Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May accused of ‘cronyism’ after handing knighthood to Brexit-backing MP weeks before key vote… Theresa May was accused of “cronyism” after she handed a knighthood to a Leave-supporting Conservative MP weeks before a Commons key vote on her Brexit deal. Number 10 announced yesterday that John Hayes, the Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings, is to be awarded a knighthood by the Queen prompting an outcry from other Brexit-backing Tory MPs. There was speculation last night that Number 10 will seek to announce more honours – or make pledges for further honours – to more Tory MPs ahead MPs’ meaningful vote on Mrs May’s Brexit agreement in just over a fortnight’s time. Mrs May’s deal looks almost certain to be defeated if Labour fail to support it with as many as 90 Conservative MPs saying they will oppose it. – Telegraph (£) Eurosceptic Tory MP John Hayes given knighthood – BBC News Arise, Sir John! – Henry Hill for ConservativeHome …after she refuses to answer questions from the public over her deal… Theresa May has refused to confirm whether she would resign if her Brexit deal is rejected by MPs, as she insisted that it was the “the best deal for the UK.” In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Mrs May was asked three times if she would stand down but refused to provide an answer. “I am focused on ensuring we get this deal. I believe it’s the right deal for the UK. As I’m sitting here I am not thinking about me but getting a deal for this country. That’s what drives me,” she said. When pushed further, she simply replied: “I am going to be around the country, explaining the deal up and down the country. I think this is important. It’s not just about MPs it’s about people understanding what the country is about.” – Telegraph (£) Theresa May is back on the radio flogging her Brexit deal to a sceptical public. Unsurprisingly, few of those who phoned in to BBC 5 Live seemed impressed by what the Prime Minister had to offer. One listener asked the PM to tell him, without any ‘political waffle’, whether her deal is better than staying in the EU. But May’s bid to do just that didn’t exactly work out to plan. At the end of May’s minute-long answer, the host Emma Barnett asked for the caller’s verdict: EB: ‘Michael, did the PM answer your question? ’Caller: ‘No’ Emma Barnett ended the interview by asking May how she and Philip would celebrate if the deal got through Parliament.- The Spectator PM refuses to say if she’ll quit if Brexit deal rejected – Sky News Theresa May to MPs: Brexit is not just about you- Politico Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint is not passing the House of Commons as there’s no sign of weakening the Tory rebellion – James Forsyth for The Sun …and is criticised by Dominic Raab for producing a deal worse than EU membership The former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has conceded Theresa May’s Brexit deal would be “even worse” than staying in the EU. The leading Brexiter, who dramatically quit the cabinet last week in protest over the withdrawal agreement negotiated by the prime minister, said he did not advocate staying in the EU but that May’s plan was an inferior option. Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme what he would do if he had to choose between May’s deal or no Brexit at all, Raab said: “Well, I don’t have to choose that. I’m sorry, I’m not going to give way to hypothetical scenarios. I’ll keep fighting for the best, most successful Brexit.” Pressed further on whether he thought the deal would be worse than staying in the EU, he replied: “Well, I’m not going to advocate staying in the EU but if you just presented me terms, this deal or EU membership – we’d effectively be bound by the same rules without a control or voice over them – yes, I think this would be even worse than that.” – Guardian Dominic Raab is just saying what a lot of Leave MPs are thinking – Katy Balls for The Spectator Leaked EU draft text warns UK over fishing access The EU is threatening that the UK could lose the right to extend its planned post-Brexit transition beyond 2020 unless European fishermen are given access to UK fishing waters “well before” the extension is triggered. The demand, contained in a draft statement to be agreed by EU leaders at a summit on Sunday and seen by the Financial Times, is a sign Brussels is toughening its stance on fishing — one of the most sensitive issues in the future relationship with the UK. The EU’s new declaration on the eve of this weekend’s European Council will further complicate the challenge at home for Theresa May to win support for her Brexit deal within her divided Tory party, where more than 80 MPs have criticised the agreement. – FT (£) EU produces third Brexit deal document… The EU will produce a third Brexit document to accompany the two already published that set out the parameters of the U.K.’s exit agreement with the bloc, according to two EU diplomats. The third document — a “declaration” by the 27 national governments to be examined by the European Council — will set out the major priorities of the EU27 in negotiations beyond Brexit day on the U.K.’s future relationship with the bloc. It will include text on the role of the European Council as the “pilot” institution in guiding the talks and several key issues including the importance of a level playing field in competition and access to U.K. fisheries. These are issues on which some EU countries felt the text of the Political Declaration document published on Thursday did not go far enough. That 26-page document sets out the future framework for relations between the EU and U.K – Politico …as May goes to meet Tusk and Juncker on eve of Brexit summit British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels on Saturday evening following talks with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The meetings will take place on the eve of Sunday’s European Council summit, at which leaders of the EU’s member countries are due to endorse the Brexit deal negotiated between Brussels and London. May’s meeting with Juncker had been previously scheduled but the talks with Tusk were announced by the European Council on Friday evening. – Politico May heads to Brussels on eve of crucial EU summit – BBC News Arlene Foster tells Theresa May to stop wasting time and seek new Brexit deal… Prime Minister Theresa May should not waste time with a parliamentary vote and instead seek a new Brexit deal with Brussels, Arlene Foster said today. