Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Brussels accused of ‘outrageous’ attempt to turn Northern Ireland into EU province by rejecting British compromises… The EU will threaten Theresa May’s Brexit plan Wednesday by warning that Northern Ireland must sign up to Brussels rules and regulations if Britain wishes to leave the customs union and single market… The DUP, which props up the Conservative minority government in Westminster, will strongly oppose the EU’s proposal, as will Conservative Brexiteers. British Brexit negotiators privately warn that the hardline stance from Brussels has left them unable to negotiate… It would effectively move the UK/EU border into the Irish Sea if Britain wants to diverge from EU rules, according to officials who have seen it. The legal text of the December Brexit deal is expected to omit compromise language insisted upon by Mrs May that “no new regulatory barriers” would come into play between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland after Brexit. After weeks of trying to temper EU demands over the Irish border question, UK negotiators are now increasingly resigned to the EU rejecting compromise, driven on by a hardline Brexit agenda in Paris and Berlin. – Telegraph (£) All sides knew perfectly well that the December deal deferred the hard choices for another day. Now it seems that day of reckoning is fast approaching: on Wednesday the EU will publish a draft legal text of the December deal, and the EU says it will be “unambiguous”. This begs a question: why, if the EU was prepared to fudge the Irish question in December, they are they now so determined to drive to the wall the constructive ambiguity on which a workable solution might rest? If you were cynical, you might think that the EU did a quick-n-dirty deal in December in order to seal agreement on the €45bn Brexit bill. And that now it has got its money, it sees the opportunity to turn the screw… [The EU] has failed utterly to recognise the uniqueness of the Ireland situation, which long predates the rules of its single market. This is not a techno-legal question but rather an 800-year-old identity issue – with guns – that now risks breaking up the United Kingdom. In place of artful compromise, we now see a high-stakes game of arm-twisting. – Peter Foster for the Telegraph (£) EU is accused of going back on their word by reopening prospect of a customs border at the Irish Sea – The Sun Brussels leave out Theresa May’s compromise over Northern Ireland in Brexit treaty – Express EU position on Irish border to test Cabinet unity on Brexit – Guardian Taoiseach Leo Varadkar urges Sinn Fein to take Commons seats and ‘defend Ireland over Brexit’ – The Times (£) Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney of ‘one mind’ with EU negotiators – BBC News Coveney hails EU border document as a good deal for Ireland – The Times (£) Good Friday Agreement ‘can stop hard Brexit’, claims Irish minister – The Times (£) Will Brexit scupper the Good Friday Agreement? – Owen Polley for CapX It’s simple, nobody wants a hard Irish border – but it suits Brussels and other factions to make it difficult – Leo McKinstry for the Telegraph (£) …as EU prepares to demand indefinite ECJ oversight after Brexit The EU will demand this week that the UK remains subject to European court rulings indefinitely under its Brexit divorce deal, forcing Theresa May into another fraught battle over the writ of Luxembourg judges. Brussels will propose a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement on Wednesday that requires the UK to accept the European Court of Justice as the ultimate arbiter of treaty-related disputes, according to three officials who have seen the text. The uncompromising “governance mechanism”, backed up by sanctions that cut off market access if Britain ignores court rulings, is among a host of potentially explosive political issues included in the 160-paragraph document… Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative MP who chairs the party’s pro-Leave faction, said the Commission plan would turn Britain into a “convict state”. – FT (£) EU stokes Brexit tensions with 100-page draft exit deal – Bloomberg What happens if there is no Brexit withdrawal agreement – David Allen Green for the FT (£) Jeremy Corbyn backs permanent customs union after Brexit… Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed the UK being in a permanent customs union with the EU in a speech setting out his approach to Brexit. He said this would avoid the need for a “hard border” in Northern Ireland and ensure free-flowing trade for business. The policy shift could lead to Labour siding with Tory rebels to defeat Theresa May on her Brexit strategy… In his speech, at Coventry University, Mr Corbyn said Labour would be “looking for a Brexit that puts the working people first”. In a shift from the party’s policy at last year’s general election, he said the UK should strike a new customs deal with the EU at the end of transition. – BBC News > READ: Full text of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on Labour’s Brexit policy Labour plan to keep UK in customs union