Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Britain will secure bespoke trade deal, says Emmanuel Macron… French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested the UK could get a special trade deal with the EU after Brexit. But he warned that Britain would not have full access to the single market without accepting its rules. Speaking to Andrew Marr, he warned – as Brussels has already done – that the UK could not “cherry-pick” the elements it liked. A deal might fall somewhere between the single market and a trade agreement, he said. – BBC No Brexit deal on financial services if UK diverges from EU, says Merkel ally – Politico City of London chief shuns Macron’s Brexit snub and says deal is ‘absolutely possible’ – Express …after UK and France sign new treaty on Calais migrants France and the UK have signed a treaty to speed up the processing of migrants in Calais, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on his first UK visit. After talks with UK PM Theresa May at Sandhurst military academy, he said the treaty would offer a “more humane approach” and be “more efficient”. But he suggested France would not bow to UK demands to include financial services in any post-Brexit trade deal. Mrs May praised the “uniquely close relationship” between the two nations. She said both leaders remained committed to the “Le Touquet” border agreement in Calais – the UK has announced an extra £44.5m to be spent on beefing up Channel border security. – BBC Migrants promised ‘fast-track’ access to Britain as part of new Calais border deal – The Sun Shared aims mask ‘eternal interests’ for Britain and France – Robert Tombs for the FT (£) The border is staying at Calais: another pillar of ‘Project Fear’ quietly crumbles – Henry Hill for ConservativeHome Britain ‘would only rejoin a changed EU’, says David Lidington Britain will never rejoin a European Union that “looks at all like” the organisation it voted to leave, Theresa May’s de facto deputy said yesterday. David Lidington, one of the most pro-European members of the cabinet, said he could not see Britain wanting to return to an organisation that was on a drive towards closer integration. However, he added that future generations of politicians would have to decide how the “exact nature” of the relationship between the UK and Europe developed, adding that there was always going to be a need for a “system of co-operation within . . . Europe”. – The Times (£) Cabinet minister ‘hints’ Britain could re-join reformed EU – Telegraph (£) Majority of Britons think UK is right to leave the European Union A majority of Britons believe that the country was right to vote for Brexit for the first time in six months. A new poll by YouGov found that 45 per cent of people think Britons were right to vote to leave the European Union, up three per cent. The same poll found that 44 per cent of people think the UK is wrong to want to leave, down two per cent. The YouGov tracking poll tests the will of the people with regularly survey. Matthew Goodwin, the polling expert, said it was the first time since July 2007 that “right has been ahead” of wrong in the tracking poll. He added: “As I have argued since June 2016, we will see no major shifts in public opinion on this question because it is a vote that is far more expressive/value driven than ‘normal’ policy choices.” – Telegraph (£) Voters should be able to change their minds on referendums, says Speaker – Guardian Theresa May to reassure Europe on defence in Munich speech… Theresa May will deliver a major speech in Munich next month stressing London’s commitment to European defence as part of a wider push to reassure EU leaders about Britain’s strategic direction after Brexit, a U.K. official said. The U.K. prime minister will make the speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, a leading global gathering of defence and security policymakers and experts, which takes place this year from February 16-18. – Politico The US and UK have been subsidising Europe’s security for years – James Rogers for CapX …but won’t say how she would vote if there was a second EU referendum The Prime Minister was challenged in an interview with French television on how she would vote if a European Union referendum were held today. Asked “how you would vote on Brexit”, she initially said “I didn’t say how I would vote”. But then said: “If a vote was to come up, I would do what I did last time round which was sit down and look carefully at the issues. “But there isn’t going to be another vote, so this is not an issue. What is going to happen is the UK is going to leave the European Union.” – Telegraph (£) Britain to lose far fewer financial services jobs after Brexit than feared Britain’s financial services industry will lose far fewer jobs because of Brexit than first feared, the City of London have declared. The corporation that runs the Square Mile said yesterday the number of postings shifting overseas because of our EU exit is “now likely to be at the lower end of estimates”. And their policy chief Catherine McGuinness suggested it could be possibly as few as 5,000 – down from doomsday referendum predictions of more than 75,000. Crippling loses to the City of London and Britain’s finance sector – which accounts for about 12 percent of country’s economic output – were a central plank of the Government’s campaign to keep Britain in the EU, branded Project Fear. – The Sun Diane Abbott reveals confusion over Labour Brexit policy While the Tories are in disarray over Brexit, Labour’s stance on this issue is seen by many as equally unclear, with journalists inside the Westminster bubble no more certain than the general public as to what Labour’s policy is. I ask Abbott for clarity—but it is not forthcoming. “We’re certainly going to stay in the single market and customs union during the transition, and I