Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Brits have ‘had enough’ of Brexit and just want MPs to get on with it, says Theresa May… Brits have “had enough” of Brexit and are desperate for MPs to get on with it at last, Theresa May stormed in a speech tonight. The PM called on politicians to get behind her deal as the EU warned Britain will crash out with No Deal within days if they don’t. Top Eurocrat Donald Tusk today said leaders WILL approve the PM’s request for a delay to Brexit – but only if the House of Commons votes in favour of Mrs May’s deal. It comes as the PM hinted she will quit if her deal doesn’t go through, rather than risk prolonging Brexit beyond June. Speaking from 10 Downing Street tonight, Mrs May pinned the blame for Brexit chaos on squabbling MPs who can’t decide what they want. She blasted: “MPs have been unable to agree on a way to implement the UK’s withdrawal. As a result, we will not now leave on time with a deal on March 29. This delay is a matter of great personal regret for me. And of this I am absolutely sure – you the public have had enough. You are tired of the infighting. You are tired of the political games and arcane procedural rows. Tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit when you have real concerns about our children’s schools, our National Health Service, and knife crime. You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side. It is now time for MPs to decide.” – The Sun May asks the EU for a Brexit extension until June 30 as she says delay is a ‘matter of personal regret’ and demands MPs ‘get on with it’ and back her deal before voters lose all trust in Parliament – Daily Mail Theresa May describes delay to Brexit as a ‘matter of great personal regret’ – ITV News …while she is accused of siding with Brexit hardliners to save her own skin As midday approached yesterday, Theresa May was still not entirely focused on preparations for prime minister’s questions. Her letter to Donald Tusk, which had been the subject of a gruesome cabinet tussle, was unfinished more than 12 hours after it was due to be made public. In Downing Street her most senior advisers were trying to focus on both PMQs and the missive to the European Council president after a late night of agonising over which way to jump on a Brexit extension and a morning spent working out how to express that. Having left cabinet in the dark at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, her decision on the type of extension to request from the EU had become crucial to her government and premiership. The day before had been bruising. Brexiteers and several Remain cabinet ministers had spent it counselling her against asking for a long extension, which had been government policy only that morning. At that night’s meeting of the hard-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) Tory MPs queued up to say she should go. Of 20 speakers, more than 15 said the prime minister’s political life was up. “The two or three who didn’t say she should go were still not positive,” a source said. “They just weren’t as repetitive on that point.” – The Times (£) Theresa May heads to Brussels today ‘on bended knee’… Theresa May risks leading Britain to a “national humiliation” by going on “bended knee” to the EU and asking for Brexit delay, senior Eurosceptics have warned. The Prime Minister on Wednesday wrote to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, requesting that Brexit should be delayed until June 30 – three months later than planned. However Mr Tusk rejected her requests for an unconditional extension, instead insisting that EU leaders will only grant a short delay if Mrs May’s deal wins the support of MPs next week in a move that significantly increases the chances of no-deal. It means that the Prime Minister is now pinning her hopes of passing her Brexit deal – and her Premiership – on a third meaningful vote on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. If she fails, as many of her own Cabinet believe she will, Brussels will hold an emergency summit with hours to go before the March 29 deadline and offer either a long extension or a no-deal Brexit. There is growing speculation that either option would spell the end of Mrs May’s time in Downing Street. – Telegraph (£) …appealing for more time to get her deal through Parliament… Theresa May will today appeal to EU leaders to grant her a delay to Brexit as she makes a further attempt to get her withdrawal deal through Parliament. With just eight days before the UK is due to leave the EU, the Prime Minister will make the case for extending the Article 50 withdrawal process to June 30 at a Brussels summit. The Prime Minister is expected to address leaders of the other 27 EU states before leaving them to discuss their response for about three hours in her absence. The outcome is likely to be announced by Council president Donald Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a