with EU is ‘an option not a commitment’, says Corbyn’s team – Independent Jeremy Corbyn rejects Brexit ‘fantasies’ in customs union bid – Politico Business lobby groups welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s customs union pledge – Sky News Praise for Jeremy Corbyn from the CBI and the IOD: Are we living in the Matrix? Or Alice in Wonderland? – James Moore for the Independent Corbyn’s customs union plan — what it might mean – Jim Brunsden for the FT (£) Corbyn’s ‘customs union’ traps UK in economic limbo without solving Irish border – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph (£) Corbyn wants to have his Brexit cake, with hard Left cherries on top – and eat it – Janet Daley for the Telegraph (£) Barry Gardiner’s words come back to haunt him – Steerpike Welsh Labour leader in USA seeking free trade deal – Guido Fawkes > David Scullion on BrexitCentral: Jeremy Corbyn and the driverless trade policy > Brendan Chilton on BrexitCentral: There is nothing socialist, internationalist or Labour about the EU’s Customs Union > WATCH: Corbyn’s speech on an EU customs union (full) …with Liam Fox set to brand Corbyn’s proposal as a “complete sellout” of the UK national interest… Staying in a customs union with the EU after Brexit would be a “complete sellout of Britain’s national interests,” Liam Fox will say Tuesday, in a challenge to Labour and rebel Conservative MPs hoping to alter the government’s Brexit course… A customs union, Fox will say, would not only limit the U.K.’s ability to reach new trade agreements with non-EU countries — the cornerstone of the government’s “Global Britain” agenda — but would also leave the U.K. forced to accept “EU trade rules without any say in how they were made” and would limit the U.K.’s international development agenda by blocking efforts to help “the world’s poorest nations trade their way out of poverty,” he will claim. “As rule takers, without any say in how the rules were made, we would be in a worse position than we are today. It would be a complete sellout of Britain’s national interests,” he will say, according to pre-briefed extracts from his speech to be given at Bloomberg’s London office. – Politico Liam Fox to warn of customs union ‘sell out’ – BBC News Globetrotter Liam Fox to slam Jeremy Corbyn’s customs union bid – Sky News Liam Fox says being in an EU customs union would be ‘a complete sell-out of Britain’s national interests’ – Independent Liam Fox tells Tory rebels that Britain staying in the EU customs union will restrict trade deals – The Sun Liam Fox attacks business lobby groups including CBI over support for Labour – The Times (£) David Davis: Labour selling ‘snake oil’ Brexit – Politico Here’s some of the high street savings we can make after Brexit – if Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t become PM – The Sun Is Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to stay in a customs union with the EU realistic? – Alison McGovern vs Diane James for City A.M. Corbyn’s speech: savvy politics and impossible promises – Olivia Utley for Reaction Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit plan is just as fantastical as Theresa May’s – Sean O’Grady for the Independent As predicted, Corbyn offers a moon-on-a-stick Brexit – Mark Wallace for ConservativeHome Labour is no longer ‘for the many’ – Brendan O’Neill for the Spectator Jeremy Corbyn’s great betrayal – Tom Slater for spiked Jeremy Corbyn has betrayed Labour’s Brexit voters — which may prove politically fatal for him – The Sun says Labour’s custom union plan: realistic and smart – Guardian editorial Jeremy Corbyn’s welcome shift on the customs union – FT editorial (£) > David Paton on BrexitCentral: Corbyn’s customs union plan is bizarre: what on earth is he thinking? …as Tory rebels snub Corbyn’s “white flag” plan Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the plan would reduce Britain to a “colony” of the EU and we would be “unable to take back control of our borders or our trade policy”. He tweeted: “White flag from Labour before talks even begin.” …Mr Corbyn urged Tory rebels to back his plan and defeat the Government in an upcoming Commons battle to keep Britain within the EU’s trading rules. But they snubbed his appeal to work with him to defeat the Government’s plans for no customs union with the EU. Tory MP Heidi Allen said: “We won’t go near anything in Corbyn’s name.” Another rebel said: “None of us intend to work with Corbyn.” – The Sun Tory Remainers dial down the rhetoric – Katy Balls for the Spectator Pro-EU Tory faction to join Labour on Brexit in threat to May – FT (£) Rumour about May’s customs union stance excites Remainers – Isabel Hardman for the Spectator Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit plan hasn’t gone down well in Labour’s heartlands – Daily Mirror Labour ‘weaponises’ Brexit to win votes from EU migrants – The Times (£) Corbyn’s Brexit gamble risks alienating core supporters – FT (£) Jeremy Corbyn calculates that Brexit supporters don’t really care about free trade deals – Faisal Islam for Sky News How Jeremy Corbyn changed Britain’s Brexit landscape – Charlie Cooper and Tom