Theresa May now open to extending the Brexit transition period by a year as she asks EU for ‘creative’ ideas… Theresa May has told EU leaders she is prepared to consider extending the Brexit transition period as she called on them to show “courage” and come up with “creative” ideas to break the current deadlock. At a summit in Brussels the Prime Minister said Britain would be open to the idea of staying tied to the EU beyond the end of December 2020, even though that could mean paying billions more to Brussels. Last week the Telegraph revealed that Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, had proposed extending transition by another year, to the end of 2021, to allow more time for a trade deal to be worked out. On Wednesday Mr Barnier said “much more time” was needed to find a solution to the Irish border problem, and extending the transition period could help defuse the row over the current backstop solution. – Telegraph (£) Theresa May considers plan to extend Brexit transition period – Bloomberg Theresa May opens door to longer Brexit transition period – Independent May considers EU plot to keep UK locked to Brussels for three years – Express …even though the added cost to the divorce bill supposedly made her reject the idea last week… Theresa May rejected an EU offer designed to rescue a Brexit deal because it would add billions more to the £39bn “divorce bill”, The Independent has learned. Brussels floated a one-year extension to the post-departure transition period, until the end of 2021, to make it less likely the Irish border “backstop” would be needed – and, therefore, easier for the UK to accept. But an extension would require paying billions extra to the EU, when the exit bill has already angered Tory MPs, prompting the prime minister to stamp on the idea. An EU source told The Independent that the UK’s response to the offer, made during last week’s aborted talks, suggested the “financial implications would be complicated”. – Independent …as Brexiteers express fury at the plan to delay to the UK’s final departure from the EU… Theresa May is facing a growing backlash from Brexiteers after telling European leaders she would consider a one-year extension to the UK’s transition out of the EU. She told a European Council summit in Brussels on Wednesday that she was “ready to consider” staying tied to the EU beyond the end of December 2020, as part of a proposal raised by Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator, to buy more time to consider the problem of the Irish border. However, leading Brexiteers reacted with anger to a plan that would keep Britain in the single market and customs union for almost three years after the official date of Brexit in March 2019. Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, said that such a move would delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022 which “may mean we never leave at all”. – Telegraph (£) Theresa May faces Brexit backlash over delay to leaving the EU – Metro Brexiteer fury as panicked Theresa May considers delaying EU exit – Express …and John McDonnell agrees with them John McDonnell has ruled out the notion of extending the Brexit transition period beyond March 29 2019. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani commented on Thursday that “both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table”. However, the shadow chancellor does not believe this is viable and told ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston: “Everyone I talk to now – business leaders, investors, trade union leaders – all of them are saying the uncertainty and insecurity at the moment mean that decisions are not being taken about long-term investment. There is a real issue if this drags on that uncertainty drags on – we need a deal.” – ITV News Boris Johnson and David Davis tell Theresa May the British people ‘will not forgive us’ for a Brexit surrender Theresa May and her Government will not be forgiven by the British people if Brexit is reduced to a “choreographed show of resistance followed by surrender”, Boris Johnson and David Davis have warned. In their first joint intervention since quitting Cabinet, Mr Davis and Mr Johnson have written an open letter to the Prime Minister with three other former Cabinet ministers and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of a 60-strong group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs. They are calling on the Prime Minister to abandon her Chequers plan, which is “less popular with the public than the poll tax”, and instead tell Brussels that she will “reset” negotiations and negotiate a Canada-style free trade deal. “We are close to the moment of truth,” they say in the letter. “Brexit offers the prize of a better future, global free trade deals and political independence. But if these potential gains are sacrificed because of EU bullying and the Government’s desperation to secure a deal, the British people will not forgive us.” – Telegraph (£) ‘Flawed’ Chequers plan attacked by Boris Johnson and David Davis in joint Brexit assault – Express EU leaders decide to shelve plans for Brexit summit in November until ‘decisive progress’ is made The 27 EU leaders have decided to shelve plans for a special Brexit summit in November until “decisive