Philip Hammond refuses to rule out resigning over no-deal Brexit… Philip Hammond has refused to rule out resigning from the government if Theresa May decides to pursue a no-deal Brexit. Pressure is mounting on the prime minister to take a disorderly exit off the table, as the chancellor ramped up his warnings of a “significant hit” to the economy if the UK leaves the EU without an agreement. It comes after Amber Rudd, the pro-EU work and pensions secretary, also hinted she could resign from the frontbench to thwart a no-deal exit from the bloc. Asked repeatedly whether he would remain in No 11 under that scenario, Mr Hammond told the Today programme: “I’m not going to speculate because a lot depends on the circumstances, what happens. The responsibility I have is to manage the economy in what is the best interests of the British people. I clearly do not believe that making a choice to leave without a deal would be a responsible thing to do, but I recognise that that is potentially a default that we could find ourselves in, and if we did find ourselves in that position then the responsible thing to do is to use every possible way of mitigating and minimising the impact.” – Independent …as he declares Europe will shift its position on the Irish backstop European leaders are preparing to shift their red lines on the Irish backstop, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, claimed today, as he talked up the prospect of a deal that could get through the House of Commons. Speaking from Davos, Mr Hammond quietened expectations of the parliamentary debate on Brexit next week, saying that he did not see it as the “high noon” in the process. However he pointedly refused to rule out resigning if Theresa May insisted on taking the UK out of Europe without a deal. Mr Hammond was speaking after the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, gave warning that the withdrawal agreement was “done” and would not be revisited. He said that the European Union had “nothing to give” the UK on the Brexit deal apart from “clarifications” and that it was up to Mrs May’s government to find a way out of the situation in which it found itself. “Reopening the deal would mean weeks, months, of new negotiations between the UK and the European member states, that is exactly what we want to avoid,” Mr Le Marie told the BBC’s Today programme. – The Times (£) EU could move on ‘red lines’, says UK chancellor – BBC News Irish PM warns Irish border would need ‘army presence’ if there’s no deal Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has warned soldiers could return to the border with Northern Ireland if the UK left the EU with no deal. In a worst-case scenario, a hard border could “involve people in uniform and it may involve the need, for example, for cameras, physical infrastructure, possibly a police presence, or an army presence to back it up,” Mr Varadkar told Bloomberg. “The problem with that in the context of Irish politics and history is those things become targets,” he said. Ireland has said it would find it difficult to avoid imposing a hard border on Northern Ireland if the United Kingdom crashes out of the EU without a deal. An open border is a legacy of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which ended fighting between the north’s pro-British unionists and nationalists who favour a united Ireland. It came as Philip Hammond has refused to rule out quitting in the event of a no deal Brexit as he defended his claim that it would be a “betrayal” of the referendum result. The Chancellor twice declined to say whether he would step down if the UK left the European Union without an agreement, saying that it “depends on the circumstances”. – Telegraph (£) Varadkar warns of army checkpoints on border after a no-deal Brexit – The Times (£) Varadkar admits prospect of border troops under no-deal Brexit – FT (£) Theresa May close to winning a Commons majority for her Brexit deal if EU will axe the hated Irish backstop… Theresa May is close to winning a Commons majority for her Brexit deal, it has emerged. The PM could accept backbench calls for the EU to axe the hated Irish border backstop. She faces another brutal Commons showdown on Tuesday. And a powerful group of senior backbench Conservatives, led by 1922 Committee boss Sir Graham Brady, want the PM to go back to Brussels to get the unpopular Irish border backstop removed. A senior No10 source revealed Sir Graham’s amendment was “pretty close” to Mrs May’s thinking. But even if Mrs May does win the vote, Brussels has repeatedly refused all previous pleas to reopen talks. Sun columnist James Forsyth also reveals today that Cabinet ministers are pressing the PM to put down her own amendment. This would force Speaker John Bercow to call a vote. One option would be to enforce a series of annual tests which would allow the UK to exit the backstop