McTague for Politico Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit shift shows he’s more determined than ever to seize power – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Corbyn’s new Brexit stance is a ploy to get him into No. 10 – Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail One whiff of No. 10 and all of a sudden Corbyn wants a customs union – John Crace for the Guardian Why Jeremy Corbyn’s big Brexit curveball could mean trouble for Theresa May – Dan Bloom for the Daily Mirror Flash car but speech sputters – Patrick Kidd for The Times (£) Rees-Mogg and Corbyn, the odd couple who will decide May’s fate – Rachel Sylvester for The Times (£) Tory rebels should not let themselves become pawns in Corbyn’s cynical plan to bring down the Government – William Hague for the Telegraph (£) Corbyn is playing politics with his views on the customs union and seeking to split the Tories. They should unite against him – Times editorial (£) Corbyn’s Brexit move is transparently cynical. Tory rebels should not fall for it – Telegraph editorial (£) Brexit trade deal with US ‘close to dead on arrival’ if UK sticks to EU rules Britain’s hopes of signing a post-Brexit trade deal with America would be close to “dead on arrival” if it continued to follow EU rules and joined any form of customs union, a former US negotiator has warned. Warren Maruyama, who developed the North Atlantic Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under President George H.W Bush, said the UK faced a “big problem” if it went into future trade talks while bound by EU regulations on food standards… The warning came as Jeremy Corbyn revealed that a Labour government would forge a “new and comprehensive” customs union with the EU, suggesting the UK would not be able to sign its own trade agreements… But Mr Maruyama, who now works for law firm Hogan Lovells in Washington, said such an approach would leave the UK “stuck with restrictive policies.” – Telegraph (£) Australian High Commissioner warns against contracting out trade policy to EU – Guido Fawkes Michael Gove vows to take £150 million from fat-cat landowners and invest for struggling farmers Michael Gove last night vowed to take £150 million from fat-cat landowners and hand it to struggling farmers from 2021 in a bumper ‘Brexit dividend’. The Environment Secretary revealed plans to carve up the £3 billion the EU currently hands to UK landowners and farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy the moment a post-Brexit transition phase ends. In the first year, up to £150 million of ‘direct payments’ will be taken from the biggest landowners and given to the farmers tackling floods, investing in animal welfare or opening up land for footpaths. This pot of “public money for public goods” will then grow over subsequent years. Insiders confirmed the Government would continue paying a total of £3 billion-worth of direct payments to the agricultural sector until the next Election in 2022 – as promised in last year’s Tory Manifesto. An ‘agricultural transition period’ would continue for a “number of years” after that to help British farmers plan for a post-Brexit future. – The Sun Gove’s plan to cut subsidies for landowners – The Times (£) New NFU President says farmers will not accept lower welfare and hygiene standards under any post-Brexit trade deals and will fight to remain as part of a customs union – Guardian European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi calls for end to clearing dispute before Brexit The European Central Bank (ECB) president demanded a central role in the supervision of clearing central counterparties (CCPs), yet struck a more conciliatory tone than some European politicians who want the industry to be uprooted from London. Draghi, speaking to the European Parliament, made it clear that he sees Brexit as a reason for the EU to speed up the passage of regulations which will give the ECB far-reaching powers over clearing houses in London and beyond… The rules are currently being discussed in the European Parliament, and could pass as soon as the end of the year. Draghi took a softer line on the threat of relocation to the EU, but the possibility nevertheless remains, according to Chris Arnold, a partner at law firm Mayer Brown. – City A.M. William Hague: Tory rebels should not let themselves become pawns in Corbyn’s cynical plan to bring down the Government I suggest there are three questions for the MPs concerned to ask of themselves. The first is: are the others with whom I will be voting also putting country before party, or are they engaged in a cynical manoeuvre of their own? Here, the evidence is hardly encouraging. Labour spokesmen were prepared to say customs union membership was impossible until they decided to be in favour of it for tactical reasons. Their aim is to use Tory rebels as human torpedoes, gloriously sacrificed in an attack on the battleship May. The second is: will this issue make a decisive difference? …[I]f the position of the two parties on Brexit is so similar in reality, is it worth it? …The third is: what could be the consequences? … [Corbyn’s] arrival in No 10 