progress” is made in talks. The decision, which was made after leaders met in Brussels on Wednesday night, is a blow for Theresa May, who had hoped to be able to negotiate face-to-face with her counterparts and bypass the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. EU sources familiar with the meeting however told The Independent that the leaders did not believe enough progress had been made in discussions with the UK to move to a summit to wrap up a deal – following a briefing over dinner by their chief negotiator. The leaders are also understood to have agreed to stand behind Mr Barnier, reaffirming their “full confidence” in him as their representative in talks. A source said they would convene a summit only “if and when” Mr Barnier recommended it was time to do so. – Independent Brexit deal timeline slips again as EU scraps plan for November summit sign-off – Sky News Brexit shrug from EU leaders as May offers nothing new – Politico Taoiseach says backstop is a matter of trust as well as principle The UK’s fulfilling of its commitment to a backstop that is not time-limited is a matter of trust as well as principle, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. Arriving in Brussels for the EU summit dinner on Brexit, Mr Varadkar strongly defended the Republic’s case for no time limit, the issue on which the current Brexit talks impasse hinges. The backstop is a guarantee that there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland no matter what the outcome of future trade talks between the EU and UK. The EU side insists that there be no time limit on the guarantee, a key sticking point in the talks. “It can be temporary by all means,” he said, “but it can’t have an expiry date . . . unless and until we have an alternative agreement that also assures us that we will have no border on the island of Ireland. And that’s what we have in writing . . . so this is not just an issue of principle but one of trust.” – The Irish Times Angela Merkel says a Brexit deal is still possible… German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she still believes there is a chance the EU and U.K. would come to an agreement over Brexit, even as she stressed the importance of preparing for a collapse of the talks. “The chance of reaching a good and sustainable exit agreement on time is still there,” Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag, the German parliament, before heading to the European Council summit in Brussels, where leaders are set to try to resolve the remaining differences with the U.K. Merkel said that a deal is in “our economic interest,” citing a call Wednesday from Europe’s car manufacturers on leaders to reach a deal. She said the remaining sticking points surrounding how to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should not be underestimated and that her government is making contingency plans. – Politico …but Germany is also making contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit Angela Merkel has revealed Germany is making contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit. The German chancellor said her government had started to make “suitable preparations” for the possibility of Britain and the EU failing to reach a final agreement. “It is only fitting as a responsible and forward-thinking government leadership that we prepare for every scenario – that includes the possibility of Great Britain leaving the European Union without an agreement,” she told German parliamentarians in a special address dubbed her “big Brexit speech” by the German media, ahead of a European council meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. Merkel provided a list of her concerns, from citizens’ rights to customs issues, which she said – despite Michel Barnier’s assurance that “90% of the text of the exit agreement has been completed” – remained unresolved. “This brings with it a whole array of questions, such as: how, the day after Brexit, do we manage the estimated 100,000 British citizens who, in some cases, have been living in Germany for years? How do we deal, for example, with teachers of British citizenship, who are classed as German civil servants, and how should that continue? How do we appropriately prepare our authorities for the added burdens to do with customs issues?” she asked. – Guardian France proposes checks at Calais and visas for Brits in new no-deal law France last night published their doomsday No Deal scenario planning just hours before Theresa May’s arrival at the EU Council – detailing new checks at Calais and a visa scheme for British tourists. The UK has declared it would automatically protect the rights of French people living in the UK and do all it can to ease congestion at Channel ports. But an explosive draft law published in Paris seems designed to cause maximum pain to Brits living in France short of kicking them out. Brits would automatically become third party nationals that bars them from holding jobs reserved for EU citizens and restrict their access to healthcare and welfare. And the “irregular” legal position would mean UK citizens would be “obliged to present a visa to enter French territory and to hold a residence permit to remain there”. It adds: “British citizens with a work contract under French law with a French employer could be asked for a document authorising them to work in France”. – The Sun French government warns UK citizens will need visas after no-deal Brexit without emergency action – Independent Macron to introduce plans for UK tourists to need visas to visit France if no-deal EU exit – Express Commons vote on any Brexit deal must be ‘unequivocal’, says Dominic Raab… The decision on whether MPs approve or reject any Brexit deal must be “unequivocal”, ministers have said. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the outcome of the “meaningful vote” due to take place in Parliament must be “clear to the British public”. In a letter to MPs, he suggests they will have to choose between whatever deal is on the table and no deal – and no other options will be offered. Labour MPs have reacted angrily, one calling it “shabby and underhand”. The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said this was a “big fat row waiting to happen”. No 10 sources, she said, were insisting the Commons motion on any final Brexit deal would be amendable but “what is not clear is whether amendments will be voted on before after the vote on the deal”. – BBC News Dominic Raab seeks to scupper MPs’ ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit – City A.M. Tories resist pressure for ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit deal – FT (£) MPs will get straight ‘deal or no deal’ vote on Brexit agreement – PoliticsHome …leading Labour to accuse Theresa May of trying to fix the vote Theresa May was accused of trying to “fix” a Commons vote on the final Brexit deal by furious Labour MPs. Government guidance issued last night recommended that any amendments to the so-called Meaningful Vote come after the vote itself. This would mean MPs are given a straight choice between accepting Theresa May’s Brexit agreement – or a ‘No Deal’. Pro-EU backbenchers had hoped to be able to amend the legislation to push for a second Referendum. Tory Europsceptic Jacob Rees Mogg said the guidance proved “there’s nothing Parliament can do if the Government holds its nerve”. But furious Labour MPs called it a “shameful power grab”. Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer stormed: “Labour doesn’t accept that the choice facing Parliament will be between whatever deal Theresa May cobbles together or No Deal. That is not a meaningful vote and Ministers can’t be allowed to silence Parliament.” – The Sun Amendments on Brexit deal should be restricted, says government – Guardian Government considers dropping February recess to give more time for Brexit legislation No 10 is considering dropping the February recess in order to have enough Commons time to push through Brexit legislation. It comes after the chief whip ruled out cancelling Christmas for fear of further angering already mutinous backbenchers. Whips and ministers are quietly working on ways to ensure there is enough parliamentary time to approve the deal and pass the relevant legislation to implement it, amid growing expectations that it will be a European Council summit on 13 December when a Brexit deal would finally be agreed and signed off. That leaves No 10 with very little time to get any deal ratified by Parliament leading to discussions over whether Christmas recess might be cancelled and MPs forced to sit in the House through “Brexmas” as it was dubbed by one insider. A government source told Sky News ministers were also looking at whether to use Thursdays solely for Brexit legislation. – Sky News Bank of England talks with EU continuing as it urges no-deal Brexit preparation A top Bank of England official today said talks are continuing with EU regulators to try to persuade them to allow British clearing houses to serve clients on the continent as he warned that job losses in the City will be larger than 5,000 expected by “day one” of Brexit. Sir Jon Cunliffe said that the British side has done “pretty much done all that we can do unilaterally”, and that it is now in the hands of European agencies to preserve financial stability in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Bank has been unusually outspoken in its pleas for the EU to act to authorise central counterparties (CCPs), with some European politicians eyeing London’s dominant industry for clearing euro-denominated derivatives. Derivatives are used by firms to manage risks like currency and exchange rate movements. – City A.M. Liz Truss: UK faces ‘darkness before the dawn’ in the Brexit talks The Brexit talks are in the “darkness before the dawn” but Theresa May will prevail, said Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss. Speaking at Politico’s first Women Rule event in London, the Cabinet minister insisted May, who she described as “iron-willed” and “indefatigable,” had the backing of her Cabinet. Truss, who campaigned for the U.K. to remain in the European Union, said Tuesday’s cabinet meeting ahead of a crucial European Union summit on Wednesday had been “very positive.” Ministers were “very much behind the prime minister and her negotiating strategy,” Truss added. “There is darkness before the dawn and that is where we are. We are getting through those negotiations and in fact a huge amount of progress is being made,” she added. – Politico