Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team The future is bright, promises Theresa May as she embarks on a UK-wide Brexit tour today Prime Minister Theresa May will promise Britain bright prospects outside the European Union on Thursday when she tours a country still deeply divided about its future as the countdown to Brexit starts its last 12 months. Britain will leave the European Union at 2300 GMT on March 29, 2019, severing ties that helped define its national identity, its laws, and its international stature over 46 years of integration with European neighbours. The world’s sixth largest economy caused a major global shock in 2016 by voting to withdraw from the EU after a fevered referendum campaign that sharpened regional divisions, pitted young against old, and exposed a deep distrust between voters and the political establishment. In the 21 months since the referendum vote, May, who became prime minister in the resulting political chaos, has struggled to unite the country behind a single vision of Brexit. – Reuters Prime Minister pledges to deliver Brexit uniting the UK that protects “the integrity of the United Kingdom as a whole” – City A.M. Theresa May vows Brexit will work for the UK ahead of Scotland visit – Express With a year to go, Brexit dawn looks brighter – Iain Martin for the Times (£) With a year until Britain leaves the European Union, the scale of the task dwarfs the time available, but that does not mean it is impossible – Times editorial (£) > David Davis MP on BrexitCentral today: With a year to go until Brexit, we are closer to a deal than ever before > Andrew RT Davies AM on BrexitCentral today: Brexit will give Wales a more powerful voice and help strengthen the United Kingdom Boris Johnson declares that Brexit has become “an unstoppable express” as an opinion poll shows more than two thirds of voters want the EU referendum result to be honoured in full Writing for the Daily Express, the Foreign Secretary hails the “glorious” future ahead when the country quits the EU one year from today. “Our national journey out of the EU is almost over – and a glorious view awaits,” Boris Johnson says. His upbeat assessment of the came as an exclusive ComRes survey for the Daily Express tonight showed 68% of Britons think that those who voted against quitting the EU “should respect the majority” for leave. Even four in ten people (38%) who voted Remain in the 2016 referendum now agree that the Leave vote should be respected, according to the poll commissioned to mark one year to go until the UK formally leaves the EU. And total of 65% of voters in the survey did not want a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the bloc, the online survey of more than 2,000 adults found. – Express Second Brexit referendum would not change result, claims leading pollster – Express David Davis warns that MPs will vote down the Brexit deal if future trade terms are unknown The Brexit Secretary said MPs would refuse to agree the £37bn Brexit divorce bill if there is no agreement on trade by the time an expected “meaningful vote” comes to Parliament. “If there is no trade deal, I don’t think there’s a deal…” he told an event hosted by the Spectator. “Can you imagine Parliament voting through a Withdrawal Bill without a deal? Not a chance…” But he added: “We’re not going to lose that vote. It will be a good deal and Parliament will vote for it.” And he insisted that a vote against the final deal would not be a means of halting the Brexit process either way. – PoliticsHome There’s no deal without a trade deal, says David Davis – Spectator podcast May to use £1.4bn of foreign aid as bargaining chip in Brexit talks… Britain is dangling the prospect of continued aid spending worth more than £1.4 billion a year to the EU to secure a Brexit deal on security. Theresa May hinted at the offer in her speech in Munich last month but aid is now being treated as an explicit part of the UK’s opening negotiating position. While the UK would insist on how it spent “the entirety” of its foreign aid budget after Brexit, the prime minister said that it may make sense to give some of it to EU bodies. “If a UK contribution to EU development programmes and instruments can best deliver our mutual interests, we should both be open to that,” she said. – Times (£) …as Amber Rudd says there is no agreement yet on whether immigration will be part of next phase of Brexit talks Home Secretary Amber Rudd has admitted the Government is yet to decide whether the UK’s post-Brexit immigration rules will form part of trade negotiations with the EU. The remaining 27 EU member states have stated they want the future UK-EU relationship to include “ambitious provisions” for movement of citizens between Britain and the bloc. But, Ms Rudd signalled the Cabinet have yet to agree whether or not to negotiate with Brussels on future immigration rules during Brexit talks. Although Brexit negotiations are likely to be concluded in October this year, Ms Rudd also confirmed the Government will not be presenting their post-Brexit immigration plans to Parliament until “the end of the year”. – Sky News Emily Thornberry says Labour will “probably” vote for the Conservatives’ Brexit deal… In Westminster, the assumption has long been that Labour will vote against the government’s anticipated Brexit deal in the autumn. Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has devised “six tests” that any agreement must meet (including delivering the “exact same benefits” as membership of the single market and customs union). Rather like Gordon Brown’s “five tests” for euro membership, these appeared deliberately unachievable (both the EU and the UK government have stated that Britain will not retain the “exact same benefits” after the planned transition period). Earlier this week, Starmer backed an amendment to ensure that the UK would not automatically leave the EU if parliament votes against the deal. And though Jeremy Corbyn, and many of his allies, are life-long Eurosceptics, their desire to bring down the government outweighs their antipathy to Brussels. – New Statesman Labour admits it will ‘probably’ vote for Theresa May’s final Brexit deal – Business Insider …but Sir Keir Starmer says Labour is prepared to vote down Brexit bill Keir Starmer has moved to reassure anxious Labour MPs that the shadow cabinet is prepared to vote against the government’s Brexit deal after Emily Thornberry appeared to suggest the agreement could be so vague her party might back it. Parliament has been promised a meaningful vote on the withdrawal agreement and the shadow Brexit secretary has laid out six tests he says the deal must meet. But Thornberry told a meeting at the Chatham House thinktank that the government was only likely to agree a vague divorce by October. “If past evidence of the last few months is anything to go on, it’s going to be a blah, blah, blah, divorce,” she said. “It’s not going to make any decisions. It’s going to continue to kick things down the road. We don’t seem to have come to any difficult decisions at the moment. – Guardian Finance jobs expected to be moved out of the UK due to Brexit now half of what was forecast six months ago The number of finance jobs due to be moved because of Brexit by March 2019 has shrunk substantially in the past six months, with fewer moves out of Britain now expected. According to a Reuters survey of firms employing the majority of UK-based workers in international finance, the number of jobs to be moved out of Britain – or created overseas – has dropped by half to 5,000 roles. Its previous study from September had found firms planned to move or create 10,000 jobs on the continent by the time Britain was due to leave the EU in 2019. – City A.M. Bank of England moves to calm City with Brexit transition assurance – Telegraph Europol boss confident of UK-EU security deal Rob Wainwright, the Welsh-born director of Europol, is “positive” about the prospects of a co-operation deal to protect UK security after Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May has called for a “special partnership” on security after the UK leaves the EU. Mr Wainwright, who is leaving his post as head of the EU’s law enforcement body, said people had seen the “devastation” caused by a wave of terrorist attacks across Europe. – BBC News Airbus says EU should keep Britain in Galileo space project despite Brexit The chief executive of aerospace firm Airbus said Britain should not be frozen out of the European Union’s Galileo space programme after Brexit, calling on both sides to find a long-term solution in the interest of security. Tom Enders, Airbus CEO, said at stake was not just the Galileo satellite programme, the EU’s 10 billion euro ($12.4 billion) programme to develop a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System, but the continent’s ability to protect itself. “The UK’s continued participation in the EU Galileo programme will ensure security and defence ties are strengthened for the benefit of Europe as a whole, during a period of increasing threats to our security and geopolitical instability,” he said in a statement. – Reuters Consumers in Britain were their most confident in 10 months in March Consumers in Britain were their most confident in 10 months in March, according to a survey which suggested that they took comfort from a fall in inflation and this month’s Brexit transition deal. “The prospect of wage rises finally outstripping declining inflation, high levels of employment with low-level interest rates, and finally some movement on the Brexit front appear to have boosted our spirits,” Joe Staton, head of experience innovation UK at GfK, said in a statement. – Reuters Customs union membership ‘would make UK irrelevant’ says Australian