Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May invokes Jeremy Corbyn’s support as she pledges to ‘battle for Britain’ in Brussels… Theresa May has invoked the support of Jeremy Corbyn to insist the EU must offer concessions on her Brexit deal, as she pledges to “battle for Britain” when she travels to Brussels to re-open negotiations. Writing in The Telegraph, Mrs May states that although the Labour leader refused to support her in the Commons last week, he also believes that the controversial Irish backstop “needs to be addressed with Brussels”. Mrs May suggests that she will seek either an “alternative” to the backstop, or a time limit or unilateral exit mechanism to prevent the UK from being trapped in EU’s structures indefinitely – both of which have already been publicly rejected by Brussels. But pledging that she will return to the city with “new ideas and a renewed determination” Mrs May also calls for unity in the Commons, stating: “If we stand together and speak with one voice, I believe we can find the right way forward.” And she insists she remains “determined” to deliver Brexit “on time”, on March 29, despite public and private calls from MPs and ministers for a delay. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Theresa May ‘determined’ to leave EU in March – BBC News Theresa May says Jeremy Corbyn agrees that the Irish border backstop has to go, as she promises she will be ‘battling for Britain’ with Brussels to secure a new Brexit deal – MailOnline …while she appeals to the Baltic states to help her convince fellow EU nations to ditch the Irish backstop Around 900 troops are based in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as a bulwark against Russian aggression. Now Downing Street hopes to convince these EU states to ‘break cover’ and urge Brussels to reopen the divorce agreement terms. Last week Poland came close to demanding that meaningful talks recommence – to the fury of EU purists in France and Germany. Now behind-the-scenes appeals to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are planned for the coming days. But the strategy risks a furious backlash if it is interpreted as Britain threatening to pull troops out, leaving Europe’s eastern border to the mercy of a Kremlin attack. The push comes as hopes the Netherlands will be a key ally in the UK’s attempt to dilute the controversial ‘backstop’ have faded – with Mrs May’s team believing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is positioning to be the next President of the EU Council and so less inclined to help a departing member state. However EU unity was stretched on Friday when Spain’s Foreign Minister hinted at new talks and yesterday the EU’s central bank issued a stark warning that a No Deal would hurt the Eurozone. – Mail on Sunday John McDonnell rejects any funds deal for votes John McDonnell said any such offer would be “pork-barrel politics” and “dangerous for our democracy”. It follows reports that investment could be made in Leave-voting constituencies to secure MPs’ votes. A spokesman for the PM said this week any investment to tackle inequality could not be called “cash for votes”. The government is understood to be considering proposals from a group of Labour MPs in predominantly Leave-supporting constituencies to allocate more funds to their communities for big infrastructure projects. It is thought the MPs have urged the prime minister to consider re-allocating the EU’s regional aid budget away from big cities and local councils and to give the cash direct to smaller communities, often in former steel and coal mining areas. On Thursday, Labour MP John Mann, who backed the PM’s Brexit deal, told her to “show us the money”. On a visit to Stoke-on-Trent on Saturday, however, Mr McDonnell rejected any link between votes and funding. – BBC News McDonnell accuses PM of ‘pork-barrel’ politics with Brexit ‘bribery’ – Observer John McDonnell accuses Theresa May of Brexit ‘bribery’ for trying to get pro-Brexit Labour rebels to ‘sell their votes’ – Independent Brussels insiders say EU will cave in to UK with ‘substantial concession’ if May holds her nerve Brussels will offer a “substantial concession” to ensure a Brexit deal with the UK after the crucial vote on February 14, Euro insiders said last night – as long as Theresa May survives and holds her nerve. With EU elections looming, any counter-offer would have to be substantial enough to avoid any more “back and forth”, allowing members states to focus on their number one concern: immigration. The favourite option today is to support a recent Polish compromise of placing a time limit – possibly five years – on the Irish backstop, it was claimed. The mood within the European Commission is frosty, with many exasperated that Mrs May failed to deliver the deal she had promised to get through Parliament. However, privately, many European diplomats express personal admiration for the Prime Minister’s tenacity and ability to survive. And