if the EU falls short. Others in No 10 argue that the loose wording of Sir Graham’s amendment gives the PM a lot of leeway in new negotiations. This has led some MPs to suspect it was authored with No 10’s help. – The Sun …while Andrea Leadsom suggests Brexit could be delayed by ‘a couple of weeks’ to pass Commons legislation Brexit could be delayed by a “couple of weeks” in order to get crucial legislation through the Commons, a senior minister has said. Andrea Leadsom has become the first of Theresa May’s top MPs to publicly acknowledge Britain may have to extend the process of leaving the European Union. The prominent Brexiteer insisted it would be “feasible” to remain in the bloc for a short time after the scheduled exit date of 29 March. “We can get the legislation through. And in particular I think we do, in spite of everything, have a very strong relationship with our EU friends and neighbours and I’m absolutely certain that if we needed a couple of extra weeks or something, that that would be feasible,” Ms Leadsom told BBC2’s Newsnight. The leader of the House of Commons made the claim as Westminster remained deadlocked in the wake of Ms May’s historic defeat on her Brexit deal. – Independent Brexit might have to be delayed even if MPs approve Theresa May’s deal, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom warns – The Sun Andrea Leadsom warns Brexit may not happen on March 29 – FT (£) Justice Secretary David Gauke moots free votes for MPs on Brexit Justice Secretary David Gauke has become the second cabinet minister to suggest Parliament could be given free votes on some Brexit issues. He told the BBC MPs should be able to vote according to their personal views when the Brexit motion is debated on Tuesday, “to resolve things”. He reiterated he would have to consider his position if the government opted for a no deal withdrawal from the EU. Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd has adopted a similar stance. She told the BBC this week that she is “committed to making sure we avoid” a no deal Brexit and would not rule out resigning over it. But she said allowing a free vote could help establish what Brexit solution could command a majority among MPs. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions, Mr Gauke – who like Ms Rudd backed Remain in the referendum – warned that the way the UK leaves the EU should not be “railroaded through”. – BBC News Yvette Cooper’s plan to see off a no-deal Brexit hangs in the balance A backbench plan to ward off a no-deal Brexit by extending article 50 is in the balance amid concerns from Labour MPs in leave-voting seats, who fear it could be seen as an attempt to frustrate Britain’s departure from the EU. It appears likely that the Labour front bench will support the amendment to the government’s Brexit deal tabled by Yvette Cooper. Cooper’s amendment has already won the backing of more than 70 cross-party MPs, among them a number of Conservatives. This month an earlier Cooper amendment to restrict the chances of no deal was passed with the support of 20 Conservatives, However, while just three Labour MPs went against the party line in that vote, there is speculation that more could rebel on Tuesday. The new amendment, which seems likely to be among those selected for a vote, would guarantee parliamentary time for a private members’ bill drafted by Cooper that would extend article 50 to the end of 2019 if Theresa May failed to secure a deal by late February. Some Labour MPs representing seats that voted leave in the 2016 referendum have warned that the plan could appear to be endlessly extending the Brexit process for no reason. – Guardian Jeremy Corbyn could lose Labour 23 Leave-backing seats by frustrating Brexit… Jeremy Corbyn could be at risk of losing 23 Labour constituencies if he is seen to frustrate Brexit in backing an extension to Article 50, Telegraph analysis has shown. There are over 150 Labour constituencies with a Brexit majority, including large swathes of the party’s northern heartland in England. A number of these constituencies only narrowly voted for Labour during the 2017 general election, with 23 recording a margin of victory less than 15 per cent and a Leave majority of over 60 per cent. Mr Corbyn has indicated that he is willing to support Yvette Cooper’s Bill forcing the Government to seek an extension to Article 50 if no deal can be reached by February 26. However, the Labour leader has faced a backlash from senior party figures, with one shadow Cabinet minister saying that it will be “very difficult for us to argue in our constituencies” for an extension of Article 50. The majority of these areas are in the Midlands and North of England, including seven located in the West Midlands, six in Yorkshire and the Humber and four in the North West. – Telegraph (£) …as Labour’s Campaigns Coordinator dents hopes of a