Theresa May secures key Brexit victory as the Commons overwhelmingly passes her motion to trigger Article 50 by March next year MPs have overwhelmingly backed Theresa May’s plan to trigger Brexit in a vote which supporters said gave the Prime Minister a “blank cheque” to take Britain out of Europe. The result saw 461 MPs side with the Prime Minister and vote to commit the Government to triggering Article 50 by the end of March next year. However, 89 backbenchers including just one Tory and 23 Labour MPs opposed her plan in a show of defiance against the EU referendum result. – Daily Telegraph Article 50 vote shows Theresa May has no reason to fear the Supreme Court or Labour – she will get her way – James Kirkup for the Daily Telegraph The Commons dare not kill Brexit. But many MPs will not strive officiously to keep it alive – Paul Goodman for ConservativeHome Trust that the will of the people will be respected – Daily Express Editorial What’s the significance of Wednesday’s article 50 vote? Our panel responds – The Guardian > On BrexitCentral today: Hugh Bennett: Last night’s Article 50 amendment – proposed by the Government and accepted by the Commons – may prove to be a political and legal masterstroke The 91 MPs who last night opposed invoking Article 50 by 31st March 2017 David Davis says it is “inconceivable” that MPs won’t get a vote on the final Brexit deal Speaking in the House of Commons today, Davis made clear the government’s support for “the spirit” of a Labour motion demanding it publishes a plan for its talks with the EU, “with a vital caveat that nothing we say will undermine the strength of our negotiating position”. And Davis also said it was “inconcievable” that parliament would not get a vote on the terms of a final deal with Europe, although he declined to provide more detail. However, he stressed that rejection of that deal would not overturn the result of this summer’s Brexit vote. – International Business Times David Davis accuses europhile MPs of paying ‘lip service’ to Brexit – Daily Telegraph Lord Advocate says Holyrood must get a vote on Brexit Scotland is entitled to “a voice” on Brexit, the country’s most senior law officer has argued at the Supreme Court. Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said he is not asking for a veto, but the Scottish Parliament is entitled to a vote before the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start the two-year process of negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Whether Scotland consented is “a matter of constitutional significance”. – The Herald It was Parliament’s glaring omission which led us to this mess – Philip Johnston for the Daily Telegraph (£) Lord Pannick and the judges go to battle over a key argument in the Article 50 case – Business Insider Article 50 case, day three: can Scotland or Northern Ireland block Brexit? – Daily Telegraph Commons motion ‘will not impact Brexit court case’ A motion calling on the Government to unveil its Brexit plans will not impact a court case over the Prime Minister’s right to trigger Article 50, the Supreme Court has heard. Lord Pannick QC, who is opposing an appeal by the Government against a High Court ruling over Britain’s exit from the EU, told the court’s 11 justices that a Brexit motion being debated in the Commons cannot alter the “law of the land”. The motion, which calls on Theresa May to “publish the Government’s plan for leaving the EU before Article 50 is invoked”, was accepted by the Prime Minister in an attempt to see off a Tory revolt. – Sky News Does Article 50 give us two years for Brexit, or 18 months? The calculation of 18 months’ actual negotiating time should not be too controversial, not only because the EU itself will need time to establish its position on whatever the UK eventually proposes, but also because the time needed for the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the UK to approve the agreement will likely mean that around six months of the two-year period stipulated by Article 50 will realistically be unavailable for deal-making. However, his remarks do touch on a key question around the sequencing that will determine the ultimate nature of the UK and EU’s relationship after Brexit. – Prospect Hilary Benn talks to the Sunderland Echo as his Brexit committee heads to the North East “Sunderland and the North East is a really important centre for manufacturing. The North East sends 58% of its exports to the EU, the second highest in the UK, so we thought it would be a good place to start. “We are going to hear from the leader of the council, the Chamber of Commerce, someone from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership. We will be asking questions about the impact of Brexit and the feelings in the North East, what are the particular issues that those we are hearing from are concerned about and how do we deal with these?” – Sunderland Echo The Gulf States see great opportunities in Britain’s bright post-Brexit future Prime Minister Theresa May is in Bahrain, meeting with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), spearheading the UK government’s plans to “turbo-charge” trade with this important trading bloc. In doing so Mrs May has gone into the history books as the first British Prime Minister to attend the annual GCC Summit, and also the first woman. Unlike the summits that Mrs May will attend in Europe next year, the discussions that she has with Gulf leaders will be uncomplicated and relaxed. Not only is the GCC the UK’s largest foreign investor, it is also its second biggest non-European export market. – City A.M. Migration cut will raise low pay by just 1% EU migration