Brexit Secretary David Davis expects parliamentary ‘ping pong’ over Article 50 Brexit could be delayed by the House of Lords, David Davis warned today as he played down expectations that Theresa May will trigger the official process for leaving the EU at next month’s EU summit. The Prime Minister had been expected to invoke Article 50 – the formal process for cutting ties with Brussels – on March 9 after the Government set a target date to pass the necessary legislation through Parliament of March 7. But today Mr Davis, the Brexit Secretary, said he did not ‘recognise’ the March 9 target date. – Daily Mail Lib Dem peer is confident Lords could achieve Brexit bill amendments Dick Newby, the leader of the Lib Dems in the Lords, said he was confident that enough peers would back amendments on issues such as the rights of EU citizens and parliamentary votes on the final Brexit deal to defeat the government and force a rethink… Newby said he expected around 230 Labour and Lib Dem peers to back an amendment on EU citizens, as well as most of the crossbenchers and at least two Tory peers. With a number of Tory peers also expected to abstain, he said those numbers should easily defeat the government. – The Guardian David Davis is confident that the Government will stick to its timetable At a news conference in Stockholm, Davis was asked whether he expected Prime Minister Theresa May to deliver the Article 50 letter, which will start divorce negotiations with the EU, at an EU summit in Brussels on March 9-10. “The 9th or 10th is not a date I recognize in terms of our timetable. What we have said is by the end of March, sometime during March,” he said. – Business Insider Brexit Secretary plays down idea of a ‘Leaving Fee’ Pressed on the possibility of the UK facing a Brexit fee, reportedly up to €60 billion (£51 billion), Mr Davis said: “We are a law abiding nation, we meet our responsibilities but we are going into a negotiation, so you would not expect me to respond immediately to that. We want to have a mutually beneficial long-term outcome and if we have a mutually beneficial long-term outcome I believe all issues can be resolved.” – Daily Telegraph Our EU bill is set to soar by a third to more than £10bn in the final two years before Brexit Britain’s contribution to the EU budget is to soar by almost a third – just before the country formally cuts ties with Brussels. Official figures slipped out by the Treasury reveal that the UK’s net contribution to the bloc will jump in the final two years before Brexit. Britain’s net payment of £7.9billion to the EU budget this financial year will rise to £8.1billion in 2017/18, before reaching £10.2billion in 2018/19. – Daily Mail EU negotiator slams UK for wrecking Winston Churchill’s legacy after Brexit win In an extraordinary blast, the Liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt declared the WWII leader would have voted “Remain” during a debate by MEPs on the future of the EU. Provoking a chorus of outrage from Leave campaigners, the former Belgian PM even declared the Tories were “openly pro-European” in the post war era. Addressing fellow MEPs, he said: “The Eurosceptics in this house can twist and turn the words from the British Bulldog all they want. “It is a fact that they have professionally squandered Winston Churchill’s legacy.” – Sun Northern Ireland will not have a special status post-Brexit, says James Brokenshire Northern Ireland will not be given a special status after the UK leaves the EU, but the British government will seek arrangements that take the “unique circumstances” on the island of Ireland into account, Northern Secretary James Brokenshire has said. “I think when people have used the term ‘special status’, that in part implies that Northern Ireland remains within the European Union,” he said in an interview with The Irish Times. – Irish Times Interview with the Northern Ireland Secretary Britain in pole position to secure ‘preferential’ post-Brexit trade deal with Canada Britain is in pole position for a post-Brexit trade agreement with Canada according to the Canadian Minister for International Trade, François-Philippe Champagne. Importantly the deal does not include the free movement of people and does not pay any money to the European Commission. David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, said: “We can pick up the almost complete agreement between the EU and Canada, and if anything liberalise it. “Lourdes Catrain, from the law firm Hogan Lovells, said: “One would expect it to be easier for the UK to have preferential market access with Canada if it managed to inherit the complicated negotiations that have been going on for a number of years and, let’s remember, that the UK played an integral part in”. – Daily Express 13 things you didn’t know about Brexit A €10 billion budget black hole, more than 20,000 laws and regulations, 1,800 Brits on the EU payroll… and countless other issues. All to be resolved in just two years. Those are just some of the figures that emerge from 21 different reports on the impact of Brexit compiled by European Parliament policy committees and obtained by – Politico Vicky Ford MEP: The Canada deal is not the model Brexit negotiations should follow We should hardly be popping celebrating corks if we achieve zero tariffs in a UK/EU trade agreement as today there are already zero tariffs left to cut. It is much more important to look at the so called “non-tariff barriers” which reflect the bureaucratic red tape faced by companies exporting into other markets and to recognise that the level of ease British companies currently have when selling into other EU markets is much much greater than that which is now offered to Canada in CETA.” – Vicky Ford MEP for ConservativeHome > On BrexitCentral this week: David Campbell Bannerman MEP – The EU’s trade deal with Canada – provides an ideal template for a post-Brexit UK-EU deal Paul Ormerod: A tale of two Eurozones: Greater Germany and Club Med are drifting ever further apart In 2009, the two blocs were of very similar overall size. Total output in each was around €5 trillion, with the Club Med group being slightly the larger of the two. Stripping out inflation, output in Greater Germany is now around €700bn higher than it was in 2009, and Club Med has registered an increase of only €100bn. Even removing Greece from the latter makes little difference, given that the Greek economy makes up less than 5 per cent of the Club Med group as a whole. Paul Ormerod for City A.M. Abi Wilkinson: Leave voters are not all idiots – some Londoners still don’t get it I live in London and voted to stay in the EU, but the contempt and ignorance displayed by some remain voters towards those outside the capital appals me… If you write off more than half of the population and wish further hardship on regions that are already struggling, why should those people listen to a word you say? – Abi Wilkinson for The Guardian Alex Hickman: Calm down, Brexit is going to be okay Although I took a sabbatical to work for Vote Leave during last year’s referendum campaign I was never an enthusiastic leaver; it took David Cameron’s unconvincing renegotiation to push me over the line, confirming my impression that the EU dream was now broken, and in order to protect our democracy it was time for the UK to take back control… Alex Hickman for Reaction Brexit comment in brief Professor Pavlos Eleftheriadis: How to Make a Transitional Brexit Arrangement – Oxford University Trevor Fisher: Labour’s Article 50 rebels are the party’s best hope for challenging a hard Tory Brexit – Labour Uncut Brexit vote research shows how social conservatives were more likely to vote Leave – Huffington Post Brexit news in brief Record number of hate crimes reported to police forces after EU referendum- BBC FTSE 100 subdued as UK inflation rises to highest since June 2014 – Daily Telegraph The European Commission is fast losing its standoff with Poland over judicial independence – Politico UK tech sector posts record number of post-Brexit jobs – Recruitment Grapevine Ofcom downplays impact of Brexit – Mobile Today Greek economy suffers surprise contraction at the end of 2016 as Eurogroup chief insists no ‘acute crisis’ – Daily Telegraph