push for a second referendum A senior ally of Jeremy Corbyn has said holding a second EU referendum could badly affect the relationship between politicians and the public, as a series of Labour backbenchers tabled new amendments seeking such an option. Ian Lavery, a Labour MP who is also the party’s national campaigns coordinator, said that while the possibility of a second referendum should be maintained as a way to end an otherwise intractable Brexit impasse, he was worried about the consequences. Labour’s frontbench has tabled an amendment to Theresa May’s Brexit plan which includes this option, as decreed by party policy, Lavery says in an article for the Guardian. “However, we should be in no doubt that asking the voters to vote again on an issue they have already given an answer, until they come up with the right answer, risks serious damage to the relationship between many citizens and politicians at Westminster.” – Guardian Conservative donors refuse to hand over cash in ‘disgust’ over Theresa May’s leadership and Brexit policy Major Conservative donors are refusing to give money to the party because of “disgust” at Theresa May’s leadership and her handling of Brexit, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. The businessmen – who together have given millions of pounds to the party since Mrs May became Prime Minister – do not want to fund a potential snap general election with Mrs May still in post. Several said they are planning to stay away from next month’s glittering Black and White Ball, one of the party’s biggest annual fundraising events, when access to ministers is auctioned to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds. On Tuesday MPs will vote on a series of possible measures to break the Brexit deadlock, with Tory backbenchers and the DUP coalescing around a plan to remove the Northern Ireland backstop from Mrs May’s Brexit deal and replace it with “alternative arrangements” to avoid a hard border. If that fails, a snap election would be one possible option for breaking the Brexit deadlock, but a shortage of donations would make it more difficult to defeat Jeremy Corbyn’s union-backed Labour party. One Conservative source said the party had had no donations since Christmas. Among the organisations withholding money is the Midlands Industrial Council, whose 33 members gave £5 million to the Tories ahead of the 2017 election – roughly one fifth of Mrs May’s entire war chest. – Telegraph (£) > Recently on BrexitCentral: Cllr Bob Perry: Failure to deliver Brexit would consign the Conservative Party to the history books Greig Baker: If Tory MPs ignore the party membership and back the Brexit deal, they risk losing the activists on whom they rely Ministers back Queen’s call to end Brexit feud Conservative ministers including the chancellor have supported the Queen’s call for the country to “seek out the common ground”. In a sign of royal nervousness over the divisions caused by Brexit, the Queen urged politicians to respect, not attack, one another while “never losing sight of the bigger picture”. Her intervention came 64 days before Britain is due to leave the European Union, with no settled plan on how it will be achieved. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, said there was huge wisdom in her words. “I don’t think anybody will be at all surprised to hear the Queen advocating the view that in all things controversial we should seek compromise, we should seek common ground and we should seek a way forward. “That is actually what we do in this country, that is how we solve problems, by compromise and pragmatism. It’s been our enormous strength over centuries that we have been able to find compromises that bring the nation together.” – The Times (£) Singapore move is not hypocrisy, says James Dyson Sir James Dyson has denied that he is a hypocrite for moving his company’s corporate headquarters to Singapore after campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union. The entrepreneur and Brexiteer, who according to Forbes is worth £4 billion, has come under fire, including from a senior minister, for his decision to relocate the headquarters from Wiltshire. Critics said that the move was at odds with his claim that Britain would flourish after leaving the EU. Sony announced this week that it would move its European headquarters to the Netherlands and it emerged that the Dutch government was in talks with a further 250 British-based companies tempted to relocate. This morning the chief executive of Goldman Sachs said that Brexit might negatively affect its investment plans. David Solomon told the BBC: “If this is resolved in a difficult way, or in a hard way, I do think it’ll have an impact on where we invest and where we put people.” The bank has had a UK hiring freeze for the past two years but has increased its headcount in the EU. – The Times (£) Ian Lavery: A second referendum could destroy public trust in politics Since parliament returned this week, the gross injustices and inequalities that should haunt our national conscience are once again taking a back seat as MPs continue to wade through the resource-sapping Brexit quagmire. Nearly three years after the UK voted to end its 40-year membership of the European Union, in the biggest democratic exercise in a generation, the debate continues to rage. The bitterness of that campaign, which so divided the country and communities, has not gone away. But the reason it continues to fuel such anger is that it struck a chord with communities who for too long have felt held back by a political class that has too often taken them for granted, and an economic system that works against them. The truth is that much of Britain was on its knees long before membership of the EU was put to the voters in 2016, with austerity, poverty and lack of investment ravaging our country. In the last years of the 20th century, hundreds of cities, towns and villages saw the industries around which they had flourished disappear. – Ian Lavery MP for the Guardian Charles Moore: There is a Brexit common ground, but only if Remainers respect the result Davos has its WEF (World Economic Forum). Sandringham has its WI (Women’s Institute). More wisdom comes from the latter. In Davos this week, the Remain chorus made the snowy valleys echo with their plaintive yodelling. We heard from the Chancellor, Philip Hammond (more of him later); from his illustrious predecessor, George Osborne; from Roland Rudd, Labour PR man and brother of Remainer Cabinet minister, Amber; from the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, who wants “a European empire”; from the head of Goldman Sachs, and from Tom Enders, head of Airbus. In Sandringham, Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for 20 years before we entered the European Economic Community, and has continued to reign over us for the 46 years since, spoke to the village women. Mr Enders is one of the leading Germans who last week signed a letter to The Times saying how much they loved this country and would “miss” it post-Brexit. This week, though, he turned nasty. In a company video, he starts shouting at the British people about the Brexit “precipice”. He accuses Brexit of “threatening to destroy” a century of his company’s expertise. “Please don’t listen” to Brexiteers, he tells us, forgetting that he is referring to 17.4 million voters. Britain “no longer has the capability to go it alone”, so we must surrender. I recommend watching the film: Mr Enders’s tone is disturbingly arrogant, like that of an interrogator in a war film. – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£) Sherelle Jacobs: Why the battle for Brexit is now a fight to save Western democracy Western democracy is officially screwed. That is the conclusion that I came to this week speaking with campaigners at a London People’s Vote protest. The thought process of this band of dedicated Remainers deeply concerned me – and not just because they seemed to think cycling lycra and flimsy EU-starred berets was suitable activism gear in freezing January temperatures. “One day I hope that we will have some kind of AI technology that will scan people’s brains in the ballot box,” Mark, an accountant from Nottingham, told me when I asked him for his opinion on participative democracy. “We need machines that can evaluate the logic of individual voting decisions. If the reasons aren’t coherent and rational, they will be declared null and void.” Mark, who almost voted Leave until his father, an economist “laughed at his folly” was of the opinion that important decisions should be “left to experts”. He kept coming back to one wretchedly helpless phrase: “I’m educated on paper, but in this complex world, I feel like I know nothing at all.” Another protester, Roger, a retired teacher from Kent, insisted that “MPs should rise above not pander to we the public.” – Sherelle Jacobs for the Telegraph (£) Patrick Mercer: No thanks to Jeremy Corbyn, but I sense a general election being called to break Brexit deadlock Fed up with trudging to the polling station, putting an ‘X’ in the box and knowing that nothing will change – and as expressed by ‘Brenda of Bristol’ when the last election was called? Well, unless I’m very much mistaken, we’re all going to get a chance to go through that same exercise again in the very near future. But, if you think that an election will be forced by Jeremy Corbyn’s clever tactics, I think you’re wrong. Let’s look at the facts. After Theresa May’s Chequers deal was defeated last week, Mr Corbyn brought about a vote of no confidence which succeeded in doing nothing but uniting the sundered Tory Party and bringing the DUP back to its paymaster’s side. And what would Jezzer offer his