there is a realisation that her “Teflon” shell may well see her fend off the Cooper amendment – aimed at forcing the Government to seek an extension to Article 50 if it cannot agree a deal with the EU. If that happens, it would leave Brussels with the real prospect of a no-deal within just five weeks unless compromise can be found. While France may be leading the hardest charge for no quarter given, cracks are showing within the so-called Franco- German axis. – Sunday Express ‘I will order the Navy to replace Channel ferries’: Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson invokes Dunkirk spirit for a No Deal Brexit According to a secret contingency planning document which was circulating around Whitehall last week, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has failed to increase the ferry capacity between the UK and France by the 20 per cent required to ‘avoid a threat to life and limb’. Mr Grayling signed £108 million of contracts in December with new ferry companies in an attempt to ease the pressure on Dover if the UK leaves the EU without a deal and the main ports are too gridlocked for enough food, water and medical supplies to get through to the UK. But the document states that his ferry contracts have only increased capacity by 8 per cent. A Government source said: ‘It’s not enough. We are particularly worried about radioactive isotopes for cancer treatments, which have a short half-life’. It is understood that Mr Williamson, whose offer to provide military contingency planners to Mr Grayling was turned down last July, has said that he can provide whatever ships can be spared by the Navy to help Mr Grayling. – Mail on Sunday Sunday Times reports plan to ‘evacuate the Queen after a no-deal Brexit’ Emergency proposals to rescue the royal family during the Cold War have been “repurposed” in recent weeks, as the risk continues to rise of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal before next month’s deadline. The plans, which were originally intended to be put into action in the event of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, would see the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh moved out of London to a secret location, which The Sunday Times has agreed not to disclose. “These emergency evacuation plans have been in existence since the Cold War, but have now been repurposed in the event of civil disorder following a no-deal Brexit,” a Cabinet Office source told The Sunday Times. – Sunday Times (£) Queen To Be Evacuated In Case of No-Deal Brexit Riots – Bloomberg The most risible No Deal scare story yet: Whitehall plan to evacuate the Queen if Brexit sparks riots on the streets of London – Mail on Sunday MP fears extending Article 50 will have shocking consequences for Leavers Tory backbencher Richard Drax hit back at demands to extend the Brexit process as he called for Britain to have a “clean break” from the Brussels bloc and not give Remainers “anything else to shout about”. Speaking to Express.co.uk, the South Dorset MP said: “I fear that any extension to Article 50 – and you have seen the way that many of my colleagues are behaving now – you imagine if this is extended now for another six months or even a year, whatever it may be. The Remainers, of which there are sadly many, will just go to town on this. “If we go for a clean break then the Remainers have got nothing else to shout about. It is done. Finished. – Sunday Express French employers warn of no-deal Brexit ‘chaos’ A no-deal Brexit next month would bring “chaos” to both sides of the English channel, leading to shortages and long traffic queues in the weeks after the UK leaves the EU, according to the head of France’s largest business federation. “We have traded together in the EU for 30 years. Untangling this is very complicated,” Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of the Medef employers’ group, told the Financial Times in an interview. “What’s clear is that if there’s no deal on March 29, it will be chaos.” He continued: “It will be chaos in the UK, it will be chaos in France, it will be chaos in Europe for several weeks.” European business leaders have already warned of the risk of severe trade disruption as a result of Brexit. Joachim Lang of the German business group BDI said tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of workers in continental Europe and the UK could “suffer the greatest of difficulties”. – FT(£) BBC is accused of using Brexit ‘project fear’ in a bid to axe free TV licences for the elderly BBC bosses were last night accused of using Brexit as cover to ‘soften up’ MPs for the scrapping of free TV licences for the elderly. Tory critics also claimed the BBC was trying to threaten them by warning of cutbacks that would ‘fundamentally change’ its services – including TV sport and drama – if the over-75s’ free licence scheme continued. From 2020, the £745 million annual cost of the free licences will have to be met by the Corporation itself after the Government announced it was withdrawing funding. A public consultation on what to do next is due to end next week. But the BBC has angered some MPs by warning that continuing with the current scheme would mean cuts to existing services. In a memo to the Westminster’s all-party group on the BBC, the Corporation said maintaining the status quo ‘would mean around 4.64 million over-75 households would not have to pay… ‘But we think it would fundamentally change the BBC because of the scale of the service cuts we would need to make.’ – Mail on Sunday Exit from Brexit? I’d like it, but it’s unlikely – German foreign minister While German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas would like to see an “exit from Brexit” – Britain abandoning its plan to leave the European Union – he said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that he saw such an outcome as extremely unlikely. In the interview with the Funke media group, Maas repeated the EU’s position that the withdrawal agreement thrashed out between Brussels and London, which was rejected by Britain’s parliament last month, could not be renegotiated. He added that Britain’s only path to avoiding a so-called “hard Brexit”, in which London exited automatically on March 29 with no transitional arrangements in place to ensure the continued flow of goods, medicines and transport links, was to accept the existing deal. – Reuters Theresa May: I will battle for Britain in Brussels I’ve spoken to people from every side of this debate. While a few people at either end of the argument continue to shout loudly, the vast majority just want MPs to set out a clear plan that will get Brexit through Parliament and allow us to embark upon the next chapter of our national story. I’m committed to doing just that. It’s why I’ve asked MPs to work through the February recess, so there is sufficient time to complete the many legislative tasks at hand. It’s why I’m continuing to work with and listen to politicians from all parties, the leaders of our biggest trade unions and senior figures representing the businesses that power our economy and provide jobs for millions of British people. And it’s why when I return to Brussels I will be battling for Britain and Northern Ireland, I will be armed with a fresh mandate, new ideas and a renewed determination to agree a pragmatic solution that delivers the Brexit the British people voted for, while ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That is what Parliament instructed me to do on Tuesday night. When the House of Commons refused to support the withdrawal agreement, I listened – I pledged to think again, and go back to Brussels to secure a plan that Parliament can stand behind. I’m determined to deliver Brexit, and determined to deliver on time – on March 29, 2019. So let’s put aside our differences and focus on getting the deal over the line. Brexit offers great opportunities for our country. It’s up to all of us at Westminster to make it work. – Prime Minister Theresa May for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Daniel Hannan: The EU is taking the hardest possible line in the hope of derailing Brexit It’s not as if anyone is still seriously pretending that the absence of a backstop will mean checkpoints and border posts. The Irish government has confirmed that, if there is no deal, it will not raise any frontier infrastructure. The British government has said the same from the beginning. Last month, Mr Barnier revealed that, in a no deal scenario, any necessary checks would be carried out away from the border. In other words, the whole bogus row has been got up over a border that no one is going to install anyway. This point is not yet widely understood in Europe, where the backstop is vaguely but forcefully presented in most media as being there to “ensure peace”. But, as the deadline looms, several Continental MPs are asking the same question as Mr Seif. Why, when Britain has caved in to every other EU demand, carry on insisting on the one thing that Parliament can’t accept? It might sound irrational, but look at it from the point of view of the European Commission. Whatever the economic costs of Brexit, they will not be borne by Eurocrats, whose tax-free salaries and expenses will remain unaffected. Indeed, if no deal leads to the EU imposing tariffs on UK exports, the Commission will get extra revenue from them. I can already hear the Europhile sneering. For some British people, everything must always be the fault of Brexiteers. They will not hear any criticism of Brussels, however peevish, illogical or dishonest its stance. Point out that the EU is being less than reasonable and they come back with “Oh, blaming someone else, are you?” Damn right I’m blaming someone else. In part, I’m blaming a remote, self-serving caste of officials with little interest in the welfare of the citizens they notionally serve. But, far more seriously, I’m blaming those British Europhiles who have encouraged the EU to take the hardest possible line in the hope of derailing Brexit. – Daniel Hannan MEP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Lionel Shriver: If Eurocrats really cared about Irish farmers, they’d chuck the backstop altogether Theresa May’s long-time acceptance of the EU’s nefarious paradigm — Irish–border-as-insoluble-conundrum — profoundly disadvantages the British position. It’s difficult to backtrack and say, ‘Hold on, I just realised I don’t buy your whole pre-mise.’ Nevertheless, if Eurocrats really cared about Irish farmers, they’d chuck the backstop, in the confidence that if they negotiate in a spirit of fairness, collegiality and compromise (uh-huh — and what are the chances of that?), they can readily negotiate a free trade deal during the transition period, and all that fake hand-wringing about the border will be yesterday’s news. Yet for Irish nationalists, Brexit presents a historic opportunity for bringing about a united Ireland, which starts looking attractive even to Remainer Protestants. Any Brexit-related inconvenience and economic sacrifice could make the best argument for the island’s unification that nationalists will ever get. Rather than making the ‘six counties’ unpalatable to the South with their anachronistic car bombs, Republican dissidents should be rooting for the hardest Brexit imaginable. For my part, I’ve always backed Ulster Unionism as a democrat. I loved my 12 years in Belfast and treasure Northern Ireland as a member of the United Kingdom. But watching the statelet mercilessly deployed to subjugate and humiliate the UK, I’m sliding to Irish nationalism myself. – Lionel Shriver for The Spectator Simon Coveney: The backstop is about peace – Britain must stand by it With just 54 days to go until the UK leaves the EU, the UK’s decision to seek to reopen the withdrawal agreement, and replace the backstop, has caused disappointment and dismay in Dublin and across Europe. In December 2017, and again last March, the UK pledged to prevent a hard border in all circumstances. On November 25, the EU and the UK reached a deal that delivered on our shared objectives of protecting the Good Friday agreement and peace. It is now time for the UK to keep its word, to deliver on these commitments and on its responsibilities. The backstop is required by all of us. This is not about trade or economics, but about people and peace. The objective of the backstop is simple — to ensure the protection of the Good Friday agreement, the single biggest achievement we share with successive British governments. It is not an inconvenience but an international agreement that underpins relationships across these islands. – Simon Coveney, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister for the Sunday Times (£) Liam Halligan: Backstop – The politics and economics of the most important, but most eminently solvable, issue in the world Last week’s parliamentary votes made clear that, were Brussels to drop the backstop, Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement would likely get through Parliament. With that, the vexed issue of the Irish land border has shifted centre stage. For months, arguments about this 320-mile frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic have loomed over British politics, complicating the Article 50 process. Events in the House of Commons last Tuesday mean it’s now undeniable that resolving this border dispute is a necessary and possibly sufficient condition if the Prime Minister is to honour the June 2016 referendum result and take Britain out of the European Union. Unless, that is, she leaves with no deal. With Brexit’s fate now squarely contingent on the backstop, public discourse about regulating the Irish land border after March 29 has been replaced by mutual recrimination and finger-pointing. I’m now reading anti-Irish sentiments in UK newspapers, and anti-British outpourings in the Irish press, that take me back to my London-Irish childhood in the Seventies. For someone of my mixed heritage, the pain associated with tension between Britain and Ireland is seared into my soul. And the anguish as the precious rapprochement of recent years is threatened is made far worse by knowing that today’s Irish border issue is eminently solvable. – Liam Halligan for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Nick Herbert: The EU should listen to Theresa May to get the deal over the line It would be understandable if EU leaders were riled. As they see it, the union has bigger concerns than Brexit. Theresa May agreed a deal and now wants changes. Brussels immediately said no. And so the clock counts down ominously to a “no-deal” Brexit in just two months. If the EU is calculating that the UK will pull back from the no-deal brink it may be making a serious mistake. Unless the House of Commons decides to ditch Brexit altogether, it can only seek to delay. The Westminster cacophony may have obscured an important fact: the