EU rejects Government’s plans for leaving the Customs Union…

“The EU has comprehensively rejected British proposals for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland in a move which will cast serious doubt on the UK’s ability to leave the customs union, The Telegraph has learned. Senior EU diplomatic sources said that Mrs May’s plan for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland was subjected to a “systematic and forensic annihilation” this week at a meeting between senior EU officials and Olly Robbins, the UK’s lead Brexit negotiator. “It was a detailed and forensic rebuttal,” added the source who was directly briefed on the meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. “It was made clear that none of the UK’s customs options will work. None of them.” The demolition of the UK’s Brexit customs policy, set out by Mrs May in her Mansion House speech last month, came after five rounds of technical negotiations in Brussels.” – Daily Telegraph

• Remain Tory MPs to force vote on the Customs Union – Daily Mail
• Angry ministers urge May to sack pro-EU peers from plum jobs – The Sun

Comment:

• Freedom from any customs union is vital – John Longworth and John Mills, Daily Telegraph
• A second Brexit vote would tear Britain apart – Martin Wolf, FT
• Lords have cracked the Brexit dam, MPs could burst it – Asa Bennett, Daily Telegraph

>Today: Henry Newman in Comment: Even if the Government concedes on an EU customs union, membership of it looks unsustainable. Here’s why.

…as UK sets out demands for ‘bespoke deal’

“Britain has set out its demands for a bespoke Brexit deal with “breadth and depth” to be agreed with the European Union by October. In the first meeting between British and European officials on the future relationship, Oliver Robbins, Theresa May’s chief Brexit negotiator, said that the UK needed a detailed and substantive agreement that set out the future trade and economic partnership. Mr Robbins said that Britain was prepared to negotiate on a labour mobility and immigration regime. Other areas would be a customs partnership and “level playing field” procedures to ensure regulatory alignment in areas such as agriculture.Senior government sources said that ministers were considering whether to publish their own “draft” agreement to outline Britain’s approach and set the agenda.” – The Times

• Patel warns ministers to stop EU ‘skewing’ financial settlement – Daily Telegraph
• National Audit Office warns that divorce bill could rise – Daily Express
• Brexit details are taking too long, warns City chief – FT

More:

• Expats sue to overturn the referendum – The Times
• Brexit cases piling up at the Court of Justice – Daily Telegraph
• European Investment Bank pulls back on UK funding – FT
• Brussels blow to Gove’s plastics ban – Daily Telegraph

Comment:

• In a golden age of political arrogance, Cameron is king – Rafael Behr, The Guardian
• No regrets? Cameron should be more honest – Jane Merrick, Times Red Box

>Yesterday: Sam Hall in Think Tanks: How the UK could lead the Commonwealth on climate change

Cabinet split over Rudd’s handling of the immigration issue

“Amber Rudd is at the centre of a new cabinet row over delays to Britain’s post-Brexit immigration policy. The home secretary is being pressed by Brexit-supporting ministers to speed up a bill that is supposed to settle the new immigration system after Britain leaves the EU in March next year. The dispute comes as the Windrush scandal exposes a faultline between Theresa May and those, including Ms Rudd, who want a softer policy on immigration. Ms Rudd said last month that the immigration bill would not be introduced until early next year – the latest in a series of delays. She also declined to confirm that she was aiming to hit the Tories’ target of reducing annual net migration to beneath 100,000 by the time of the 2022 election.” – The Times

• Scandal blows post-Brexit immigration plans off course – The Sun
• Civil service union hits back at Home Secretary over blame – The Guardian
• Home Office culture grew ‘especially harsh’ under May – FT
• Gove says UK offers ‘warmest welcome’ to foreigners – The Sun

More:

• Fury as Kerslake compares UK immigration policy to the Nazis – Daily Mail
• Migration into Scotland falls after EU vote – The Scotsman

Editorial:

• Peer who compared UK to Nazi Germany is an idiot – The Sun

Fraser Nelson: May has missed an opportunity to dispel the idea of ‘drawbridge Britain’

“To those in the Windrush generation fearing a knock on the door from immigration police, or to Czech nurses still waiting to be told if they can stay after Brexit, it will seem that a theme is emerging. That the Prime Minister’s real agenda is not to go global but to raise the drawbridge as her country turns in on itself. This week ought to have provided the perfect chance to cast off this image as the heads of the Commonwealth assembled in London. But the newspapers they carried had news of how citizens from the Commonwealth, invited to Britain decades ago, are now being investigated and deported.” – The Sun

• Home Office’s chaos and incompetence have been a scandal for years – David Millward, Daily Telegraph
• Are Home Office officials especially anti-migrant? – David Walker, The Guardian
• Windrush mess will be worse after Brexit – Philip Collins, The Times

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Is the Home Office blunderingly incompetent, or deliberately obstructive? Bad news: it’s a combination of both.

Javid warns housebuilders against taking buyers for granted

“Britain’s biggest housebuilders are taking customers for granted and doing too little to help when things go wrong, the housing secretary has said. Sajid Javid intervened yesterday in the debate over construction standards at new-build developments to say it was “not acceptable” that some companies were “letting down their customers”. The comments follow an investigation by The Times which found that Bovis Homes was misleading buyers and delaying essential repairs to poorly built properties. Hundreds of the company’s customers have complained of springy floors, leaks, missing insulation panels, poor drainage, unfinished gardens and, in some cases, serious structural faults.” – The Times

• Corbyn woos ‘Generation Rent’ and aims to scrap Right to Buy – Daily Mail

>Today: ToryDiary: What a pro-consumer Conservative housing strategy might look like

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