joint press conference before Mrs May joins the other leaders for dinner. Ahead of the meeting, European Council president Donald Tusk said a “short” delay should be possible – but only if MPs finally back her deal before the deadline day on March 29. – Telegraph (£) …but EU nations are ready to veto a Brexit extension if May fails to convince at the Brussels summit… At least three European Union countries are ready to block any extension to the Brexit talks, unless Theresa May can convince them she has a credible plan to break the impasse in the House of Commons at Thursday’s summit in Brussels. Any extension to the Article 50 negotiations requires the unanimous support of all 27 remaining EU member states, handing each country an effective veto, despite other member states being implacably opposed to risking no deal. Countries such as France, which has struck a consistently tough stance on Brexit, Spain and Belgium are thought to be among the countries signalling they will demand concrete assurances from Mrs May. “A situation in which Mrs May is unable to deliver sufficient guarantees on the credibility of her strategy at the European Council meeting would lead to the request being refused and a preference for a no deal,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in the French parliament. – Telegraph (£) …with Emmanuel Macron and France hanging tough as Brexit date looms… France’s pro-EU president Emmanuel Macron never wanted Brexit. But as the clock ticks down towards Britain’s intended March 29 departure date — and with Theresa May’s government in open crisis over its plans — Mr Macron is among the most hawkish of EU leaders in questioning why Britain should have more time to get its house in order. On Wednesday, as Mrs May announced she would ask the EU to push the UK’s departure date out to June 30, French officials were quick to take a hard line. Jean-Yves Le Drian, foreign minister, told members of the French National Assembly that France would oppose a Brexit delay without a credible plan from the UK. Mr Le Drian said France would be open to a “technical” extension of a few weeks to allow British institutions to finalise formal ratification of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement. But without a vote in the House of Commons to approve the deal, “the central scenario is a no-deal exit — we are ready for it”, the foreign minister said. Along with the Netherlands, Germany and the UK itself, France stands to suffer the most economic damage because of its close links to Britain. – FT (£) …but leaders are likely to agree a shorter delay than May is requesting – or else a far longer extension Brussels opposes Theresa May’s plan to delay Brexit until 30 June, according to a leaked internal EU diplomatic note. The review of the Brexit situation drawn up by EU officials says national leaders will face a “binary” choice of a short Article 50 extension to before May 23, or a long delay to at least the end of this year. “Any extension offered to the United Kingdom should either last until 23 May 2019 or should be significantly longer and require European elections,” the leaked document says. “This is the only way of protecting the functioning of the EU institutions and their ability to take decisions.” The document, drawn up for European Commissioners, says that “any other option (as for example an extension until 30 June 2019) would entail serious legal and political risks for the European Union and would import some of the current uncertainties in the United Kingdom into the EU27”. – Independent EU has no choice but to approve Brexit extension – Politico MPs must then pass May’s deal or crash out next week, says Donald Tusk… MPs must pass Theresa May’s Brexit deal or face a no-deal Brexit next Friday, Donald Tusk has warned. In a dramatic gambit which raises the risk of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, the European Council president said that the short delay to Brexit requested by Mrs May this morning was only available if her deal had been agreed. Mr Tusk pointedly did not mention the possibility of a long Brexit extension, and said that if the prime minister’s deal had not been passed by the end of next week then he would “not hesitate” to call an extraordinary summit of EU leaders. After talks this week with European leaders including Angela Merkel and President Macron of France, Mr Tusk rejected Mrs May’s request for an unconditional Brexit delay until the end of June. “In the light of the consultations that I have conducted over the past days I believe that a short extension will be possible but to be conditional on a positive vote on the withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons,” he said. – The Times (£) …as EU leaders give up hope on a patient that refuses to help itself When Donald Tusk delivered his reply to Theresa May’s request for an extension to Article 50 on Wednesday afternoon he spoke in the hushed