majority of MPs have repeatedly voted to leave the EU. The referendum decision drives them inexorably to that end. Both major political parties are committed to Brexit. The campaign for a second referendum has stalled; its proponents shying away from a Commons vote last week for fear of losing badly. If Europe hoped that Brexit might be prevented, it must now see that it will not. – Nick Herbert MP for the FT(£) Janet Daley: If we get a proper Brexit, it’ll be by accident rather than design For a moment last week I felt a glimmering of sympathy for the EU negotiating team. Now there’s a sentence I never expected to write. But there they were – on the face of it anyway – pole-axed by what could be described as a complete betrayal by the UK government of an agreement that had been officially signed and delivered. What had been done was now being undone. The word of the British prime minister, given in apparent solemn good faith, could be trusted only until she came under political pressure. Just for a millisecond, Barnier, Juncker and Co had the moral high ground: Brussels could quite legitimately say that she had spent two years negotiating the Withdrawal Agreement and then personally signed it off in defiance of her own Cabinet (which had been sidelined) and her own party (which had been ignored), only to renege on it and demand the undoing of one of its most critical tenets, the Irish border backstop, whose problematic nature she and her team had clearly failed to anticipate. Nor, it would seem, had they expected the resulting collapse of parliamentary support which was a startling error of political judgement, especially considering how clear and clamorous the advance warnings had been. The UK – once noted throughout the world for the sophistication of its diplomatic dealings – had fallen into an amateurish shambles. – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Juliet Samuel: Here is how a no-deal Brexit can work – if the Tories unite A few months ago, for example, I asked a top diplomat from a major European government what would happen in a no-deal scenario. Would the planes and lorries stop? The diplomat exclaimed: “No, no. We would never let this happen.” So the Eurosceptics are right then, I asked. “Oh, I’m only speculating!” came the hasty reply. This is the uncertainty that could unravel the Tory compromise. If the Government really could do it – leave with no deal – what would Brussels do? The “Malthouse” document proposes that the UK offer the EU a standstill arrangement allowing trade to continue as is for now, in accordance with WTO rules, but it requires EU agreement. It could not be done unilaterally. In other words, this is an incomplete plan. A plan for no deal needs to include a strategy that doesn’t rely on Brussels’ cooperation, but creates incentives for cooperation. Here is one: the UK could announce that it will, on its side, keep everything the same for a limited time. This would break WTO rules, so it would mean digging up some offbeat WTO justifications for a temporary waiver, like national security or “public morals”. The waiver would be intended to last six to nine months, during which the UK would be open to anyone, including the EU, interested in intensive, accelerated trade talks. Of course, we could not expect to conclude any major trade deals within nine months. But, again, a sense of crisis can change things quickly. On Wednesday, after months of stalling, the UK and Chile signed a deal to keep trade going smoothly in the event of a no-deal Brexit. There will be more to come. In a no-deal, there is reason to believe the UK could get sufficient momentum going on trade talks with non-EU trading partners that it could force Brussels to take notice. – Juliet Samuel for the Sunday Telegraph (£) James Forsyth: Don’t expect much on Brexit before Valentine’s Day Don’t expect much movement on Brexit this side of Valentine’s Day, I say in The Sun this morning. There are two reasons for this. First, EU leaders are irritated with Theresa May. She signed off on a deal with them, assured them it could get through the Commons and then lost by a record margin. They are now sceptical when the British indicate that this or that change could get the deal through parliament. Despite the Brady amendment passing, the EU are still doubtful about what would get a deal over the line. But there is another reason beyond their irritation why the EU are holding off from engaging with Mrs May. They want to see what happens when the Commons next votes on Brexit on the 14th of February. – James Forsyth for The Spectator Brexit in Brief Twelve reasons why the Irish backstop makes no sense at all – Henry Newman for the Sunday Telegraph (£) ‘We liberated half of Europe!’ Brexiteer MP blasts ‘ungrateful EU’s’ Brexit behaviour – Sunday Express Fight for ‘people’s vote’ not over yet, claim campaigners – Observer Labour MPs who backed PM’s Brexit plan labelled ‘poisonous snakes’ by Corbyn supporters – The Sun