High Commissioner Britain would be “humiliated” and “irrelevant” on the world stage if it were to remain in a customs union with Europe after Brexit, the Australian high commissioner said last night. Alexander Downer told an audience in London that he had “been surprised that there is any debate at all” about Britain remaining in a customs union, which would leave Brussels in charge of trade negotiations without British input. “For us in the outside world, Britain would become, at least in economic terms, irrelevant to international diplomacy,” Mr Downer said. “You would be better off remaining within the EU or being completely out of it in every way than leaving yourselves in such a position of weakness and irrelevancy. It would be humiliating for a once-great country to end up by being little more than a dependency of the European Union.” – Times (£) Ultra-Remain group marks Article 50 anniversary by spending £500k on poster campaign to try and stop us leaving EU An ultra Remain group are marking the anniversary of Article 50 being triggered by spending £500,000 on a nationwide poster campaign to try and stop us leaving the EU. Best for Britain are pushing once again for a second vote on the final Brexit deal, dubbing its proposal the “People’s Vote”. The group, which has been funded by billionaire investor Sir George Soros, will launch the billboards in city centres across the country saying the public deserves to have their say on what kind of deal the UK gets from the EU. They said the ads, which are also on the major motorways heading out of London, are aimed not just at Remain supporters but Leave backers too, and will also appear in newspapers and on social media. The campaign comes exactly one year after Theresa May invoked Article 50, triggering the two-year countdown until we exit the EU. – The Sun Juncker’s promotion of Selmayr to head of EU civil service is a coup, say MEPs Jean-Claude Juncker is guilty of a coup by “parachuting” an aide into a job as head of the European Union’s civil service, MEPs have claimed. A draft resolution of the European parliament’s budgetary control committee, which oversees the Brussels administration, has used unusually strong language to condemn the appointment of Martin Selmayr as secretary-general of the European Commission. Mr Selmayr was previously chief of staff to Mr Juncker, president of the commission. The text, which will be voted on by MEPs in a fortnight, is a blow to both men. “The European Parliament . . . states that the two-steps nomination of the secretary-general constitutes a coup-like action which stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law,” said the draft document, which has been seen by The Times. – Times (£) Global consumers lap up British booze as exports soar The UK’s food and drink producers are finding increasing levels of demand for their goods overseas, as global consumers get a taste for British alcohol. Whiskey, beer, and gin are all in demand abroad, according to new research from GS1 UK. Exporting rose by 12 per cent in the year to November 2017, driven by strong performance in alcohol which was up 16 per cent. – City A.M. Flash mobs campaigning for a second EU referendum are linked to Max Mosley Freelance flash mobs have been paid thousands of pounds by a company linked to Max Mosley to target commuters at major cities to drum up support for a demonstration calling for a second EU referendum, The Telegraph can reveal. The Fair Vote Project, founded by a consultant who worked for the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain that was set up by prominent Remain campaigner Gina Miller and part funded by George Soros, hired up to 30 people to target thousands of people travelling to work. – Telegraph Theresa May: The ordinary British people have made it clear – Brexit must be a success A year from today, at 11pm on Friday, March 29, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. In doing so, we will reach the end of a process that began in the summer of 2016 with the single biggest democratic mandate this country has ever seen. Of course there were many who, at the time, wanted to see a different outcome. I know there are still some who would be happier if the referendum were to be rerun or the result ignored. But as I travel around the country, talking to ordinary people far from the Westminster bubble, one thing quickly becomes very clear. Regardless of whether they backed Leave or Remain, most people are tired of hearing the same old divisive arguments from the referendum campaign, and just want us to get on with the task of making Brexit a success. And they’re right to think that. The people of this country voted to leave the EU and, as Prime Minister, it’s my job to make that happen. – Theresa May MP for the Daily Mail Boris Johnson: Our journey out of the EU is almost over Now is the time for us all to come