tones of a mourner-in-chief at a long anticipated deathbed. The message was sad but clear. There was nothing more to be done. The EU had done its very best for a patient that had consistently failed to help itself, but in the end nature would now have to take its course. There could be no final dramatic intervention. In short, Mrs May had requested an extension to June 30 in order to hold a third ‘meaningful vote’ on the Withdrawal Agreement, but Mr Tusk said ‘no’. Instead, if Mrs May wanted a “short extension” (probably to May 23) to complete the legal paperwork on the Brexit divorce deal she would first have to demonstrate that there was indeed paperwork to complete. That meant holding and winning the vote. There is a cold logic to this position, which was arrived at in Brussels and across EU capitals after three months in which the EU’s reserves of goodwill and patience have been inexorably drained. – Telegraph (£) Brexiteers round on Theresa May’s ‘shameful’ leadership as rivals openly plot to succeed her Tory remainers and Brexiteers rounded on Theresa May’s “shameful” leadership as rivals openly plotted to succeed her following her controversial request to extend Article 50 by three months. The Prime Minister came under fire from all corners of her party as members of the influential European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs sent a letter to Downing Street setting out four demands for at this week’s EU Council meeting in order to get her Withdrawal Agreement through parliament. The letter, signed by 39 MPs and seen by The Telegraph, tells Mrs May she should have “no reason to fear leaving on the 29th March”. Warning her not to delay Brexit if she values “our grassroots”, the two-page letter calls on Mrs May to seek “legally binding changes to the Withdrawal Act, e.g. a unilateral exit clause, a legal end date or Malthouse Alternative Arrangements”. It adds: “Please do not seek a long extension, this is neither needed nor desirable.” – Telegraph (£) ‘Soft’ Brexiteers plot to seize control of timetable MPs in favour of a softer Brexit than Theresa May’s deal will attempt next week to seize control of the parliamentary timetable if her withdrawal agreement is defeated for a third time. Mrs May is expected to call another so-called meaningful vote on her deal on Tuesday provided it is ruled in order by the Speaker. On Monday, before that vote, a cross-party group of MPs intend to ensure that parliament rather than the government is in control of what happens should the deal be defeated. They will table an amendment allowing MPs to run the parliamentary agenda on Wednesday, which could be used either to vote for a long extension to Article 50 or to propose an alternative form of Brexit. One MP involved in the plan said they wanted to ensure that parliament did not lose control of the Brexit process in the wake of a government defeat. “We don’t know what she’ll do if she loses,” they said. “That makes it all the more imperative that parliament has the time to express its view.” – The Times (£) UK’s emergency plans for no-deal Brexit begin to be put into action… Kent county council has activated no-deal plans to keep its roads, hospitals and schools open, as the government considers pulling the trigger on national contingency measures involving 30 central departments and 5,000 staff. With the country placed on a knife-edge by Theresa May’s latest Brexit crisis, the government is preparing for “any outcome” with a decision on Monday on whether to roll out the national Operation Yellowhammer contingencies for food, medicine and banking. Some measures have already swung into place, including Operation Fennel’s traffic management in Kent. The Europe minister, Alan Duncan, has also said the Foreign Office staff deployed to its Brexit “nerve centre” were working to help UK citizens in the EU in the event they get caught up in a Brexit mess. The Department of Health was also due to activate emergency supply chain operations, with instructions to medicines suppliers to book space on ferries to ensure they are not caught up in queues from next weekend in the event of no-deal. – Guardian Ministers to pull the trigger on ‘Operation Yellowhammer’ emergency No Deal planning if Brexit isn’t sorted by Monday – The Sun …with Cobra takes over planning for No Deal Cobra, the government’s emergency committee, has taken control of no-deal planning and will start implementing contingency measures on Monday. The “command and control” structures of Operation Yellowhammer, the civil service’s worst-case Brexit planning unit, will be “enacted fully”, Steve Barclay, the Brexit secretary, told ministers this week. Previously the operation was being planned under Cabinet Office structures, but a source said that there were Cobra-level discussions which were “highly confidential”. Cobra refers to a cluster of meeting rooms in Whitehall in which the government and its most senior officials