US threatens to bar EU banks from its exchanges… One of the US’s top regulators has threatened to stop European banks from using US futures markets if the EU refuses to water down post-Brexit plans to oversee clearing houses. Christopher Giancarlo, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said on Wednesday that EU plans — ostensibly in response to the UK’s move to leave the EU — were “completely irresponsible” and could be met with a stern reaction from Washington. “These are blunt and strong tools,” Mr Giancarlo said, acknowledging that it could have a serious impact on global markets. “None of these options represent a course of action that I wish to pursue.” Mr Giancarlo’s fierce warning comes as UK authorities try to remove tensions with the EU around the issue of clearing as the UK’s departure from the bloc nears. – FT (£) US threatens to block European banks from exchanges over Brexit derivatives deal – Telegraph (£) …as US prepares to negotiate free trade deal with UK ‘as soon as’ Britain quits the EU The US has confirmed it will be “well prepared” to start negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain “as soon as” the UK has left the European Union. Donald Trump, the US President, has formally notified Congress of his intention to initiate negotiations on a trade agreement in a major boost for Theresa May as she heads to Brussels for a crunch summit. The Prime Minister will travel to the continent on Wednesday afternoon before addressing EU leaders in the evening when she will try to persuade them to break a negotiating impasse. The confirmation that the US is preparing for trade talks with Britain to start immediately after the UK has left the EU on March 29, 2019, could embolden the Prime Minister and will be seen by Brexiteers as a new card for her to play as she seeks a deal with the bloc. – Telegraph (£) White House Notifies Congress: US-UK Trade Deal at the Front of the Queue – Guido Fawkes Nick Timothy: No deal is better than partition, or reducing Britain to a vassal state It was the Europeans who insisted that the Irish border must be resolved before our future relationship with the EU could be discussed. Of course, they knew the border could not be fixed until the future relationship was decided. They were laying a trap to tie the UK to European laws beyond Brexit. When, to nobody’s surprise, it was apparent they were asking the impossible, Brussels insisted on the “backstop”. If there is no deal on the final relationship between the UK and EU, they said, there should be a guarantee that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. But their proposal – a border within the United Kingdom, between Northern Ireland and Great Britain – was so deaf to Northern Ireland’s history, and so disrespectful to our constitution, that we now risk a no-deal Brexit. Perversely, of course, this is the outcome most likely to cause a hard border with Ireland. And for that reason, whatever the result of last night’s European Council meeting, a compromise is still possible. – Nick Timothy for the Telegraph (£) James Forsyth: Divide and rule: how the EU used Ireland to take control of Brexit The story of Britain and Ireland’s relationship has, all too often, been one of mutual incomprehension: 1066 and All That summed up the view on this side of St George’s Channel with the line that ‘Every time the English tried to solve the Irish question, the Irish changed the question.’ But Theresa May’s problem right now is that the Irish — and the European Union — won’t change the question and the only answers they’ll accept are unacceptable to Mrs May and her cabinet. To the astonishment of many, the Irish border has become the defining issue of Brexit. There is now a serious and growing risk that the issue will lead to the UK and the EU failing to reach a withdrawal agreement — with all the dire consequences that would entail. It’s easy to see why the issue didn’t receive the same attention during the referendum campaign. The Irish border is 300-odd miles long with trade of about £6 billion going across it; the Dover-Calais trade is worth 20 times that. But the problem is harder to solve because the EU is saying that, while it is prepared to wait to solve all the other trade issues, it wants the Irish situation resolved by the time Britain formally leaves the EU in March. – James Forsyth for The Spectator Robert Peston: Why Theresa May isn’t ruling out another year of Brexit transition I cannot weigh whether the reason Downing Street is not pouring cold water on the idea of an extra year of Brexit transition is simply to avoid a conflict with rest of EU tonight over dinner, and prevent another Salzburg-style debacle. I assume that must be the reason. Because her chief whip Julian Smith presumably has advised her that if she were to adopt the additional year of what the Brexiters see as pure vassalage – without simultaneously scrapping the backstop and Chequers – there would be (in the words of one) “the mother of all explosions”. At that instant “we would trigger a vote of no confidence in her”. She might win that vote. But the damage would be devastating to her and her party’s reputation from the formal outbreak of Tory civil war. – Robert Peston for ITV News Lisa Nandy: The angriest parts