believe what we’re saying is that we’re going to be staying in the customs union after that,” Abbott says, before turning to her adviser to ask for help. “I think that’s what they’re saying, isn’t it?” The reply comes back: “Nothing’s off the table.” Abbott turns back to me. “Nothing’s off the table,” she repeats. – Diane Abbott interview in Prospect Rees-Mogg calls for 200 new Tory peers to halt Lords rebellion Backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg, who took over the chairmanship of the Brexit-supporting European Reform Group of Tory parliamentarians earlier this week, urged the Prime Minister to stand up to Remainers in the upper house over her flagship EU Withdrawal Bill. Labour and Lib Dem peers are expected to attempt to drastically alter the legislation when it goes to the Lords for scrutiny at the end of this month. Mrs May is expected to appoint 10 more Tory peers soon to help steer the Bill through the chamber, where the overwhelming majority of members voted for Britain to stay in the EU in the 2016 referendum. – Express Cross-party group of MPs tables law change to make donations to referendum campaigns tax-free after Brexit row MPs from the three main parties are backing a law change to make donations to referendum campaigns tax-free after outrage over HM Revenue and Customs sent demands to major Brexit donors. An amendment to the Finance Bill would extend the current exemption from inheritance tax for gifts to political parties to gifts to referendum campaigns under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The change would stop millions of pounds in tax bills being levied on private donors to campaigns at the 2016 European Union referendum, the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and the 2011 AV referendum. – Telegraph (£) MPs on both sides back tax break for referendum campaign donors – Guardian Nigel Farage: Theresa May sounds more pro-European than ever However favourable relations between the UK and France might now seem, I remain deeply dubious about what is really going on. My recent meeting with EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier convinced me that a rounded, grown-up trade deal is not on the agenda. For Brexit to be completed, we are going to need some courage and vision from our government – characteristics which seem in short supply. All thoughts that the English Channel is as easy to bridge as the Florida Keys are strictly for the birds – and I say that in the knowledge that I haven’t yet addressed the concerns of wildlife experts and the environmental lobby on Boris’s latest madcap scheme! – Nigel Farage MEP for the Telegraph (£) Charles Moore: Macron wishes to sew a new European tapestry, and Britain should be content to have a role in it A part of this diplomatic offensive, M Macron correctly perceives, is to take advantage of Britain’s temporary embarrassments. Since we are busy Brexiting, there is less we can do on other fronts. Alone in Western Europe, Britain and France are nuclear powers with seats on the UN Security Council. France is using this moment, in that forum, to upstage us and to present herself to the world as the leader that speaks for the whole of Europe. It is a trick, perhaps, but a trick worth taking. If the roles were reversed, Britain would do the same. – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£) Asa Bennett: The real crime, Monsieur Macron, isn’t Brexit — but beating up Britain over it Britain’s departure from the European Union has been tough for Emmanuel Macron. During his election campaign, he decried it as a “crime”. As President, he seems to be doing everything he can to make sure Britain pays for it. His Gallic charm during his visit this week could not conceal his desire to ostracise his British hosts. Leaving Theresa May in the lurch for 45 minutes before their working lunch was just the start of his nonchalance, bordering on froideur, towards his hosts. He insisted on extracting £44.5 million from the British in order to continue France’s policing of the border at Channel ports under the Le Touquet treaty. But that wasn’t all. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Boris’s bonkers bridge and a surrender too far No doubt you, like me, were somewhat relieved to hear that there are ‘no specific plans’ for Boris Johnson’s Channel bridge, which appeared to be his latest attention-seeking, sucking up to the French strategy. Hard on the heels of Mrs May’s most recent surrender to French bullying – ‘Jamais peur, Monsieur Macron,’ she might as well have said, ‘Nous sommes toujours accommodants!’ – it seemed for a few hours that we were not just going to be paying the French to take those not-so-immature EU child migrants, but would be building a bridge to ease their passage. – Kathy Gyngell for ConservativeWoman Brexit comment in brief Macron is blaming the UK for Europe’s migrant problem – Robert Bates of Get Britain Out for Reaction Wrong Answer – The EU’s rotten record on referendums – Daniel Huggins of Get Britain Out for The Conservative Online Brexit news in brief The history of the Tories’ influential European Research Group – BBC Lord Lawson warns UK will be forced into cash handout for EU trade deal – Express Theresa May to meet Donald Trump in Davos – BBC And finally… Big Ben won’t bong Britain out of the EU next March Brexiteers’ hopes of Big Ben bonging the nation out of the EU were dashed today as the Government confirmed it had no plans to sound the bells. Leave campaigners want the chimes to ring out when Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019… Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said in a written answer to an MP: “There are currently no arrangements for Big Ben to chime to mark the UK’s departure from the EU.” This is despite Big Ben chiming for Remembrance Sunday and the New Year. – Evening Standard