co-ordinate how to respond to crises. Sources in the Department for Transport said that as of Monday staff would be working round the clock to provide a rapid response to issues as and when they arose. “Clearly if we are facing a no-deal Brexit on Friday there are going to be issues that require a substantial response and we need to ensure that the department is working in a way that allows us to do that ahead of time,” a source said. “The unknowns are going to be the reaction of other European countries to issues like customs and driving licences. We need to be in a position to respond to issues quickly.” – The Times (£) Parliament could cancel Brexit next week, warns William Hague Brexit could be overturned by Parliament next week according to a dramatic warning from William Hague, former Foreign Secretary and Conservative Party leader. The House of Commons could do this by voting to revoke the Article 50 EU exit mechanism. If this happens the Government would have to choose between formally revoking the UK’s notification and ignoring a Parliamentary instruction. Last December the advocate general of the European Court of Justice suggested Britain could withdraw Article 50 unilaterally. Mr Hague commented: “It looks like the choice comes down, in the next week, to do you want the deal or a no deal Brexit or to revoke Article 50, linking that to a general election or a second referendum. It does lead to this choice in the next week of the deal, or no deal, or no Brexit.” Theresa May has written to European Council President Donald Tusk asking for the UK’s EU exit to be delayed until June 30. However she insists the process will not be extended beyond that date. Any extension would have to be approved by the EU’s other 27 member states. – Express Jeremy Corbyn ridiculed after storming out of Brexit talks as ex-Labour MP Chuka Ummuna was there… Jeremy Corbyn faced ridicule last night after storming out of Brexit talks with Theresa May – as ex-Labour MP Chuka Umunna was there. The Labour leader was among a number of opposition chiefs called in by the PM for talks on the Brexit extension. But he “walked out” on seeing the new leader of the breakaway Independent Group. Sources claim he snapped: “He’s not a proper party leader.” A Labour spokesman later said: “It was not the meeting that had been agreed and the terms were broken. Downing Street is in such chaos that they were unable to manage their own proposed meeting. “We are in discussions with Number 10 about holding the bilateral meeting with the PM that Jeremy proposed at Prime Minister’s Questions.” It came as it emerged Labour bosses fear election wipeout over Brexit because voters see them as “the Remain party”. The Shadow Cabinet was presented with damning research on Tuesday which shows the ongoing Brexit chaos has damaged the party’s local election chances – and could cost them seats in a snap General Election. – The Sun …as the Labour leader also heads to Brussels today to meet Michel Barnier and others Jeremy Corbyn will throw himself into the middle of the negotiations with the EU by holding talks with Michel Barnier in Brussels just hours before Theresa May seeks to persuade leaders at a summit to accept a short delay to Brexit. The EU’s chief negotiator disclosed to ministers for the 27 member states on Tuesday evening that the Labour leader had sought the meeting. Corbyn will see Barnier in the EU’s Berlaymont headquarters on Thursday morning. A few hours later in the Belgian capital, Theresa May will appeal to the EU’s heads of state and government to accept her expected request for a three-month delay to Brexit. Corbyn is also attending a meeting of fellow socialist opposition leaders and prime ministers, such as Spain’s, Pedro Sanchez, which is taking place in Brussels in the morning. The appearance of Corbyn in Brussels at what Barnier told reporters on Tuesday evening was a “very, very sensitive” time will be cause of concern in Downing Street. There will be fears that EU leaders will receive mixed messages as they mull over the prime minister’s formal proposal to prolong the article 50 negotiating period. A delay will require unanimous approval by the EU’s leaders. – Guardian Labour’s Corbyn to discuss ‘alternative’ Brexit plan with EU leaders – Reuters Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill rules out prospect of Stormont veto on backstop A restored Executive cannot have any veto over the working of the border backstop, Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader has said. Michelle O’Neill made clear that Sinn Fein would reject any move to bolster the powers of the devolved administration in relation to the backstop’s operation. Devolution in Northern Ireland can only be resurrected if both of the main parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP, agree to enter another power-sharing coalition. “There will not be any situation where there will be a veto handed to this