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 MPs prop up the U.K. prime minister’s government, insisted the draft Withdrawal Agreement, which was agreed in principle on Thursday, could be reopened. – Politico …as the DUP leader says they may revisit confidence and supply agreement The DUP would have to revisit its confidence and supply deal with the Tories if Theresa May’s Brexit deal passes through parliament, Arlene Foster has said. The DUP leader said her agreement with the Conservatives had been intended to provide the UK with national stability and to deliver on Brexit. She was speaking on Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics programme. The DUP is holding its annual conference this weekend. “If this is not going to deliver on Brexit then of course that brings us to the situation of looking again at the confidence and supply deal. – BBC News Northern Irish DUP leader – we cannot support Brexit deal as it stands – Reuters Chancellor Philip Hammond to visit NI – BBC News Revealed: Philip Hammond’s speech at DUP conference – Boris, Rees-Mogg and the backstop – The Spectator The DUP has clear red lines, but what does the party want from Brexit? – Owen Polley for CapX Theresa May to curb low-skilled migration with announcement due on eve of crucial Brexit vote Theresa May is preparing to unveil curbs on low-skilled migrants just days before a crunch Commons vote on her Brexit deal in a bid to win round Eurosceptic Tory MPs, The Telegraph has learned. Leaked Cabinet papers reveal that the Home Office has drawn up plans to issue low-skilled migrants with 11-month visas “with restricted entitlements and rights” while they are living in the UK. Ministers are also considering alternative plans to allow EU migrants aged between 18 and 30 to live and work in the UK for two years, with a strict cap on numbers. The Prime Minister will announce that the Government will abolish the cap on highly skilled workers after Brexit such as doctors and nurses entirely so the UK can attract the “brightest and the best”. – Telegraph (£) Andrea Hosso: The EU does not want a deal. This anti-democratic empire wants to crush Brexit In a scene that could have been lifted from a John Le Carre novel, a British official and a European ambassador are overheard speaking frankly about Brexit in a café in Washington DC. The upshot was that the unknowing public would ultimately be presented with a stark choice: accept Theresa May’s ‘Deal’ or stay in the EU. Fact not fantasy, as journalist Ian Birrell told the BBC back in the summer. At the time, we might have been wondering if what we heard was merely the wishful fantasising of overzealous Remainers. The current deal shows that it was indeed a real Le Carré moment, a secret conversation about high political games. – Andrea Hosso for the Telegraph (£) Lee Rotherham: Spain’s Brexit threats are as shallow as they are futile Some things are inevitable and predictable. The sun rises. The sun sets. England falter at the World cup. Shops put out Christmas decorations in October. The Spanish Government puts a spoke in the wheels of Brexit over Gibraltar. Under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, no one country has veto rights over the departure terms for a withdrawing EU member state. But under the EU’s Brexit negotiating guidelines from March 2017, the European Council agreed amongst itself that any terms relating to Gibraltar inserted into the future treaty would only be signed off if Madrid agreed to them. – Lee Rotherham for CapX Charles Moore: As Mrs May goes flat out to sell her deal, here’s why the backstop price is too high The PM’s deal is terrifying: it achieves the exact opposite of what Leavers want. Conscientious readers may be wondering whether they ought to ruin their weekend by reading the draft Political Declaration which goes with the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Having done so, I can confidently assure them that they need not bother.This is for two reasons. The first is that the Political Declaration, which sketches out the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU, has no legal force. It is merely an almost unedited, slogan-filled amalgamation of each side’s dreams, using vagueness to pretend they are reconcilable. – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£) Kathy Gyngell: It’s time for you Tory Brexiteers to grow up It’s just over a year now since we published Michael St George’s warning that the Brexit Movement must re-constitute itself, and fight the Brexit battle all over again, if the referendum result were not to be betrayed. He was right, and it hasn’t (yet). Which is why we are republishing his prophetic article in full today. The sad fact is that the Brexiteers (many from the original Vote Leave campaign) have continued to make one catastrophic error after another. – Kathy Gyngell for Conservative Woman Why we need to fight the Brexit battle all over again – Michael St George for ConservativeWoman Comment in Brief The Withdrawal Agreement should be renamed The Stay in and Pay up Agreement – John Redwood’s Diary Rising recession risk leaves Europe acutely vulnerable to no-deal Brexit shock – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph (£) If we join the EEA, others might follow – thus creating a Europe-wide, non-federalist alternative to the EU – Nick Hargrave for ConservativeHome It’s possible to trade across the Northern Irish border without simply swallowing EU regulation whole – Mark Wallace for ConservativeHome State of Play of the Negotiations under Article 50 TEU on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union – Peter Marshall for Briefings for Brexit Remainers must reject May’s Brexit deal – Matthew Parris for The Times (£) EU summit in doubt if no Gibraltar deal – Pedro Sánchez for Politico Juncker’s Clunckers and the Funky Maybot – Conservative Woman News in Brief UK fails to secure improvements to future EU financial services access – Reuters Would market shock force parliament’s hand on Brexit? – Reuters Scottish salmon producers say May’s Brexit plans pose “serious questions” – Reuters Brexit vote will be honoured, says Diane Abbott – BBC News How toxic is May’s political legacy? – The Spectator podcast