together in support of our departure from the EU. That’s why today the Prime Minister will travel to all four corners of the UK to make the case for Brexit. Never mind that Tony Blair persists in claiming that Brexit won’t happen. Avert your gaze from that perpetual Labour leadership contender, Owen Smith, who demands a second referendum because his side lost and he wants a re-match. Like an unstoppable express, we are heading for Brexit and frankly my friends, we can’t arrive soon enough. Looking ahead, we can already see the contours of the new world that awaits us. Months of painstaking negotiations have started to fill in the canvas. After our departure from the EU next March, there will be a short and strictly time-limited “implementation period” lasting until December 2020. – Boris Johnson MP for the Express Matthew Elliott: Forget the Remainers who refuse to surrender, the great prize is ahead of us Policy-makers of all political stripes have woken up to the new avenues open to the UK once we are free from EU constraints. A clean Brexit should engender an explosion of new ideas and innovation as areas of policy settled in Brussels for 40 years will again be decided in-house. British talent and technology ensure we remain in a strong position to negotiate our future relationship with the EU over the coming months. The economy is growing and the government has found its feet again after the election – which is more than can be said for Angela Merkel. – Matthew Elliott for The Times (£) Ruth Davidson: Leaving the EU, yes. Leaving the European family, no. For people like me who campaigned to Remain in the EU, today is unlikely to be a cause for celebration as we mark one year to go till Brexit day. However, my view has always been that, with the decision having been made, it is now up to us to face up to the undoubted challenges of Brexit while seeking to maximise the opportunities as they arise. We are already some way to doing just that. Last week’s agreement of a transition phase, lasting until the end of 2020, will give businesses certainty in the short term, allowing more time to deliver Brexit smoothly. Progress has also been made on key issues such as the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and the so-called ‘divorce bill’. For its part, the EU has shifted its own stance on trade, meaning Britain can begin to negotiate trade deals after Brexit day next year, while we remain in the single market. This effort will be vital as we seek to protect and grow the UK economy as we leave the EU. – Ruth Davidson MSP for the Herald Dominic Cummings: Walter Mitty, Cambridge Analytica, and the Guardian/Observer’s own ‘personal data harvesting’ As reported by the BBC: ‘[Wylie] said he was sure Aggregate IQ had drawn on Cambridge Analytica databases during the referendum, saying it “baffled” him how a firm in the UK for only a couple of months had “created a massive targeting operation” without access to data.’ His claim was that Vote Leave must have used the Cambridge Analytica data, passed through AIQ, to win the referendum. Wylie, describing the alleged links between Cambridge Analytica, AIQ and the specific dataset said: “You can’t do online targeting if you don’t have access to the database. You just can’t”. There are two very clear problems with this story. The Facebook data is on US voters so would have been useless in the referendum. Far from being impossible it is actually incredibly easy to set up totally legitimate/lawful targeting on Facebook without any electoral data as the Guardian/Observer knows because it does it itself and runs ‘masterclasses’ teaching people how to do it. And, amusingly, it turns out that the Guardian/Observer itself was ‘harvesting personal data’ via its own Facebook app! Did Carole [Cadwalladr] know and when did she know it?! – Dominic Cummings’s Blog Bernard Jenkin: Leaving the EU but staying in the Single Market would be the worst of all worlds The pro-customs union/single market case is built on the false premise that a country’s prosperity is dependent upon the elimination of customs frontiers with countries with whom it conducts its trade. However, this is far from the most important factor. It is also not necessary to be a very large country, or part of a large trade bloc, in order to be prosperous. Many very small states export a far higher proportion of their GDP across customs frontiers. Switzerland’s exports are worth 66% of its GDP, and South Korea’s 42%. Neither Switzerland nor South Korea are in any kind of customs union (unless you include Switzerland’s with Liechtenstein), so they achieve their high standards of living by trading across traditional customs frontiers. In fact, according to EU figures, Switzerland’s exports to the EU are worth 36% of its GDP, and it is not even part of the European Economic Area. The UK is far less dependent upon trade with the