Assembly,” said Mrs O’Neill. Mrs O’Neill’s comments came in response to speculation that the government may move to strengthen the role of the Assembly in domestic law in order to win DUP support for the Brexit withdrawal treaty. Assembly structures mean the DUP could, with the assistance of a small number of like-minded MLAs, wield a veto on backstop matters by triggering the “petition of concern” voting mechanism. The government has already committed to giving Stormont a consultative role before a decision is made to either enter the backstop or extend the implementation period. And, if the backstop does come into effect, the Stormont Assembly and Executive would be given a role in its operation, with the legislature being asked to consent to any new or amended EU laws applying to the region. – Newsletter Allister Heath: Theresa May is now the Remainers’ greatest asset – they are in no hurry to see her go Could this finally be the end of the line for the Prime Minister? She is begging the EU to delay Brexit until June 30, but is hinting that she will resign if the date slips further. As ever with Theresa May, nobody, perhaps not even herself, knows whether she actually means it, or if it is just more verbiage designed to facilitate another round of can-kicking. If she is serious, this might prove to be the first piece of good news in a long time for beleaguered Brexiteer MPs. Even if she is not, it might jolt them into devising a proper post-May strategy, rather than simply whining and complaining while the forces of Remain slowly crush them. Mrs May is now the Remainers’ greatest asset: she has gone along with all of their destructive plans, at least since losing her majority in the 2017 election. She has refused to sell Brexit to the people, presenting it entirely as a problem to be solved, poisoning the public debate and preventing us from uniting behind a positive vision. She has worked for the civil service establishment, rather than the other way around. She signed up to the warped trap that is the backstop, setting in motion a course of events which now looks like delivering a choice between her awful deal and an even softer non-Brexit. She has no authority and has allowed Philip Hammond, her Chancellor, and his allies to seize control. – Allister Heath for the Telegraph (£) Vernon Bogdanor: Why MPs will ultimately have to back Theresa May’s deal Britain faces a constitutional crisis, according to many, including at least one cabinet minister. But is it a crisis simply because the rules regulating parliament make life difficult for the government? A conflict between government and parliament is almost inevitable when, as with Brexit, the government cannot command a majority of votes in the Commons. But there is a deeper crisis within parliament itself. MPs have put the European Union (Withdrawal) Act on the statute book, which entails us leaving the EU on 29 March, in just eight days’ time. But they have rejected every proposal to make Brexit a reality. They have twice rejected the deal; and they have also three times voted against amendments proposing that Britain remain in the customs union or the internal market. Last week MPs also rejected a no-deal Brexit, while an absolute majority of MPs rejected a “people’s vote” by 334 votes to 85. Without a further referendum, it is hardly possible for MPs to revoke article 50 and reverse Brexit. In addition, on 16 January MPs decided not to replace the government which is steering the Brexit process, when they rejected a motion of no confidence that could have precipitated a general election. In the classic Marx brothers film Horse Feathers, Groucho, playing Professor Wagstaff, tells his fellow academics: “I don’t know what they have to say, it makes no difference anyway. Whatever it is, I’m against it.” – Vernon Bogdanor for the Guardian Michael Deacon: A no-deal Brexit beckons… and the Commons is on the brink of a breakdown PMQs was terrible. Well, obviously it was terrible, it’s always terrible, but today it was terrible in a new and terrible way. It was terrible not just politically but emotionally. The mood was beyond angry. It was desperate. Frantic, stricken, bug-eyed, pleading. The Commons, it seemed, was on the brink of a breakdown. Theresa May had asked the EU to delay Brexit until June 30, and no one was remotely happy. Brexiteers feared that the delay would be too long; Remainers feared that it would be too short. “Resign!” screamed Labour MPs. Normally when they scream “Resign!”, it sounds like a taunt. Here it sounded like a plea. They were begging her. Brexiteer Peter Bone (Con, Wellingborough) warned Mrs May that she risked “betraying the British people”, and “history will judge you”. Voice cracking in despair, Remainer Yvette Cooper (Lab, Norman, Pontefract & Castleford) implored Mrs May to understand that her actions were “deeply dangerous”. Several MPs protested that, just days earlier, Mrs May’s de facto deputy (David