to the UK could fall by as much as 150,000 a year as a result of Brexit, but the wages of the worst off will rise by less than 1 per cent, researchers have calculated. Analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research forecasts a fall in EU immigration of 91,000 a year as free movement rules with Europe end. The reduction would produce a long-lasting economic contraction, with GDP per head up to 3.4 per cent lower by 2030. – The Times (£) CBI wants swift talks once transitional arrangements are in place Swift and decisive negotiations with the European Union are essential once the U.K. triggers Brexit, the head of the country’s main business lobby group told lawmakers as Prime Minister Theresa May and challengers in Parliament and the private sector square up over the schedule for leaving. Businesses want government to “get on with it — but also get it right,” said Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, fielding questions from Parliament’s Exiting the European Union Committee on Wednesday. – Bloomberg UK housing and hiring stay resilient despite Brexit vote – surveys British house prices hit a seven-month high in November and companies hired more workers, surveys showed on Thursday, suggesting the economy remained resilient five months after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its measure of house price growth hit +30, up from +23 in October and higher than a forecast of +26 in a Reuters poll of economists… A separate report released on Thursday by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation showed firms hired permanent staff in November at the fastest pace since February. – Reuters Daniel Hannan MEP: We will get a good Brexit deal – because rational self-interest will overcome the Eurocrats’ fury No one is expecting special favours for Britain. As Adam Smith put it, “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest”. It is not from the benevolence of our European partners that we expect their trade, but from their regard to their own self-interest. My guess is that, two years from now, a cordial deal will have been struck. It will maintain many of the market arrangements, including the prohibition on discrimination against the goods or services of another state; it will allow for reciprocal rights to work and study, but subject to regulation; it will probably result in Britain participating in some common initiatives, and paying its share of their cost, though no longer paying for big-ticket items like agriculture and foreign aid; it will mean that our laws are supreme on our own territory. – Daniel Hannan for ConservativeHome Matt Chorley: May blinks first over Brexit draft plan Theresa May began the day promising a “red, white and blue” Brexit, which joins “Brexit means Brexit” in the growing list of meaningless holding phrases. By the end of the day it was a black and blue Brexit, with a bruised government forced to agree to publish a plan for leaving the EU before Article 50 is triggered. The Labour Party can claim this as a rare but significant victory. An opposition day debate put forward a motion which was identical to one agreed by MPs in October, with the addition that it “calls on the prime minister to commit to publishing the government’s plan for leaving the EU before Article 50 is invoked”. – Matt Chorley for The Times (£) Richard Drax MP calls on those who won’t accept the referendum result to resign their seats Now, encouraged by the current court action, some MPs and peers are preparing to water down that historic vote by attaching amendments to any Bill that might have to pass through the House to invoke Article 50. Clearly, their intent is to delay, or even prevent, exit. MPs in particular contemplating such action should think carefully of the consequences, as the country is not in the mood for prevarication, nor can it afford to delay any longer. Resignation is the only honourable path for those who cannot and will not accept the result of the referendum. – Richard Drax MP’s letter in the Daily Telegraph Neil Carmichael: As a Conservative MP, I want Parliament to get a proper debate on Brexit; and universities must be rescued from the Brexit storm Our future close relationship with the EU of course goes beyond economics. We need unprecedentedly close co-operation between the UK and the EU on security and intelligence sharing; openness to talented people from Europe and the world; and continued cooperation on issues like the environment. This must all go hand-in-hand with delivering reforms to immigration that will make the system fairer, many of which can be seen in European countries as diverse as the Netherlands and Switzerland….I congratulate the government on their decision to involve the House in their plan for Brexit – and look forward to seeing the details. – Neil Carmichael MP for the New Statesman Universities must be rescued from the Brexit storm UK higher education is a world leader contributing enormously to the country’s global reputation and economic prosperity, but the sector is rightly distressed that it could soon be swept away by the Brexit storm. When Leavers try to talk-up the opportunities for Britain outside the European Union, they cite examples such as a more competitive business environment with lower taxes and less regulation, or greater flexibility to make trade deals around the world. For our universities the opportunities are harder to discern and, in the absence of clarity from government, many in the HE sector see Britain’s EU divorce as a fraught exercise in damage limitation. – Neil Carmichael MP for The Times (£) William Norton: The Article 50 case shows how the EU has