EU, with exports to the EU worth only 12% of GDP. UK exports to the EU are also declining, whereas our exports to the rest of the world are growing. – Bernard Jenkin MP for Huffington Post Andrea Leadsom: It’s a year today until Brexit. Let’s continue to proclaim that it will be good for Britain It was reported recently that, as someone who previously worked in the City, I should know the ‘clear and present danger’ that Brexit apparently poses to the economy – capturing perfectly the negative attitude that continues to pervade the Brexit conversation. First, it is claimed that our economy and the City will suffer and, second, that when it comes to our future outside of the EU, we have no grounds for optimism. The truth is that the evidence continues to prove otherwise. The economy has experienced 20 quarters of growth, employment is the highest it has ever been, and productivity, a key measure for future wage growth, has started to improve. As we mark one-year until Brexit, I am determined to keep making the case for why leaving the EU is good for our country, and will be a success for the City. – Andrea Leadsom MP for ConservativeHome Stephen Glover: Despite the deviousness of our rulers we’ll leave the EU a year from today thanks to the good sense of the people One year from today, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. It is now possible to say this with something approaching certainty. I confess to being somewhat surprised that this momentous upheaval seems very likely to take place despite the awesome efforts of the Establishment. Immediately after the British people voted to leave in the June 2016 referendum, I was afraid the political class would find a way to frustrate the democratic will of the majority. But despite countless scare stories propagated by anti-Brexit politicians and the BBC, which followed bloodcurdling predictions pumped out by Project Fear before the vote, this country is on track to exit the EU. In the circumstances, this is little short of a miracle. – Stephen Glover for the Daily Mail Nicky Morgan: Second referendum? I voted Remain – but that ship has sailed Twelve months on from the triggering of Article 50 and a few new words and phrases have entered our everyday vocabulary, some with new meanings – transition, regulatory alignment, managed divergence, physical infrastructure, Henry VIII powers, meaningful vote and mutineer. A few more have popped up more often in my Twitter timeline and inbox than before 2016 – traitor, remoaner and treason to name a few. Who knew that MPs doing their job of scrutinising the government and pointing out that control should be returned to our sovereign Parliament would arouse such strength of feeling. But, in spite of all the shouting, Brexit still means Brexit and we are now around 365 days from the UK becoming a non-member of the European Union. – Nicky Morgan MP for the Telegraph (£) Radomir Tylecote: Undemocratic systems, from Brussels to Beijing, tend to choose protectionism In a few short weeks, Britain will begin negotiations with the EU on how we will trade in the years ahead; in the next three years, the return of Britain’s capacity for self-government will give us the chance to trade freely with the rest of the world once more. To grasp these opportunities will require confident choices. Sir Kenneth Clarke wrote that it is a lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. It would be hard to say Greece within the Eurozone, for example, is not a case in point. Countries often forget the attitudes that made them flourish: bad choices may follow leadership, and too many bad choices means demise. Freeing trade is one of the confident choices we must now make. – Radomir Tylecote for CapX Brexit in brief How Brexit will lead to prosperity – and not austerity – John Redwood MP for the Yorkshire Post Brexit’s toughest negotiations are still to come – Macer Hall for the Express One year to go: A Remainer on what’s going right with Brexit – Anoosh Chakelian for i News Remainers must realise that accusing Vote Leave of “cheating” won’t undo Brexit – Stephen Bush for the New Statesman Are Brexiteer MPs paper tigers? – Paul Goodman for ConservativeHome Will Brexit spell the end of parallel trade? – Andrew Lilico for CapX How should Britain be led post Brexit? – Nigel Hall for Reaction Blue passports row gives us a chance to introduce ID cards – Times editorial (£) Ireland’s Tánaiste wants clarity on Brexit border issue by June – RTE Bank of England tells financial firms it’s business as usual during Brexit transition period – City A.M. Theresa May says Britain will deliver Brexit despite funding allegations – Reuters A year to Brexit day: The hurdles ahead for Theresa May – i News What are the prospects for UK trade after Brexit? – Channel 4 News ‘Snake oil!’ Tory savages claims adverts swayed vote of 17.4 million Brexit-backing Brits – Express