Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May hits back at EU’s jibes over Brexit negotiations Downing Street has called for the EU to ditch “soundbites and negative anonymous briefings” in Brexit talks – days after Brussels accused the UK of “chasing a fantasy” and playing “hide and seek”… Downing Street delivered a strident response to those comments on Tuesday, declaring Brexit negotiations needed to be approached “with the interests of citizens at heart”. The prime minister’s official spokesman added: “That means focusing on holding constructive talks inside the negotiating room. We also need to be constructive outside of the room, which means looking beyond sound bites and negative anonymous briefings.” – Sky News Theresa May blasts EU’s ‘negative briefing’ over Brexit divorce bill – The Sun Anti-Brexit tycoon George Soros says EU faces ‘existential crisis’ as he prepares to launch anti-Brexit manifesto Anti-Brexit billionaire George Soros has urged the EU to “transform itself into an association that countries like Britain would want to join”… He warned the EU was “facing an existential crisis” on several fronts. Mr Soros said the Best for Britain campaign to halt Brexit would launch its “manifesto” within days… The campaign is set to launch its manifesto “in the next few days”, said Mr Soros in his speech. “Best for Britain fought for, and helped to win, a meaningful parliamentary vote which includes the option of not leaving at all. This would be good for Britain but would also render Europe a great service by rescinding Brexit and not creating a hard-to-fill hole in the European budget.” – BBC News Italian political crisis spooks Europe as George Soros warns of existential threat to EU – City A.M. Soros-backed campaign to push for new Brexit vote within a year – Guardian George Soros to launch bid for second Brexit referendum – The Times (£) George Soros: Campaign for second Brexit referendum about to start – Politico Labour MPs’ fear of Brexit voters could be unfounded, Best for Britain study claims – Guardian Labour’s leader in Brussels sparks anger by saying party is open to ‘reconsidering Brexit’ In comments vehemently dismissed by Jeremy Corbyn’s office, Richard Corbett insisted Labour was open to “reconsidering” the Brexit vote. He claimed the party’s frontbench had not yet ruled out a fresh national poll to allow voters a second chance on staying in the EU. The remarks come with Mr Corbyn yet to formally decide the party’s stance when the Government’s EU Withdrawal Bill finally comes back to the Commons next month… In an interview published on his own website, Mr Corbett claimed there was a “growing clamour” for a second EU referendum vote… A Labour spokesman yesterday insisted a second referendum wasn’t party policy. He added: “We respect the result.” Conservative Party chair Brandon Lewis said: “Labour are only interested in frustrating Brexit. The fact such a senior Labour figure is openly speculating about reversing Brexit entirely shows they do not respect the referendum result, and they couldn’t deliver the change British people voted for.” – The Sun UK free to choose to rejoin EU in 30 years time, says Jacob Rees-Mogg The leading Eurosceptic said any decision to reverse Brexit “would be a matter for the electorate”. However, he said the result of the 2016 EU referendum “must be respected and it must be implemented” as he resisted calls for the Government’s Brexit deal to be put to a “people’s vote”. Meanwhile, he expressed caution about UK officials being invited to take part in a new round of EU budget negotiations for the period up to 2027… “If in 30 years’ time the UK wants to rejoin that would be a matter for the electorate then but this result must be respected and it must be implemented otherwise we would find our democracy held in as much contempt as that in Greece and Italy by the European Union.” – Telegraph EU member states invite Britain to remain in Brussels’ budget negotiations as Brexiteers fear plot to thwart ‘clean’ exit – Telegraph Brussels slammed as Italy’s political crisis deepens Brussels was yesterday blamed for Italy’s political crisis which threatened to bring down the Eurozone. Shares and bond markets plunged after Italian President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the appointment of a Eurosceptic finance minister in a new anti-establishment coalition. The coalition partners, populist 5-Star and far-right Lega Nord, claimed Eurocrats were behind the move and pointed the finger at Brussels… Amid the turmoil, the Euro crashed to a six and a half month low against the Dollar. And European commissioner Guenther Oettinger intensified anger by saying the crisis would teach Italians not to vote for populist parties next time. 5-Star called for him to resign and said it was a glaring example of the “obvious manipulations that Italian democracy has suffered”. Leader Luigi Di Maio said new elections were now inevitable and tore into EU chiefs. He declared: “These people treat Italy as a summer colony to come and spend the holidays. But in a few months we’ll