Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Civil servant leaks ‘doomsday Brexit scenario’ dubbed Project Fear 2 Britain would be hit with shortages of medicine, fuel and food within a fortnight if the UK tries to leave the European Union without a deal, according to a Doomsday Brexit scenario drawn up by senior civil servants for David Davis. Whitehall has begun contingency planning for the port of Dover to collapse “on day one” if Britain crashes out of the EU, leading to critical shortages of supplies. Last month officials in Davis’s Brexit department and the departments of health and transport drew up scenarios for a no-deal Brexit — a mild one, a severe one and one dubbed “Armageddon”. – The Times (£) 10 key questions about the futures of Britain and Europe – The Times (£) Replace May with Gove to sort out Brexit, Tory donor urges… Michael Gove should be installed as the new Tory leader because Theresa May has shown that she cannot “carry Brexit through”, a major party donor has publicly warned. In a stark sign of the frustration among prominent Brexit supporters over the government’s handling of negotiations with the EU, Crispin Odey, a hedge fund manager who backed the Leave campaign, said he believed the environment secretary had the skills to make a success of Britain’s exit and appeal to voters. Odey, whose most recent donation to the Conservative party was a £50,000 gift before last year’s general election, said the government needed to be far bolder in its attitude to Brussels. – Guardian …as May faces fresh Tory criticism over her handling of Brexit negotiations Theresa May has been hit with fresh Conservative attacks on her leadership as she attempts to steer the UK through Brexit. Former Cabinet Minister Priti Patel accused the Prime Minister and Chancellor Philip Hammond of “negativity” as they attempt to lead the country out of the European Union. Ms Patel, who quit as International Development Secretary in November over undisclosed and unauthorised meetings in Israel, told The House magazine the Government needed to articulate a “better vision for the future” after Brexit. Hedge fund boss and Tory donor Crispin Odey went further and called for Mrs May to be replaced by Environment Secretary Michael Gove to see the country through the negotiations. Mr Odey told the Observer the Prime Minister could not make decisions and would not see Brexit through. – Belfast Telegraph Chancellor says that Brexit poses challenges, but it could mean huge opportunity for Britain You can color Philip Hammond optimistic. Whether the topic is Brexit, the United States’ incipient trade war with much of the rest of the world, or constraining the power of technology companies, Hammond, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer — the head of Her Majesty’s Treasury, and one of the most senior officials in UK government — is hopeful that things will work out in the end. They may take a little negotiating or contemplation, he says, but eventually world governments can get to an agreeable solution. – Business Insider Election watchdog rebuked for £829,000 budget for European elections The elections watchdog has been rebuked by ministers for setting aside hundreds of thousands of pounds to spend on European Parliament elections next year. Chloe Smith, the constitution minister, questioned why an £829,000 budget had been allocated for the 2019 election despite the Government making clear that the UK will not take part – given that the country is due to leave the EU in March. Her intervention comes after senior Eurosceptics said officials appeared to be “ignoring” Theresa May’s insistence that Brexit will take place next year, after The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last week that the Electoral Commission had set aside the cash. – Telegraph David Miliband: I would join any campaign against any Brexit deal David Miliband has said he would take part in any campaign to vote against the terms of any Brexit deal but has no plans to return to the cut and thrust of UK politics. Miliband, who has been based in New York as president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) since 2013, is still seen as a future leader of the Labour party and has never categorically ruled it out. He was asked at the Hay literary festival in Wales whether, if there was ever a public vote on the terms of a Brexit deal, he would be part of a campaign to reject it. “Of course,” he said. “I tried to campaign last time, I hope I’d campaign more effectively next time.” – Observer Juncker: EU won’t ‘meddle’ in Italy’s affairs Jean-Claude Juncker has thrown the new government in Rome an olive branch, warning that Brussels and “German-speaking countries” must not repeat the error made during the Greek crisis by reading stern lectures to the Italian people. The president of the European commission said that, while he had been tempted to intervene during the recent political impasse in Italy, he was determined not to feed the populist narrative: that the EU is meddling in domestic affairs. Juncker noted that the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the rightwing League party had both recently dropped their policy of exit from the European Union, and he would judge them on their deeds and not their rhetoric. – Observer Sunday Telegraph: The Prime Minister must defend Brexit from the House of Lords This is a critical month for Brexit. The EU Withdrawal Bill is expected to return to the Commons after the Lords have made no less than 15 amendments. They must be defeated. The original Bill’s purpose was simple: repeal the European Communities Act 1972, put EU law into UK law and grant the Government powers to tweak those laws that don’t translate perfectly. It was an essential device to facilitate Brexit, yet the Lords are