Welcome to the Guardian’s weekly Brexit briefing, bringing you the top stories of the past week in Brexitland arranged in a way that might – hopefully – allow you to make some sense of them.
Talking of making sense of Brexit – Brexit: the final deal, a Guardian Live event on 11 October might help. It features Alison McGovern, the Labour MP for Wirral South; Anand Menon, the director of UK in a Changing Europe; Henry Newman of Open Europe; and Adrian O’Neill, Ireland’s ambassador to the UK. The event will be chaired by Heather Stewart, the Guardian’s joint political editor. Here’s the link for tickets.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to receive the briefing as a weekly email, please sign up here. And you can catch up with our relaunched Brexit Means … podcast right here.
Finally, producing the Guardian’s independent, in-depth journalism takes time and money. We do it because we believe our perspective matters and it may be yours, too. If you value our Brexit coverage, please become a Guardian supporter. Thank you.
Top stories
Theresa May comfortably survived the Conservative conference, seeing off Boris Johnson’s challenge to her “outrageous” Chequers plan with a speech that demanded Tory unity on Brexit, “otherwise we will end up with no Brexit at all”.
The PM didn’t mention Chequers – an omission that gave the chief EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, hope the UK might relax its red lines. That, however, seems unlikely: May again demanded “frictionless trade” with the EU after Brexit.
That’s a problem, first, because it is impossible as long as Britain is intent on leaving the single market and customs union, and, second, because a “political declaration” on the future EU-UK relationship is part of the withdrawal agreement, which cannot be signed without it.
To help secure a deal by November, the EU hinted at some post-Brexit trade flexibility if the UK’s red lines do shift. But May’s spokesman has stressed no withdrawal agreement can be reached without a “precise” political declaration guaranteeing frictionless post-Brexit relations – and “big issues” remain to be resolved.
The political declaration is fast-becoming as big a Brexit stumbling block as the Ireland border (on that, the Irish PM urged May to publish new proposals “as soon as possible” and the EU wants to see them by the middle of this week).
In a reminder that the EU27 are not the UK’s only awkward customers, the DUP (on whom May’s majority depends) said they would pull the plug on her government if Brexit brought a border down the Irish Sea, and the SNP said it would vote against any deal that took the UK out of the single market and customs union.
There was anger, too, from the EU at Britain’s planned new immigration rules: a single system treating migrants from EU and non-EU countries equally.
And economic warnings of the horrors of a bad Brexit continued thick and fast: from RBS and the carmakers Nissan, Toyota and BMW (which Emmanuel Macron is trying to lure to France), as well as the British music industry, which fears imprisonment in a “cultural jail”.
What next?
Observers are stressing that even if goodwill and very careful wording means next week’s summit somehow overcomes the Ireland problem, heralding a special November gathering that would, in theory, sign off on a withdrawal deal, the tricky bit for May will be getting it past the British parliament afterwards.
Tory whips are so concerned about the number of Labour, SNP, DUP and hardline Toriy MPs that may oppose a deal that they have been secretly wooing key Labour MPs, arguing that the country would be better served avoiding a no-deal Brexit than forcing a general election by defeating the government.
Best of the rest
Japanese PM Shinzō Abe says Britain would lose its role as a gateway to Europe after Brexit but will be welcomed into the Pacific free trade pact.
EU citizens could face repeat of Windrush scandal, say landlords.
Brexit anxiety for businesses “at highest since referendum”.
“Fog of Brexit has had massive bearing on energy bills,” says supplier.
Nicola Sturgeon clears way for SNP MPs to back second EU referendum.
Robert Peston: BBC not impartial during EU referendum campaign.
Juncker: British media disrespect human rights of politicians.
Millionaire refuses to take down “Bollocks to Brexit” poster.
Liam Fox gives Theresa May’s Brexit plans qualified endorsement.
UK house prices fall sharply in September amid Brexit wariness.
Cataclysm of Brexit “could lead to Welsh independence”.
Thomas Cook rules out compensation for no-deal Brexit disruption.
UK Brexit bill could rise as EU reveals record spending promises.
Watchdog criticises HMRC delay in advising small firms on Brexit.
Tesco could stockpile food after Christmas to prepare for no-deal Brexit.
Top comment
In the Guardian, Anne Perkins reckons a Dad’s Army-style Brexit is looming, with sentimental versions of our island story a handicap when it comes to deciding Britain’s future:
The Dad’s Army narrative, just like the idea of a return to the Elizabethan era popular among Brexiters, reinforces the myth that Britain prospers best when she stands alone. Worse, it reinforces the dangerous chasm in outlook between generations. To most people under 50, the Dad’s Army school of all-white, all-male British history just looks weird. Millennials, the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of peace and prosperity, don’t think like that at all. They, or at least many of their friends, have multiple identities and ideas of home.
Simon Jenkins argues that despite all the fury over Brexit, if we really have to leave the EU voters must force MPs to come together on the things that matter:
All my life, I have never known politics to engage public debate as completely as has Brexit. That said, I now detect a sense of panic. What have we done, and what can we do about it? The crucial question – what did voters really mean by Brexit? – gets no answer. There were always two stages to Brexit, the referendum and its implementation. The first was for voters, the second for parliament. But with MPs dithering and squabbling and fighting for ambition, voters must sustain their sovereignty. They cannot rely on Britain’s corroded political parties. They must keep thinking – and shouting for compromise.
Top tweet
It happened, what’s more. There are pics of dogs peeing on a photo of Nigel Farage all over the internet:
Anti-Brexit campaigners are planning to march on parliament accompanied by up to 5,000 dogs to hound Prime Minister Theresa May into holding a second referendum on EU membershiphttps://t.co/DyD4CNOC0z
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 4, 2018