have a government of change that Europe will finally respect.” – The Sun Brussels in political crisis as EU chief faces calls to quit after telling Italians they should learn to vote for the right candidates – The Sun EU Commissioner Oettinger apologises after sparking storm with comments that markets would tell Italians how to vote – Politico EU budget chief apologises after ‘disrespectful’ Italy remarks spark fury across Europe – Express Italian crisis sends shudders through markets and may undermine EU – The Times (£) The markets — not voters — will decide if Italy stays in the Eurozone – Erik Jones for Politico Europe’s fragility is exposed again – Rodney Jefferson and Patrick Donahue for Bloomberg Clamour for change may well become unstoppable – Bruno Waterfield for The Times (£) The Italian public are outraged by snub to the wishes of the electorate amid political turmoil – Matthew Goodwin for The Sun Mattarella has a point – Paul Goodman for ConservativeHome Wake up, Europe! – Henry Newman for Reaction The EU has already lost the UK – it could lose Italy too – James Holland for CapX Boost foreign secretary’s powers, says Tom Tugendhat The Foreign Office needs “more authority” if the UK is to maximise its international influence after Brexit, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat has said. The department should regain “strategic control” over trade, defence, aid and intelligence as well as diplomacy, Mr Tugendhat – who is chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee – argued. Boris Johnson and his predecessors had found themselves “hobbled”, he said… Although Mr Johnson remains a vocal advocate for Brexit, the process is being handled by other departments rather than the Foreign Office, leading to suggestions he has been marginalised. – BBC News Give Boris Johnson more power and control of £100bn budget, urges Tory MP – Sky News The Foreign Office needs more heft and to be able to speak on behalf of the government – Sebastian Payne for the FT (£) Ruth Davidson urges May to drop migration target Ruth Davidson has renewed her call for the UK government to scrap its ambition of cutting immigration to the “tens of thousands”. In a speech in Glasgow, the Scottish Conservative leader said the target “has never been met and does not fit the requirements of the country”… Ms Davidson told her audience at Glasgow University: “We should have the confidence to recognise that people from other nations wanting to come to our country is a sign of our success as a vibrant, prosperous culture… Setting an immigration target reduced to the tens of thousands is one thing when unemployment is running over 8%. Refusing to review it when the country nears full employment and sectors are reporting skills shortages is quite another. Even if that target were to stay, I see no reason why overseas students should be included within the numbers counted”. – BBC News Put NHS before tax cuts, Ruth Davidson warns Tories – The Times (£) Tories ‘must unite’ over Brexit trade deal, says Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies – BBC News SNP minister claims Brexit could turn Scottish farms into moss and bracken – despite having responsibility to design subsidy scheme himself The SNP’s farming minister has claimed Brexit could wipe out farming from swathes of Scotland despite being told it is his responsibility to design a new subsidy regime. Fergus Ewing, the Scottish Rural Affairs Minister, said Michael Gove’s plan to replace the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in England would be “catastrophic” if applied north of the Border and turn many hill farms into “moss, bracken and weeds.” But Lord Duncan of Springbank, a Scotland Office Minister, told a landowners’ conference in Edinburgh that the responsibility for designing the new payment system north of the Border lies entirely with Mr Ewing… Lord Duncan said SNP ministers are keeping their UK counterparts in the dark about whether they are doing the “heavy lifting” behind the scenes on a new system. He challenged them to start working “hand in hand” rather than “hand on throat.” – Telegraph (£) Dr Graham Gudgin & John Mills: HMRC customs bill for Brexit overstated by as much as £18bn The HMRC’s overall cost estimate of around £20 billion seems hugely inflated. Other studies would support this conclusion: Swiss customs have estimated the costs of running their customs systems at 0.1% of GDP. That’s a tenth of the HMRC figure. A World Bank study has customs clearance costs per container of $138-$212, equivalent to 1% of a container with contents valued at £15,000… Applying the same 1% to the total value of UK goods trade with the EU (imports plus exports) would give a total cost of £3.6 billion. However, if firms are already submitting invoices and VAT returns for trade with the EU, then the additional burden may in practice be only a proportion of this. A reasonable estimate might be total costs around £2 billion, which is one tenth of the HMRC estimate. What is certain is that no government policy decisions should be made on the basis of shoddy