Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team 500 days since the EU Referendum and Brexit doom-mongers have egg on their face as the economy continues to strengthen Helped by a weaker pound the service sector, which includes tourism, has been growing rapidly over the last six months, according to a survey of purchasing managers in the industry. The IHS Markit services purchasing managers’ index rose to 55.6 in October, up from 53.6 in September. A figure above 50 indicates growth, and analysts had been expecting a slight slowdown to 53.3 in October. The UK economy has also been boosted recently with positive surveys in both the construction and manufacturing industries. – Sunday Express On BrexitCentral: Ewen Stewart: 500 days since the referendum, Project Fear looks more discredited than ever Theresa May drafts Michael Gove into Brexit war cabinet Michael Gove has been added to Theresa May’s Brexit “war cabinet” in a move that strengthens the power of those who voted to leave the EU. The environment secretary and Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, have both joined a group of six ministers who had been plotting Britain’s negotiation strategy. The move means cabinet Brexiteers now have a big majority on the body that will decide Britain’s future. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, who voted “remain” but now says he would back Brexit if the vote were held again, has also joined the committee. – Sunday Times (£) Post-Brexit EU trade talks reportedly to be kickstarted in return for UK accepting £53 billion bill European Union negotiators have started drawing up the outlines of a future trade deal with Britain after receiving signals from the government that it would agree to pay more than €60bn (£53bn) for the “Brexit bill”. Negotiators in Brussels say Theresa May will be able to claim a victory before Christmas as trade talks get going — but made clear the prime minister has used officials to signal financial concessions. May’s Brexit adviser, Oliver Robbins, was told last week that EU officials need to see only a “single sentence” in writing to indicate Britain’s acceptance of budget commitments known as reste à liquider (RAL) and the UK’s share of the cost of MEP pensions and aid budgets. – Sunday Times (£) EU tells Britain it’s living in ‘fantasy land’ over hopes for a ‘basic’ Brexit deal The British government is living in “fantasy land” if it believes that it can an amicable break-up with the EU in the event of a ‘basic’ Brexit, senior EU officials and diplomats have told The Telegraph. Three separate EU sources in both Brussels and a leading EU capital have warned that British expectations of a “no deal, deal” had failed to understand the ramifications of the UK pulling out Europe without paying its bills. – Telegraph (£) UK firms want a Brexit transition deal by March Most British firms will delay investment and cut recruitment plans unless a Brexit transition deal is agreed early next year, company bosses have warned. The stark claim from Britain’s biggest business group comes amid the strongest signs yet that the corporate world has lost patience with cabinet infighting and lack of progress in Brexit talks. – Observer UK has conceded on cut-off date for EU nationals, claim Brussels sources Britain has quietly conceded that EU27 nationals coming to the country at any point before Brexit day in 2019 will have their rights protected, after a collapse in the number of workers coming to the country blew apart any argument for an earlier cut-off date, according to EU sources close to the negotiations. Downing Street had been keeping open the possibility that it would offer fewer rights to those arriving after 29 March this year, the date on which the prime minister formally notified Brussels of Britain’s intention to leave the EU. It had been claimed that setting the cut-off date on Brexit day in 2019 would open the UK to a flood of EU27 citizens seeking to enter before Britain left the bloc. – Observer It’s ‘inconceivable’ planes won’t fly on first day Britain leaves the EU Chancellor Philip Hammond warned commercial aircrafts could be grounded on the first day Britain leaves the EU, but the International Trade Secretary said Britain had made “considerable progress” with the US in solidifying a so-called OpenSkies agreement. And he warned that any interruption would see the break-up of giant airline alliances such as Oneworld, which represents 15 airlines including BA, Qantas, Iberia and JAL and the 28-strong Star Alliance, whose members include Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Air Canada. – Sunday Express Time for ‘struggling’ UK Government to take consensual approach on Brexit – SNP The SNP has called on the UK Government to open up Brexit talks to other parties and administrations as the country marks 500 days since the EU referendum. Warnings from the party have been made over a “disaster” scenario if the country was to cut all ties with Europe and claims it is “clear” that help is needed in negotiations. There are just over 500 days until the UK is set to leave the EU in March 2019. – BT News The Brexit inflection point: The pathway to prosperity – Legatum Institute For the UK to be fully independent in its capacity to trade, it must be fully independent politically. This paper outlines what is needed in an interim period and beyond for the UK to be able to make independent trade deals having left the EU, reflecting the will of the British people expressed in the referendum on 23 June 2016. We describe what is at stake: how the UK and the world will benefit from trade liberalisation, but conversely how failure to secure the right terms in the interim will leave the UK without the leverage needed to secure the right trade deals, placing it in a permanent rule-taking position, only halfway out of the EU. – Legatum Institute On BrexitCentral: Shanker Singham: The world needs Britain to have its own trade policy and not align too closely to the EU’s regulatory system Daniel Hannan: Higher interest rates are no bad thing, but the European Arrest Warrant most certainly is A teenager from Enfield, Andrew Symeou, had to spend several years in confinement in Greece because of an obvious case of mistaken identity. The parents of Ashya King, who had removed him from Southampton Hospital to seek alternative treatment in the Czech Republic, found themselves detained by it. Now this. The EAW is an example of how the EU’s power grows without the need for further treaties. Think of Brexit as stepping off a conveyor-belt: you have to move in order to stay where you are. – Daniel Hannan MEP for the Telegraph (£) Daniel Hannan: Remember, remember the 5th of November is about parliamentary sovereignty – and Brexit opportunity Parliament was sovereign between 1689 and 1973, when the European Communities Act came into effect, establishing the supremacy of EU law. After 2019 it will be sovereign again, its sovereignty serving as a shorthand for our sovereignty. We shall once again be captains of our own destiny. – Daniel Hannan for the Telegraph (£) Brexit in brief Why CBI president Paul Dreschler believes there is still a good Brexit deal up for grabs – Paul Drechsler for the Sunday Times (£) Hammond must dodge Brexit bricks and deliver on housing – Sunday Times (£) The UK Treasury needs to wake up to the power of those US tax cuts – John Redwood for John Redwood’s Diary Why food regulations matter for soft Irish border – BBC News EU failure in Balkans ‘a call to China and Russia’ says Macedonia president – Sunday Telegraph (£)