Lidington) had told the Commons a short delay would be “downright reckless” – yet now this was what she’d requested. Other MPs howled that Mr Lidington had promised them a series of votes on what to do next – yet now she was reneging. – Michael Deacon for the Telegraph (£) John Redwood: The Prime Minister’s letter to Mr Tusk The faltering and badly drafted letter to Mr Tusk is unacceptable, asking as it does for a delay of three months in our exit from the EU. 188 Conservative MPs made clear our opposition to any delay last Thursday in the vote, with another 12 unable to support the Prime Minister’s motion to delay. Our actions, allied to Cabinet dissent, has persuaded the Prime Minister to drop the idea of a long delay for no stated purpose which I characterised here as the phantom option. The Prime Minister has decided to appeal to Labour and SNP MPs to vote for a short delay were she to be granted one by the EU. The letter both says she could not take the same deal back to the Commons for a vote this week under the Speaker’s ruling, and says she will bring the same Agreement back next week after the Council for a third vote. It does not explain how this happens. The suggestion is getting Council endorsement for the documents Parliament has already considered somehow makes a difference. The letter asks for the extension to Article 50 only to pass consequential legislation following approval of the Agreement. The letter is silent on what happens if the Agreement is voted down again or not voted on at all, though it implies we leave on 29 March with no extension. – John Redwood’s Diary Asa Bennett: Donald Tusk hopes MPs might soon make his Brexit referendum dream come true What is Donald Tusk up to? Eurosceptics were tempted to cheer initially when the European Council chief insisted that leaders of the remaining 27 member states would only allow a “short” extension to Article 50 if MPs passed Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Given that Article 50 is still set to run out next Friday, that led one senior Brexiteer to suggest to me it was an “incentive” to him and his colleagues to continue opposing the deal. But the European Council chief only said that a short delay relied “a positive vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons”. He did not rule out a longer one, declaring afterwards that “the question remains open as to the duration of such an extension”. European leaders will want to see a big event happen to justify a longer extension, such as a referendum. And it could come next week in the form of the so-called Kyle amendment, which would invite MPs to back the deal on the proviso that a referendum is held soon afterwards to check voters would endorse it. The Labour leadership is taking a great interest in it, and we reported recently will whip MPs to vote in favour of it. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Tim Newark: Speaker John Bercow is part of the plot to stop Brexit in its tracks Commons Speaker John Bercow is just another establishment figure seeking to frustrate Brexit as MPs launch their last-ditch efforts to betray our democratic vote to leave the EU. Yet again he interprets parliamentary convention to suit the interests of Remainers – and no doubt to the delight of his wife who notoriously displayed a “B*ll**ks to Brexit” sticker on her car. Earlier in the year, allowing arch-Remainer Dominic Grieve’s Brexit-meddling amendment, he was happy to say: “I am not in the business of invoking precedent, nor am I under any obligation to do so.” Pompously, he added: “If we were guided only by precedent, nothing would ever change.” He also made the decision against the legal advice of the Commons Clerk. But now as no-deal Brexit fast approaches, the self-satisfied Bercow points to a 400-year-old precedent to stop Theresa May asking for a third vote on her deal. Forthright Leaver MP Mark Francois rightly called him out on the first intervention saying: “Mr Speaker, I have not been in this House as long as you but I have been here for 18 years and I have never known any occasion when any Speaker has overruled a motion of the House of Commons.” – Express Jack Doyle: So what on earth happens now? Your guide to the complex Brexit endgame after the PM’s biggest gamble of her political career Theresa May made the biggest gamble of her political career – in a desperate bid to get her Brexit deal through. First she asked the EU for a short extension of Article 50 from March 29 – next Friday – to June 30. In a letter to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, she said her deal – with some slight changes – would come back to the House of Commons next week for another vote. If it passes, she said, Parliament would need more time to pass necessary Brexit laws and ratify the deal. Her second intervention came at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons. Three times, she repeated: ‘As Prime Minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than 30 June’. This was seen as a clear signal that if the deal does not pass at the third time of asking, she would either allow a No Deal Brexit – which will happen automatically – or quit rather than go cap in hand to the EU to ask for a longer delay. In a tirade at MPs, she said the House had ‘indulged itself for far too long’ and a longer delay would mean ‘endless hours and days of this House carrying on contemplating its navel on Europe’. – Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail Tom Harris: As May hints at resignation, the future of Brexit could now be decided by Jeremy Corbyn Anything is possible, nothing is likely. After a farcical 24 hours, with her own Cabinet in the dark over her plans, Theresa May has asked the EU27 for only a short extension to the Article 50 deadline, declaring: “As Prime Minister, I could not consider a delay further beyond the 30th of June.” She knows that this could lead us to a no-deal Brexit, with the only available alternative – Mrs May’s deal – suddenly unavailable because of the Speaker’s ruling earlier this week. While that would be a pleasingly satisfying scenario for critics of John Bercow, it would be a poor outcome for the country. Compelling though Mrs May’s troubles are, it might now be instructive to turn our attention to the continuing problems facing Jeremy Corbyn – especially given the current odds on the PM’s resignation. Mr Corbyn is reportedly meeting Michel Barnier tomorrow morning in Brussels, hours before Mrs May arrives to ask the EU’s 27 member states to agree to her request. Barnier has revealed that the Labour leader requested the meeting. – Telegraph (£) Andrew Lilico: As Theresa May crumbles, the battle between No Deal and no Brexit has truly begun So, today Theresa May is requesting an extension of our date of departure from the EU from the scheduled date of March 29th to, instead, June 30th. She has implied that she will resign if Parliament or the EU demand that she request a longer extension. The EU may agree to this extension. It may not. France, in particular, has said that it is willing to veto any extension that simply delays departure without any clear way an extension could resolve the current deadlock. One presumes the French mean a second referendum, a general election or some new proposal that is both acceptable to the EU and can pass the House of Commons (perhaps some permanent customs union). It is difficult to see how a delay will help May’s deal to pass. And, the prospect she will resign is more likely to encourage her opponents than to deter them. After all, her departure paves the way for no-deal. It would prompt a Conservative leadership election. Since the Conservative Parliamentary party would have to put two candidates to the membership and the membership is overwhelmingly in favour of no deal, that would surely mean a new Conservative Party leader committed to accepting no deal. – Andrew Lilico for the Telegraph (£) Anonymous Civil Servant: Secret Civil Servant hits out at the Remain supporting bureaucrats fighting to undermine Brexit and labelling the 52 per cent as racist and uneducated The four core values of the civil service are honesty, impartiality, integrity and objectivity. Before joining the service I had believed, naively, that these values would be upheld unconditionally. I quickly came to learn that, in relation to Brexit, nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, I must remain anonymous for fear of the backlash I would receive at my place of work. However, I can reveal I am a senior policy professional within the service and work closely with a number of government departments. There are a number of extremely dangerous myths regarding civil servants that I must dispel because of the impact they are having on the Brexit process. MYTH 1: The civil service is independent. The civil service was founded on the pillars of political neutrality. Civil servants are meant to ensure that their own political persuasions do not affect their work. Crucially, they should accept those from all political leanings and points of view. It has become clear to me that the vast majority of civil servants support Remain. From my observations I would estimate this number to be well over 90 per cent. This is worrying in itself and far from representative of the 52 per cent of the people who voted for Brexit. – Anonymous Civil Servant for The Sun Brexit in Brief If Theresa May buckles and delays Brexit, I will do my best to tear her party limb from limb – Nigel Farage MEP for the Telegraph (£) Delaying Brexit plays into EU’s anti-democratic hands – Get Britain Out’s Joshua Mackenzie-Lawrie’s for The Commentator Take out travel insurance or face huge bills if you’re heading to Europe after Brexit, officials warn – The Sun ‘Special place in hell, squandering Churchill’s legacy’: Watch the nastiest things the EU has said about Brexit – Telegraph (£)