The following is today's Brexit bulletin sent daily to all members of The Freedom Association. To join, please click here.  Theresa May's Plan B looked very similar to Plan A because it was Plan A in disguise. Not heavily disguised - there was just a little bit of tinsel around it to make it look slightly different. Next Tuesday, MPs will debate a Government motion that the House has considered the written statement laid before it yesterday. All very vanilla. This motion, of course, will be amended, and the amendments have already started rolling in.  Arch-Remainer Hilary Benn, the chairman of the Brexit Committee, has tabled an amendment calling for a series of indicative votes. He called for this in his question to the PM yesterday. Dominic Grieve, who can barely be described as a Conservative MP these days, has tabled an amendment that would give MPs the chance to back different Brexit options, including a second referendum. But the amendment that everyone is talking about is the one from Yvette Cooper, which is backed by people like Nick Boles, Oliver Letwin and Nicky Morgan.  Continue reading

  The Freedom Association's 'Better Off Out' campaign has today published six essays that present the positive benefits of a clean Brexit - not just for the UK, but also for free trade across the Commonwealth and the world. Click here to read them There are contributions from Ruth Lea CBE, Economic Adviser, Arbuthnot Banking Group; Daniel Moylan, Former adviser to Boris Johnson as Mayor of London; Chloe Westley, Campaign Manager, TaxPayers' Alliance; Andrea Jenkyns MP, Conservative, Morley and Outwood; Ross Thomson MP, Conservative, Aberdeen South; and Chloe Schendel-Wilson, former Parliamentary researcher and Conservative activist.  Continue reading

Senior Conservative MPs are this evening setting out the alternative written ministerial statement that they believe the Prime Minister should make now that the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration have been rejected by the House of Commons. A Better Deal and A Better Future includes the following: Continue reading

Responding to the story in the Daily Telegraph that Theresa May wants a live televised debate with Jeremy Corbyn, Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns, said: "This is something we should resist. We are not in the middle of a general election campaign. The broadcasters will love the idea as it is good for them. Instead of debating the issues, they will be billing this as the heavyweight championship of the world with a build up going on for days. It will also be a biased Remain v Remain fight without a Brexiteer in sight. It would be a distraction - one we can do without as the future of our country as a sovereign nation hangs in the balance." ENDS Continue reading

Whilst paragraph 73 of the draft political agreement states that "the United Kingdom will be an independent coastal state", read paragraphs 75 & 76: 75. Within the context of the overall economic partnership the Parties should establish a new fisheries agreement on, inter alia, access to waters and quota shares. 76. The Parties will use their best endeavours to conclude and ratify their new fisheries agreement by 1 July 2020 in order for it to be in place in time to be used for determining fishing opportunities for the first year after the transition period. Continue reading