plan for Brexit? – The Spectator podcast Has Varadkar overplayed his hand on Brexit? – Finn McRedmond for Reaction Brexiteers may have blown their big chance, but Remainers have done far worse – Ross Clark for The Spectator Remainer MPs are spitting in the eye of democracy – Melanie Phillips for Conservative Woman To win a majority and sustain a government you need to be able to count. – John Redwood’s Diary In an age of post-truth politics, moderate politicians must prepare to work across party lines – Nick Hargrave for Conservative Home With ‘friends’ like this in Europe, who needs enemies? – Janice Davis for Conservative Woman News in Brief Plan to use Kent airport for lorries risks jams, says council – FT (£) UK patients stockpile drugs in fear of no-deal Brexit – Guardian Trump seeks to split EU as fight intensifies over Iran nuclear deal – Politico High-profile Germans plead with UK to stay in EU – BBC News Popcorn to hand, EU watches Brexit show but frets for own future – Reuters