trying to turn it into a device to rewrite, or even halt, our departure. The business case against the amendments is strong: if the Bill compels Parliament to consider individually around 7,000 pieces of EU law in force in the UK, it will delay conversion and create anarchy. Anyone who tries to frame this as a case for parliamentary sovereignty is being disingenuous. – Sunday Telegraph editorial (£) Britain must toughen up in the face of the EU’s relentless bullying – Telegraph letters Dominic Lawson: The EU’s attack on the City is self-destructive Nothing is more important to the future of the European Union than the survival of its single currency, the euro. As the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, declared at the height of the euro crisis in 2011: “The euro is the guarantee of a united Europe. If the euro fails, Europe fails.” With Italy’s new government threatening to rip up the budgetary constraints mandatory for eurozone members, financial markets again fear the currency’s disintegration. Behind the scenes, the governments of the largest EU economies are discussing what needs to be done. But none of them is interested in what the UK thinks, even though London is the beating heart of Europe’s debt markets. – Dominic Lawson for the Times (£) Liam Fox: Brexit will power Britain’s prosperity and it’s already working with 600,000 new jobs Before the referendum vote, Parliament decided — quite rightly — that the British people had the right to decide whether we should leave the EU. That is why Parliament passed the Referendum Act and voted to trigger Article 50. And it is why both major political parties agreed in last year’s general election to abide by the referendum decision. There is huge democratic legitimacy behind the leaving process. Liam Fox says Britain has proved the doubters wrongThere is also great strength in the UK economy that should give us reassurance as we move towards a more independent future. Remember the dire consequences predicted if the British people decided to vote to leave? We were told investors would desert us. – Liam Fox for the Sun on Sunday Janet Daley: Surely you can see, Mr Juncker, that it’s time for the EU to reform? You might have thought that the European Union would at least consider reforming itself. Given that so many of the problems which it finds infuriating – Brexit, the Italian election debacle, the rebellions in the Eastern bloc over migration, the rise of antagonistic populist parties – all come down to the same complaint, that the EU Commission is seizing too much power, there seems a clear remedy. Why on earth, then, are they not even prepared to countenance the obvious option? If the peoples of the EU member states are expressing a common and widespread frustration over what used to be called, rather quaintly, the “democratic deficit”, which is to say the loss of national self-determination, couldn’t the EU just give way a teensy bit on its relentless centralising project? – Janet Daley for the Telegraph (£) Tony Parsons: Remainers still don’t get it — we want to be British and get away from Brussels OVER the past two years, the 17.4million of us who voted to leave the European Union have got used to being insulted. From the House of Lords to the BBC, from ex-prime ministers to indignant luvvies, the liberal establishment never tires of telling us that we are ignorant racist bigots who should never have been trusted with a vote. Now ex-Labour minister Lord Malloch-Brown, glove puppet for billionaire George Soros’s Best For Britain campaign — which seeks to cancel the biggest vote in British history — claims that leaving the EU is like Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler in 1938. Come again, M’Lud? – Tony Parsons for the Sun on Sunday Liam Halligan: The EU’s attitude is a boost for Italy’s populists On March 25 2017, leaders from 27 EU members assembled inside the Palazzo dei Conservatori where, on the same day in 1957, the Treaty of Rome had been signed. As they listened to each other’s collegiate speeches, celebrating the EU’s 60th anniversary, two distinct groups of demonstrators had gathered on the streets of the Italian capital. Just outside the Palazzo, the officially backed “March for Europe” could be heard cheering. Several thousand EU supporters, many of them excited youngsters carrying centrally-issued yellow and blue placards, held an upbeat rally. – Liam Halligan for the Telegraph (£) Carla Powell: Crushed under the EU’s heel, Italians have the right to try another way Italians won an important victory last week: the right to be governed by the parties they had elected. Attempts to fob them off with a government deemed acceptable by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the German finance ministry were seen off. Having tried everything else, to no avail, Italians have courageously turned their backs on the established order and opted for something different. They want a government that will actually stand up for their interests rather than bow to a European consensus on what’s best for Italy. – Carla Powell for the Times (£) Brexit in brief How to fix the BBC’s Brexit bias – Charles Moore for the Spectator Trade wars – John Redwood’s Diary We can only hope that Trump is nicer to us than to the Europeans – Jeremy Warner for the Telegraph (£) European leaders must lay on the charm if they want to win over Trump – Molly Kiniry for the Telegraph (£) Tory Remainers could hold the key to 86 of the party’s seats – Observer ‘Push to rejoin EU will start after Brexit’ – Sky News Pop stars face blackouts under EU plans to ban high-power stage lights – Sun on Sunday Why Italy’s debt could break the eurozone – Telegraph (£) Liam Fox fears Donald Trump could hike tariffs on imports of European cars if trade war escalates – Telegraph