Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team David Davis ‘ready to resign’ if Britain stays in EU customs union… David Davis is “on the brink of resigning” as Brexit Secretary because of frustration over the Prime Minister’s plans to strike a deal with the EU on a customs partnership. Friends of the Brexit Secretary David Davis have told the Daily Express that he is “extremely frustrated” with the direction of Government policy and “feels he has been cut out of the decisions.” … A source close to Mr Davis has said that his final decision “is very much dependent on what happens at that meeting. It is pretty crucial.” It is understood that if Mr Davis decides to walk on a point of principle then other Brexit supporting ministers may follow him out of the door precipitating a major crisis for Theresa May. – Express Mrs May must not waver over customs union issue – Express editorial …with ministers having sought to shoot down the hybrid customs plan eight times… Theresa May has been told eight times to ditch her plan for a hybrid customs plan but still won’t budge. Brexit ministers said her bid for a partnership under which Britain would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels is unworkable. Theresa May’s bid for a partnership under which Britain would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels is said to be unworkable and they have told Mrs May it has no chance of being accepted by Brussels. Sun columnist James Forsyth today reveals her top team have pleaded with her eight times on the issue. One despairing Brexit minister said Mrs May shows no signs of abandoning the idea. Arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has already branded it “cretinous”. – The Sun PM cannot afford a trade off – James Forsyth for The Sun Cabinet’s Brexiters push May to drop ‘customs partnership’ – Guardian ‘Soft Brexit’ plan brewing in Whitehall – John Pienaar for the BBC News …while a second Cabinet minister seemingly casts doubt over pledge to leave customs union The Cabinet’s stance on a post-Brexit customs union with the EU was thrown into fresh doubt today after a minister stopped short of saying Britain had to leave it to honour the referendum result. Culture Secretary Matt Hancock was quizzed on the issue by presenter David Dimbleby when he appeared on the BBC’s Question Time last night… But pressed on whether Britain staying in the customs union would not be honouring the referendum result, he said: “I don’t think that’s the best way forward.” Mr Dimbleby continued: “Would staying in the customs union still deliver Brexit, yes or no?” Mr Hancock replied: “Brexit is leaving the EU.” – Evening Standard Dutch delay spending on new port facilities amid hope of British U-turn on customs union… Officials at the port of Rotterdam, the largest in Europe, are stalling on investments in Brexit infrastructure amid renewed hope that Theresa May will make a U-turn after the local elections on the UK leaving the customs union. EU officials, however, have warned that global trade rules will stand in the way of a UK “fudge” on the customs union issue. With the debate in full swing in the UK, officials at the port handling 40m tonnes of UK trade in goods annually said plans for the construction of new customs inspection posts, parking spaces and cool warehouses for flowers and vegetables were on hold. While fearful that Brexit paperwork at the port could lead to five-mile queues of trucks on its doorstep, Mark Dijk, the port’s head of external affairs, said the level of the investment required by the the port and its ferry companies meant certainty was needed. – Guardian …as former New Zealand High Commissioner says staying in customs union would be ‘awful’ Failing to leave the customs union would be “awful for Britain and for the world,” New Zealand’s former High Commissioner warned on Friday, as he said the UK might as well abandon Brexit if it cannot take control on trade. Sir Lockwood Smith, who also served New Zealand as a minister for agriculture and international trade, said the UK could boost productivity and innovation if it were no longer “locked into” the EU system. Leaving the customs union and the single market, he said, would potentially allow the UK to pursue world-leading reforms in the services and agricultural industries. – Telegraph (£) Why leaving the EU and returning to the Anglosphere is a victory for the many over the few – Gwythian Prins for UK in a changing Europe Brexit’s impact on UK GDP has been “relatively muted” since referendum Ratings agency Moody’s said today that Brexit’s impact on UK economic growth had been “relatively muted” since the referendum vote in June 2016. Yesterday, UK GDP growth undershot expectations considerably, edging up at 0.1 per cent, making it the slowest rate of growth for five years. Moody’s has updated its latest Brexit Monitor, a regular report covering key economic and political developments surrounding the UK’s decision to leave the EU. – City A.M. UK economy in weakest growth since 2012 – BBC News Mark Carney and Mario Draghi team up for talks on Brexit risks to finance – Telegraph (£) The whole world is slowing and Europe is just as vulnerable as Britain – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph (£) Brexit isn’t to blame for dismal GDP growth – and nor is the weather – Ross Clark for The Spectator Guy