poisoned British law For more than 20 years, the Royal prerogative was a Good Thing if it was being used to sign a new Treaty that brought us More Europe. Now that it might mean Less Europe, it turns out to be a Bad Thing after all. Inadvertently, therefore, Lord Thomas and his colleagues have given us a conclusive argument for Brexit. Stop arguing about the £350 million. Don’t even worry about Turkish immigrants. Worry about the fact that three apparently intelligent, civilised and respectable men have humiliated themselves in public in the service of the supremacy of EU law by producing 32 pages of drivel. The sooner we get this poison out of our judicial system, the better. – William Norton for CapX Neil Carmichael: As a Conservative MP, I want Parliament to get a proper debate on Brexit Our future close relationship with the EU of course goes beyond economics. We need unprecedentedly close co-operation between the UK and the EU on security and intelligence sharing; openness to talented people from Europe and the world; and continued cooperation on issues like the environment. This must all go hand-in-hand with delivering reforms to immigration that will make the system fairer, many of which can be seen in European countries as diverse as the Netherlands and Switzerland….I congratulate the government on their decision to involve the House in their plan for Brexit – and look forward to seeing the details. – Neil Carmichael MP for the New Statesman Matthew Parris vs Matt Ridley on Brexit bitterness Now that almost six months have passed since the EU referendum, might it be time for old enemies to find common ground? Matthew Parris and Matt Ridley, two of the most eloquent voices on either side of the campaign, meet in the offices of The Spectator to find out. – The Spectator Crawford Gribben: Post-referendum, the futures of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland are still up in the air Support for the campaign to leave the European Union was uneven, and the results provided yet another example of the growing disparity in political cultures within the three nations and one province that make up the United Kingdom… The Brexit debate is accelerating the evolution of disparate political cultures within the “home nations,” and almost certainly signals the end of the United Kingdom in anything like its present form. – Crawford Gribben for The American Interest Jake Cordell: Leave the campaign trail and get over the Brexit divide The referendum is over. The debates have moved on and the new battle for the future of the UK has just begun. It needs both the hard Brexiters and the fleshy Remoaners. But all the while they insist on re-running (sometimes literally) the first campaign, the UK will probably get exactly the kind of Brexit it deserves. – Jake Cordell for Reaction James Forsyth: Brexit is a revolution – and it’ll be decades before we know it’s worked National control is the crucial point of Brexit. Decisions are much easier to sell to voters if it is clear that they have been made in the national interest and if voters also know that, by exercising their democratic rights, they can remove the decision-makers from office if they disagree with what has been done on their behalf. This control will help to curb the feelings of impotence that fuel the rage against globalisation. Brexit should be guarantor of Britain’s inherent liberalism in the decades ahead. – James Forsyth for The Spectator Brexit comment in brief At some point soon voters will run out of patience with MPs who procrastinate over Brexit – Tom Harris for the Daily Telegraph (£) Theresa May won’t be getting a ‘red, white and blue Brexit’ – the EU is firmly in control – Andrew Grice for the Independent The divisions around the Maastricht Treaty carry ominous parallels for Mrs May – Philip Johnston for the Daily Telegraph (£) Theresa May risks becoming an accidental Europe-wrecker – Rafael Behr for The Guardian Theresa May’s clever holding position has caught remainers off guard – Matthew d’Ancona for The Guardian Pat McFadden MP: We won’t block Brexit, but it is hypocritical and wrong to deny Parliament a say – Pat McFadden MP for PoliticsHome Theresa May on decision-making, Brexit and doing the job her way – FT (£) Brexit news in brief Brexit-backing chemicals tycoon moves company’s tax domicile back to Britain – International Business Times Verhofstadt will step down as Brexit boss if he wins European Parliament presidency – EurActiv Britain’s EU divorce most likely to end with bilateral trade deal, according to poll of economists – Reuters Middle class liberals were only social group to emphatically back Remain, analysis shows – Daily Telegraph ECB to pummel even more money to save crumbling eurozone amid Italy turmoil and Brexit – Daily Express Bill Cash teaches Ken Clarke a lesson at Brexit debate – The Spectator’s Coffee House Blog Diehard Remainer Michael O’Leary explains why he favours a “really hard” Brexit – Politico And finally, the EU unveils extravagant £300m Brussels ‘Space Egg’ HQ – the ‘Europa’ in Brussels The EU unveiled its futuristic new 321-million-euro headquarters on Wednesday, saying it symbolised ‘joy’ at a time of rising populist anger against Brussels that helped lead to Brexit. A glass lantern-shaped structure inside a cube made of recycled window frames sourced from across the 28-nation bloc, the Europa building has been dubbed the “Space Egg” because of its otherwordly appearance. At its heart is a huge room decked out in psychedelic rainbow carpets and ceiling tiles where European Union leaders will hold their summit meetings on the multiple crises that beset the bloc. – Daily Telegraph