of Britain are the ones that should be given greater powers to create change The EU Referendum result was a political earthquake that should have shaken Westminster and Whitehall out of its unthinking complacency. But instead of addressing the underlying conditions which have fuelled not only Brexit, but the rise of populist movements and the advent of strongman politics across the world, we have reverted to type, content to deepen our divisions rather than bring people together. This week new research from HOPE not hate and the Centre for Towns refreshingly sought to listen and not lecture those leave voters in areas where fear and anger have replaced hope. The findings are stark. – Lisa Nandy MP for The Times (£) Allister Heath: In 30 years’ time historians will wonder why the elites feared Brexit so much It’s 2050, and those of us old enough to have lived through the farcical Brexit negotiations of 2018-2019 still cringe in embarrassment when recalling that period of national incompetence. Our half-hearted attempt at extracting ourselves from the EU, as it was then known, was painful, far more so than the Brexiteers had predicted. The Establishment almost sabotaged the whole adventure, not least with its doomed, last-ditch proposals for a permanent, Turkey-style customs union and its outrageous, underhand European Defence Union plans. But in the end the UK got through it. With the benefit of three decades of hindsight, it turned out that the unpleasant way that we left made little difference to our long-term prosperity. The fraught, traumatic process of going from In to Out proved to be less important, over the long sweep of history, than the fact that we resolved our relationship with Europe once and for all, and the positive psychological shock this created. – Allister Heath for the Telegraph (£) Martin Kettle: If May gets a good enough deal on Brexit, remainer MPs might just have to back it For politicians, compromise can be a surprisingly hard word. So it is today over the Brexit endgame. The talk is still of crashing out, no deals and blood red lines. But this is paradoxical. Politics, like life itself, is mostly built on compromises. That is why the Brexit sherpas are, in fact, still talking in Brussels and London. Even on Brexit, it remains likelier than not that the practical human instinct to compromise will eventually have its way. This is not, though, the certainty it ought logically to be. Brexit is not simply another political process to be settled through compromise. To many, it is also a series of absolutes. One is that Britain’s vote to leave the European Union was not just decisive but the immutable will of an entire people that cannot be questioned – or compromised. A second, never properly understood in Westminster, is that the EU sees leaving as a treaty process governed by rules that cannot be bent. – Martin Kettle for the Guardian The Sun says: It’s time for Theresa May to finally say no to Brussels and take back control by leaving all of the EU’s major institutions We have compromised far too much. Mrs May cannot go further than her over-generous Chequers offer. This latest ruse is an insult she must repel. We would be in the farcical position of voting to Leave in June 2016, yet still bound by Brussels rules until December 2021 at the earliest. Which means continuing free movement, another £9billion of public money tipped into EU coffers and no say over any of it. The Irish border problem is an overhyped stunt. The EU admits it would never build one even in a No Deal. Nor would we. Yet we are told we must buckle to their every whim to “avoid” such a border. Who would build it? Mrs May is playing with fire even considering this new surrender. – The Sun Jenni Russell: No one knows what Brexit means any more Brexit in whatever shape — hard, soft, extended, reversed — is less than six months away. Parliament is split into intransigent factions; bitter, repetitive arguments dominate the news. Nothing in politics could be more important or widely discussed. And yet, as I’ve found in the last few weeks, a huge proportion of voters are left feeling excluded and confused. I’ve been taking part in lively political panels for The Times at the Labour conference and at the Cheltenham literature festival last week. The people who come to these are particularly engaged with politics; they’re willing to give up a Sunday evening or Friday morning to hear more about it. – The Times (£) Brexit in Brief The EU might have made a grave mistake with the Irish ‘backstop’ – David Allen Green for the FT (£) Trump offers Brexiters a trade-shaped gift – Therese Raphael for Bloomberg How costly would a no deal Brexit really be? – Aarti Shankar for CapX The People’s Vote: Labour’s October Surprise? – Patrick Sullivan for The Commentator The Speaker who voted Remain: How John Bercow could shape Brexit – Telegraph (£) German MEP pleads with EU to behave like Alexander the Great – Express British farmers shouldn’t get cheap EU labour – government adviser – BBC News Life after Brexit? These lawyers are working on it – The Times (£) Where do the EU’s 27 remaining countries stand on the Brexit deal? – Telegraph (£) What Norway really thinks of its EU relationship some see as a model for Brexit Britain – Telegraph (£)