Verhofstadt: Brexit will be delayed unless Britain makes further concessions to EU Brexit could be delayed for years unless Britain makes further concessions to the EU, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator has suggested. Writing in The Telegraph, Guy Verhofstadt urges Theresa May to sign up to a catch-all association agreement with Brussels, which Brexiteers warn would leave the UK as a “rule taker” from the EU. He says it is time to abandon “ideology” and take a more “pragmatic” approach. – Telegraph (£) Brexit ‘will be delayed’ unless UK offers further concessions – Express Australia says EU is in denial about mishandling immigration Australia’s outgoing High Commissioner Alexander Downer says Brexit will damage the EU, which is in denial over its mishandling of immigration. Speaking to Fairfax Media from Australia House in his last few hours in the job, a candid Downer singled out the European institutions for criticism and said they needed to shoulder much of the blame for the Brexit result. Describing the EU’s handling of immigration as “chaotic” and its management of the eurozone during the Cypriot financial crisis as causing “catastrophic harm” he said it was Europe and not Britain that had the most to lose from Brexit. – Sydney Morning Herald Animal welfare campaigners step up fight to ban ‘cruel’ foie gras after Brexit Foie gras campaigners take their fight for a ban to Parliament next week as they step up their battle to protect geese and ducks after Brexit . Animal welfare activists want the UK to block imports of the controversial continental delicacy after we quit the EU next March. They will press their case during a high-profile meeting in Westminster on Wednesday. Environment Secretary Michael Gove has signalled the Government could stop the posh product being shipped to our shores following withdrawal from the bloc. No British farmers are allowed to produce it, but protesters want ministers to go a step further and guarantee imports will be banned. – Daily Mirror James Forsyth: Cabinet Brexiteers’ growing frustration with the Prime Minister and Olly Robbins Cabinet Brexiteers are getting increasingly frustrated. They feel that key decisions are not being taken in Cabinet, or even the Cabinet Committee tasked with managing the negotiation, but elsewhere. One senior Brexiteer complains to me that Olly Robbins, the Prime Minister’s chief Europe adviser, is, “Running around telling everyone we have to back down on pretty much everything”. This grumpiness has been exacerbated by this week’s meeting of the Brexit inner Cabinet not discussing the big issue of the moment, customs. One member of it tells me: “When people left, they all felt a greater level of frustration.”… This will discuss Theresa May’s plan for a hybrid customs model which would see the UK leave the customs union but collect tariffs on the EU’s behalf. Brexiteer ministers regard this as complicated and as having no chance of being accepted by Brussels. They think persisting with it just wastes valuable time. One tells me Mrs May has been told this hybrid plan is unworkable on eight occasions but doesn’t show any signs of abandoning the idea. – James Forsyth for The Sun Daily Express: Mrs May must not waver over customs union issue David Davis is an honourable man: in these days in which it seems that most politicos will cling on to their posts for dear life no matter what catastrophe they have When Mrs May entered number 10 presided over, to threaten to resign on a point of principle is rare. And yet that is what the Brexit Secretary is doing: he is telling the Prime Minister in no uncertain terms that she must not waver on a crucial point, namely leaving the customs union. She told us “Brexit means Brexit” and that must stand. There has been a great deal of tortured argument about what this actually means but what is patently obvious is that if Britain forms a customs partnership with the EU, then we will remain inside it in all but name. We will also be subject to all the bureaucracy and interference from the EU that so many people voted to get away from and we will be without any influence over the way it is run. – Express editorial Comment in Brief Why the UK should not retain the European Charter of Fundamental Rights – Baroness Deech for Briefings for Brexit Trading for Prosperity – Carl Hunter for Politeia Conservatives should defend the Lords – even if it’s a pain over Brexit – Owen Polley for Reaction Britain was utterly wretched in 1975. No wonder Europe seemed a better bet – Daniel Hannan MEP for The Spectator I got into a huge online fight with JK Rowling about owls, Brexit and postage stamps – Christopher Hope for the Telegraph (£) Cars, claret and the constitution. The passions of Jacob Rees-Mogg – Andrew Roberts for Reaction Orwell’s People and the People’s Brexit – Robert Colls for Briefings for Brexit Billy Bragg’s Brexit confusion – Dr Sean Walsh for CommentCentral Brexit is not utopia but it can be a great opportunity for the UK – Mark Fox for Reaction The Government has eroded British values just when we need them most – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£) The Wembley deal is Global Britain in action – Ben Ramanauskas for CapX News in Brief UK space industry ponders life without Galileo – FT (£) Varadkar making Brexit negotiations hard ‘to protect weak leadership’ – Express