calculations without formal papers which are open to scrutiny from trade experts and businesses with practical experience of trading across borders. – Dr Graham Gudgin and John Mills for Reaction Jacob Rees-Mogg: The EU needs our cash — if Theresa May is strong, we will get a good Brexit deal Some faint-hearted, timorous souls, who mainly backed Remain, feel that reiterating “no deal is better than a bad deal” and that we could walk away while keeping our money, may upset our negotiating partners. It is about time they were upset, and we put pressure back on them. Managing decline and being fearful of shadows will not provide the best Brexit result and in the end the matter is simple. They need our money, especially between March 2019 and December 2020, and we would like a trade deal. These two are umbilically linked and no one in their right mind would want to pay £39billion for nothing. – Jacob Rees-Mogg MP for The Sun Andrew Lilico: May’s disastrous handling of Brexit will set us back decades May’s initial period in office involved three disastrous errors. First, she refused to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK to live and work here indefinitely post-Brexit. Next, she did not simply say that, after triggering Article 50, we would proceed with trade negotiations with non-EU countries and that any attempt to interfere with that would be regarded as an Unfriendly Act that would mean we would no longer exit via Article 50. Third, she made the Brexit negotiations the centrepiece of her political programme. This error is so insidious that to many not be immediately obvious why it is a mistake. The attitude we should have adopted is something like this: “We aren’t leaving the EU in order to do a deal with the EU. There will of course be some kind of deal with the EU over trade and security matters…” Let the technocrats sort it out. Instead, May made the Brexit negotiations the main political issue. She also made lots of things that should have been simply said once and moved on from into a large political debate. Why on earth are we still debating whether we should leave the EU’s Customs Union? How can we be in a position where the UK government’s stated policy is that it wants to remain in the European Arrest Warrant? – Andrew Lilico for CapX Norman Lamont: Italy is yet more proof that Brussels only believes in democracy when it produces the ‘correct’ result Given the disdain for democracy that is regularly displayed by Europe’s political class, the deepening political crisis in Italy is all too predictable. Yet again, we are seeing the pro-Brussels establishment showing that it will not tolerate any challenge to its project of political integration. In the mindset of the governing elite, the European orthodoxy must prevail, even when it means riding roughshod over the wishes of voters. That domineering mentality lies at the heart of the drama in Italy, the Eurozone’s third- largest economy, where a coalition with widespread public support has effectively been barred from office because of Eurosceptic views. – Lord Lamont for the Daily Mail The Sun: The EU is the enemy of democracy — its contempt for voters will prove its downfall Who do the clowns in Brussels think they are kidding? Donald Tusk tells EU institutions to “respect voters” they are “there to serve”. Jean-Claude Juncker claims “only the Italians will decide on the future of their country” — a staggeringly blatant deceit, even for a self-confessed habitual liar. The Italians were robbed of the eurosceptic government they voted for by a president doing Brussels’ dirty work. The EU has trampled on every inconvenient vote from Ireland to Denmark to France. Its lavishly-funded Remainer stooges aim to do the same with Brexit. How does Brussels think this all ends? If Brexit is negated there will be a collapse of faith in democracy and probable civil unrest beyond anyone’s experience. In Italy, eurosceptic parties will now have an even bigger mandate. What then? The EU meets any dissent not with wise compromise but with brute force. It is the enemy of democracy. Its contempt for voters will prove its epitaph. – The Sun says Cummings is right about voter backlash against a Brexit betrayal – James Frayne for The Sun Brexit in brief VAT: Brexit’s hidden border dilemma – Chris Giles for the FT (£) Snoek signals: May must learn from history or face a fishy fate – Bill Esterson MP for The Times (£) New series of coins to commemorate Brexit backed by the Treasury – The Sun New EU GDPR data laws ‘open firms to extortion by hackers’ – The Times (£) Wetherspoon boss urges Theresa May to prepare for a ‘no deal’ Brexit as she is accused of being ‘incompetent and weak’ – The Sun Legatum Institute calls time on its EU research – The Times (£) UBS hires former European Commissioner Lord Hill to advise clients – Telegraph EU tightens law on foreign temporary workers – BBC News Food safety may be put at risk by Brexit, council body warns – Guardian Some British MEPs in European Parliament set to miss out on being able to pass legislation they have worked on – Politico