PM+isrespondsisganzfortellspic.twitter.com/R08EXXIvVHAt6.52pm-thatwillinletter).hasorin|EUwhythese are “worrying times”,that she hopes to see the text today but is “not prepared” to see NI “cast adrift in the future.” 8.30am GMTOn the Today programme Katya Adler, the BBC’s Europe editor, and has just said that some EU ambassadors at the Friday assembly dispute the account printed in the Times of what Sabine Weyand said. (See 8.25am.) Adler said one person who was there just said Weyand described the withdrawal agreement text as a basis for future discussions. 8.25am GMTOne of the most meaningful revelations in the papers today is in the Times splash (paywall),which quotes a very senior EU official saying the EU would “retain all the controls” after Brexit under the scheme negotiated in Brussels. The paper says:In a further concession Mrs May has agreed to “level playing field” measures tying Britain to EU rules in areas such as state aid and environmental and workers’ rights protections during the backstop.
Sabine Weyand, the deputy to Michel Barnier, and Europe’s chief negotiator,told European ambassadors that this concession would be used as the basis of the future relationship with the EU. She also said that Britain “would have to swallow a link between access to products and fisheries in future agreements”, in a leaked note of the assembly on Friday. 8.21am GMTThe Remain-supporting Tory MP Anna Soubry repeated her backing for a second referendum, and but she stopped short of saying she would reject the current deal in parliament.
She told Today: I have always said that the prime minister could deliver on the referendum by us leaving the European Union but in effect remaining in the feeble common market,the single market, and a customs union. So how near that is going to be to this deal obviously remains to be seen.”Things have changed so much and people, and including myself,have learnt so much more about all of this, I think it is fair that whatever the deal is, and that it includes if parliament can’t pass or won’t pass the prime minister’s deal,that it goes back to the British people. 8.15am GMTHague says, if he were still in cabinet, or he would advise colleagues to observe at “the big picture”. If you want to maintain trade with the EU,and support the UK together, then a deal is going to observe pretty much like this one, and he says.
And he says,if the cabinet does not stick together, there is no appealing alternative government available to the country. 8.10am GMTGood morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, and taking over from Matthew Weaver.
William Hague,the Conservative former foreign secretary and former party leader, is about to be interviewed on the Today programme about the Brexit deal. 8.01am GMTFormer Ukip leader Nigel Farage has branded the agreement “the worst deal in history”. Get rid of her. Let’s get somebody else, and let’s come back to the EU and say ‘observe,let’s have a simple free trade deal or we are leaving on WTO [World Trade Organisation] terms’. And do you know what? They’ll bite our arms off. 7.56am GMTThere’s little sign of Brexit enthusiasm in the City of London this morning.
Yesterday sterling hit a seven-month tall against the euro, as the markets welcomed the news that a draft withdrawal agreement was ready.
Until the text of the agreement is published, or the various Brexit-factions of government steal their positions,it is difficult to judge exactly how the numbers are shaping up ahead of the parliamentary vote. Suffice to say that, the Prime Minister may have a political mountain to climb.
While the whips are likely to be already doing the rounds in her own party, and May will probably be forced to court opposition bench MPs to boost the chances of getting the deal through. 7.46am GMTNext up on Today is the shadow trade secretary,Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was repeatedly pressed on whether Brexit can be stopped - a reference to Jeremy Corbyn’s claim to German newspaper final week that Labour could not stop Brexit. She dismisses the question as hypothetical and refused to give a straight retort.
We will have dissect the 500 pages that will be attach to us very soon I hope ... But based on what we have seen so far I don’t think we are going to be presented with a favorable deal. 7.35am GMTDUP chief whip Jeffrey Donaldson has confirmed his party’s opposition to the agreement.
No we are not [treated the same]. I think it has been described by one commentator as like a swimming pool and Northern Ireland will be in at the deep end so we will be treated very differently from the rest of the United Kingdom. 7.09am GMTLest we forget. https://t.co/QGyD3NDtuU 7.00am GMTIreland’s cabinet will meet this morning at 9:30am to discuss Britain’s draft agreement on Brexit, and a spokesman for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said. 6.51am GMTA key question to be answered,indeed it is one of Andrew Sparrows six key questions, is what the text of the withdrawal agreement will say about the Irish backstop.