with John McDonnell next door would do incalculably more damage to the British economy than Brexit could ever do. Tory MPs who set off a chain of events leading to that would never be forgiven. So if I were an MP minded to rebel on a customs union, I would state my case of course. But then I would draw back, rather than be used as a means of installing a ruinous socialism in the leadership of Britain. – Lord Hague for the Telegraph (£) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Corbyn’s ‘customs union’ traps UK in economic limbo without solving Irish border Jeremy Corbyn’s plan for a customs union with the EU does not overcome the strategic headache of the Irish border and would undoubtedly bind Britain’s hands with onerous conditions, trade experts have warned… “This is not going to solve the Irish border question,” said Professor Lorand Bartels, a trade lawyer at Cambridge University and senior counsel at Linklaters. “A customs union in itself does not do anything about the issue of ‘regulatory alignment’. The only way to avoid that is going back to something resembling the single market. You might as well go all the way,” he said… Labour assumes it can improve on Turkey’s “asymmetric” custom arrangement with the EU, which leaves Turkey in limbo each time the EU strikes a fresh trade deal with a third country such as South Korea, Canada, or soon Japan. “The view in Brussels is that it is not possible to involve third countries in its trade deals. The EU is always in the driving seat in the Turkish relationship,” said Professor Andre Sapir from the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels… The only reason the Turks ever accepted such harsh terms is because they were trying to join the EU and the headache was supposed to be temporary… What is odd is that Mr Corbyn is talking about the arrangement as a permanent model. – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph (£) Leo McKinstry: It’s simple, nobody wants a hard Irish border – but it suits Brussels and other factions to make it difficult Brussels, the Republic of Ireland and Britain’s own Remain lobby have all seized on the question of the Irish border as a political weapon with which to thwart Brexit… Obviously Brussels has an interest in exaggerating the difficulties of Brexit. The Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is likewise seeking to boost the popularity of his Fine Gael party, especially among nationalists, who always appreciate a confrontation with Britain… It is these forces which have inflated the Irish question to such swollen prominence – not because it is especially knotty or difficult… In practice, there is already a currency, fiscal and VAT border between Northern Ireland and the Republic that operates without any difficulties because of mutual trust. Why should it not continue? Nor should the Project Fear-style nonsense about a return to violence be taken too seriously. The Troubles, which were at their peak in the early 1970s, had absolutely nothing to do with economics and there is no appetite for their return. – Leo McKinstry for the Telegraph (£) John Harris: If the elite ever cared about the have-nots, that didn’t last long Back in 2016, it was briefly fashionable to feign interest in at least some of the places that voted for Brexit and Trump and argue that people with so-called progressive politics ought to think about their problems. But in some quarters, the “in” thing is now a sour, dismissive attitude to millions of people and their supposed complaints. The underlying worldview is simple: whatever the economic context, one part of society is seen as racist, stupid, nostalgic, and brimming with senseless emotion, while another is logical, enlightened and forward-thinking and, despite the fact that the era of alleged rationalism that has now been overturned brought us such disasters as the Iraq war and a huge economic crash, the modern nightmare boils down to the fact that the first group are suddenly in charge. For some people at least, Brexit is now a pretext for simply standing back and smugly scoffing at the fate of the places where a majority of people voted for it. – John Harris for the Guardian Leave voters get a visceral reaction but should still reach out to Remainers – Lucy Harris for spiked Brexit comment in brief It’s time we were told how Brexit Britain intends to be a big hitter on the world stage – Anand Menon for the Telegraph (£) Brexit represents a drastic blow to younger people and must be stopped – Lara Spirit for The Times (£) These anti-democratic youths don’t speak for me – Emily Dinsmore for spiked Why the Netherlands is rejecting referendums – Tony Barber for the FT (£) Brexit news in brief Juncker accused of cronyism over role in aide’s promotion – The Times (£) EU fury as Juncker’s right-hand man given Brussels top job – Express Migrants to Germany must “integrate or face consequences”, Angela Merkel tells party faithful – The Times (£) Churchill’s pint of champagne set for post-Brexit revival – The Times (£) Eurocrats mocked for bizarre boast that the EU would have won the Winter Olympics if it had been a single team – The Sun