voters? Remember, he’s an EU-sceptic who leads a party two-thirds of whose constituencies voted to leave – not his MPs, mark you, but more than 60 per cent of his voters. Also, over 150,000 paid-up party members have not renewed their subscriptions since Brexit began. If the Leader of the Opposition is going to turn his coat and stand on a Remain platform, he’s going to have to convince the tens of thousands of Labour voters who opted to leave. – Patrick Mercer for The Yorkshire Post Andrew Murrison: My amendment for a time-limited backstop is our best hope of a good Brexit Unfashionably, I voted for the Withdrawal Agreement last week. Bluntly, given the forces now marshalling against the people’s vote of June 2016, basement Brexit is better than no Brexit. However, over thirty of us have also tabled an amendment that I believe is the best chance of getting an agreement across the line, one that will give most people most of what they want. I’ve just re-tabled it and it appears to be gathering momentum. Last week’s huge defeat disguises the principal underlying issue – dislike of the so-called Northern Ireland backstop within the Withdrawal Agreement. My amendment means it would expire on 31 December 2021. The date could be flexible, a secondary matter, the important thing is the principle – the introduction of a sunset on the backstop. Remember that international treaties of this type invariably allow contracting parties to walk with reasonable notice. This one is highly unusual. Hardly surprisingly, MPs are worried about the Withdrawal Agreement since its backstop potentially indefinitely both binds the UK into the EU customs union and separates Northern Ireland in important respects from Great Britain. That’s worse than the arrangement we’re in right now which has at least, through Article 50, permitted the UK to leave. The Withdrawal Agreement as drafted would not. – Andrew Murrison MP for the Telegraph (£) Asa Bennett: Emmanuel Macron loves to bash Brexit — he’s lucky Theresa May doesn’t return fire Did you know Emmanuel Macron does not like Brexit? He does not keep it quiet, saying in public things like that Brexit was a “crime”, promoted by “liars” who were peddling “poison” to the public. Remainers lap up everything he says about it. “Please help London, Mr Macron,” the SNP’s MP Angus Macneil ended up pleading on Twitter. After Theresa May’s Brexit deal was voted down by historically huge numbers, the French president told local mayors how the British would be the “biggest losers” from a bumpy Brexit outcome, and that their referendum had been “manipulated…by fake news”. George Osborne could not hide his delight over this presidential pronouncement, praising it as a “more realistic summary of the Brexit options facing Britain” than his nemesis Mrs May offered. Monsieur Macron is still at it, undoubtedly encouraged by the Remainers’ rave reviews from across the Channel. He told an audience last night that its promises “can’t be delivered”, and that its purported upsides were “dreams..miracle ideas”. Brexiteers, he added, “said that the source of all their ills was Europe. It’s rubbish!” – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: Remain wreckers should listen to the Queen’s Brexit intervention and stop trying to overturn EU referendum result The Queen’s timely Brexit intervention should be listened to by the Remain wreckers trying to overturn the result of Britain’s biggest ever democratic exercise. Her Majesty is right that MPs must find the common ground. But whatever compromises are made on the finer details, that “common ground” must at its core deliver on 17.4 million votes to leave the EU, and the promises made in both Tory and Labour manifestos at the last election. Those trying to derail Brexit are the ones who are, as Her Majesty puts it, “losing sight of the bigger picture”. After all, it is they who are willing to rip up centuries of democratic understanding and procedure to keep us locked within the European Union. So terrified of Britain flourishing, free from Brussels’ dead hand, that they will happily destroy public trust in Parliament in order to succeed. We wish they shared Her Majesty’s obvious confidence in her country. As MPs return to their constituencies this weekend, they will hear the same thing over and over again: deliver what we voted for. – The Sun Brexit in Brief Dark forces at work to defy people’s vote – Frederick Forsyth for the Express Stick with May or risk a backstop and Corbyn? The DUP’s options are more limited than it thinks – David Shiels for the Telegraph (£) Whatever we do, we must be prepared for a no-deal – Express editorial Rival factions of MPs jostle for position over Brexit ahead of Theresa May’s Commons showdown – i News Pound enjoys best week in 16 months amid rising Brexit hopes – Telegraph (£) Airbus ‘was asked’ to say it could quit UK – Express