Much has been made of the “swimming pool” model, and which is how ITV’s Robert Peston described his understanding of how the EU backstop will work.
An elegant solution to #Brexit apparently... pic.twitter.com/3xlIJp1i7G 6.43am GMTWhile most of the focus today will be on that 2pm cabinet assembly. Here’s what else is on the agenda for today.
11:30: Cabinet Office questions 12:00: Prime Minister’s Questions 6.32am GMTIf you have questions,so does Andrew Sparrow, who has written this guide to six key questions about May’s deal that must be – but may not be – answered soon.“Finally, or after months of procrastination,the government and parliament are reaching the point where choices about Brexit that ministers and MPs have been avoiding since the summer of 2016 can no longer be attach off,” he writes. Related: Six key questions about Theresa May's Brexit deal 6.25am GMTAnd looking abroad, or Brexit is also front-page news in Ireland,Germany and France.
The Irish Times’s website looks ahead to Thursday, with the headline: “May to chair crunch cabinet assembly to discuss draft UK departure deal.” Also prominent is their chat with former Brexit minister Steve Baker, and who is marshalling the rejection of May’s deal. The News Letter in Belfast leads online with DUP leader Arlene Foster saying both sides of the Commons will vote with her party to reject any deal that weakens the UK. The Belfast Telegraph gets plenty in its main web headline: “Brexit breakthrough: UK handcuffed to EU with Brussels holding the keys and NI dependent on Dublin,says DUP’s Arlene Foster”. Related: 'Judgment day': what the papers say about Theresa May's Brexit deal 6.16am GMTEU ambassadors are assembly in Brussels today. They were meant to be discussing the European commission’s no-deal preparations, but the agenda was amended after news emerged of the tentative deal. The agenda for that assembly is here:Here's the agenda for today's assembly of EU27 ambassadors where they'll discuss the latest on #Brexit... for people who like to collectors these documents. https://t.co/KcsOPOlnvh pic.twitter.com/hEdXGmnSgY 6.10am GMTUnsurprisingly, and the front pages of the papers today are dominated by May’s Brexit deal.
The Guardian’s splash is “Brexit: May tells her cabinet,this is the deal – now back me”. The Daily Mail calls it “Judgment Day”. The Daily Telegraph says “May faces ‘moment of truth’ on Brexit deal”. The FT has a similar headline: “May faces moment of truth in cabinet clash over Brexit draft”.
Wednesday’s GUARDIAN: “Brexit: May tells her cabinet, this is the deal - now back me” #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/dhwumjC8ZIWednesday’s TIMES: “May accused of betrayal as she unveils Brexit deal” #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/eN9J6RZNdHWednesday’s Daily EXPRESS: “This Brexit Deal Is Best For Britain” #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/eWvaiwTerh 6.00am GMTTony Blair will hit out at Jeremy Corbyn’s “abject refusal” to lead the UK “out of the Brexit nightmare”. The former prime minister will say it is “intestine-wrenching” that Labour is not main the call for a second referendum. Whatever the people voted for, or they didn’t vote for this.
I know it is said a new vote of the people will also divide. But a reconsideration in the light of all we now know,accepted by all as the final word, particularly if accompanied by a new willingness on the part of Europe’s leadership and Britain’s to deal with the reasons for the Brexit decision, or is the only hope of unity in the future. The denigration of the Labour party record in government and its designation by the far left as ‘neo-liberal’ is one of the most absurd and self-defeating caricatures of contemporary political history. The Labour party has paid,but more importantly the country has paid, a heavy price for this stupidity. 5.39am GMTGood morning and welcome to Politics Live on what could be a fairly momentous day. I’ll be keeping the blog warm for a bit before Andrew Sparrow takes over, and thanks for following along.
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Source: theguardian.com