The government is crashing toward the critical stages of Brexit negotiations. In 11 months we leave the EU and enter a transition period. The prime minister can no longer rely on warm platitudes or catchy phrases, but will soon be judged on the reality of the deal she achieves (or worse, the no-deal she ends up with). The success of Brexit now hinges fundamentally on two questions: whether our new relationship with the EU will put the British economy first, and whether the Good Friday agreement, which has brought lasting peace in Northern Ireland, will be respected.

To achieve both outcomes, the UK must negotiate a new customs union with the EU. This would ensure that no Northern Irish border is necessary. It would also maintain the frictionless movement of goods into and out of the country, keeping many of the benefits of trade with the EU.

One by one the firms that gave Britain its global economic reputation are now telling the truth.

The post When will businesses’ Brexit warnings be taken seriously? appeared first on InFacts.

Phil Hogan to call for a ‘softening of the red lines’ between Brexiters and remainers

Ireland’s EU commissioner has urged Theresa May to face down the “immoderate ideology” of Brexiters and reconsider her position on remaining in a customs union with the EU.

Phil Hogan, the commissioner for agriculture, will tell the senate in the Irish parliament on Thursday that remarks by Jacob Rees-Mogg about Ireland’s beef trade with Britain were “unhelpful and irresponsible”.

Number of vehicles built in March fell 13%, compared with a year ago, to 141,471

Car production in Britain has experienced a double-digit slump amid concern over falling diesel sales and the impact of Brexit on exports.

The performance last month, which was partly weather related, prompted the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) to repeat its call for continued membership of the EU customs union.

Documents discuss huge political difficulty of accepting any of the proposals for resolving problem

Senior British officials privately conceded last year that the UK’s preferred solution for avoiding a hard border with the Republic after Brexit would threaten the EU’s single market and that all possible outcomes would be damaging for the province.

A series of leaked letters and briefing papers from the Northern Ireland executive – at least one of which was sent to Olly Robbins, the prime minister’s most senior Brexit adviser – lay bare the huge difficulties created by Brexit.

Labour may try to force vote on customs union after backbench debate, as shadow Brexit secretary criticises PM

The shadow Brexit secretary has accused the prime minister of putting party management before the national interest, as MPs seek to ramp up the pressure on the government over a customs union.

Keir Starmer said: “Over the past few weeks it has become abundantly clear that Theresa May is unwilling and unable to put the country’s interests first during the Brexit negotiations.

Peers rip up ‘blank chequebook that ministers sought to give themselves’, inflicting heavy defeat

Peers and MPs claimed a significant victory on Wednesday when an attempt to give sweeping powers to ministers was thrown out of the Brexit bill as complaints about the power of the Lords to reverse the decisions of the Commons grew louder.

Related: David Davis: a man with the utmost confidence in his own limitations | John Crace

The House of Lords tonight voted by a majority of 128 to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill to limit Ministers’ ability to change the law with minimal parliamentary scrutiny.

The Government tonight suffered a huge defeat in the House of Lords over attempts to use the EU Withdrawal Bill to give Ministers the power to rewrite the law.

Even supporters at the Brexit select committee are beginning to worry that Davis’s air of stupidity may not be an act

Back in November 2002, David Davis spoke in the House of Commons about why he didn’t think referendums were necessarily a good idea. “We should not ask people to vote on a blank sheet of paper and tell them to trust us to fill in the details,” he warned. With good reason. Because the person the country might be relying on for that information could be him.

Detail and Davis are barely on nodding terms. Partly because leaving the EU is a great deal more complicated than he expected, but mainly because he’s hopelessly out of his depth. Davis has yet to be asked any question, no matter how straightforward, that doesn’t take him completely by surprise.

Equality Commission for Northern Ireland says requirement for British passport is potentially unlawful

The government has withdrawn a recruitment campaign for 1,000 Border Force officers after discrimination concerns were raised in Northern Ireland because the jobs were restricted to British passport holders.

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland contacted the Home Office to point out the adverts were potentially unlawful under the Good Friday agreement.

David Davis has just admitted MPs can amend law to approve deal. If it isn’t up to snuff, they should ask voters what they think.

The post People’s vote only option if MPs don’t like Brexit deal appeared first on InFacts.

Leave campaign exploited fears over exploitation of workers. Now as UK leaves, EU is addressing problems. UK workers will miss out.

The post EU tackles concerns over low-paid labour, just as UK leaves appeared first on InFacts.

Finding solution to hard border problem can wait until autumn, says Brexit secretary

David Davis has said he would consider it a failure if the UK was forced to extend its membership of the EU customs union, amid mounting concern among MPs that time is running out for talks on alternative solutions.

Ruling out this possible compromise route for minimising a hard border for Northern Ireland, the Brexit secretary instead insisted that the problem did not need solving until at least October.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, this morning gave evidence to the Commons Brexit Committee in which he admitted that the Government would have to respect any decision by Parliament to reject or amend any legislation or motion the Government might bring forward on the final Brexit deal.

Brexit Secretary David Davis today (Wednesday) gave evidence to the Select Committee on Brexit.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have published data on the numbers of registered nurses and midwives in the UK.

A new report published today (Wednesday) by the National Audit Office has revealed the costs and pressures created by Brexit within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

National Audit Office head contradicts PM’s assertion she will not pay without agreement

The UK will have to pay its Brexit “divorce bill” of up to £39bn even if no agreement is reached on a future trade deal with the EU, the head of Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said.

The head of the National Audit Office (NAO), Sir Amyas Morse, said on Tuesday that if parliament approves the withdrawal agreement in a vote in the autumn, it will become a legally binding treaty regardless of the success of separate trade talks.

The Home Office have admitted that their app for EU citizens wanting to remain in the UK does not work on Apple iPhones. 

Solipsistic hard Brexiter blames Windrush scandal on ‘socialism’ of Amber Rudd and Theresa May

For the past 10 days or so, the government has struggled to provide any convincing answers for its treatment of the Windrush generation.

It was just one of those things that could have happened to any government. Nobody’s fault. Especially not Theresa May’s or Amber Rudd’s. Just something that had got a bit out of hand.

Using former owner Lloyds’ IT system was proving ruinously expensive for the bank

It will be no consolation to those TSB customers suffering under the botched IT “upgrade” that the bank had originally planned to do the work last November when, one assumes, it would have been even more badly prepared.

Its chief executive, Paul Pester, said at the time that the “main reason” for the delay was the approach of a likely rise in interest rates, which indeed materialised. TSB, supposedly, didn’t want to leave itself unable to offer mortgage quotes over a crucial weekend.

It may not be the crunch, but it is surely the beginning of the crunch. Thursday’s Commons debate on borders and customs regimes after Brexit is a crucial opportunity for MPs to fire a very clear shot across the government’s bows in favour of the softest possible Brexit. The Commons will be debating a motion on Thursday, not a piece of legislation – the latter opportunity will come when the trade bill and the EU withdrawal bill are again discussed by MPs next month. Yet this week’s motion is anything but trivial. It supports frictionless post-Brexit trade borders for manufacturers and it insists on continuing alignments across the Irish border. It is moved by the backbench liaison committee of select committee chairs, so it has backing from senior parliamentarians from Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National party. The outcome must send an unequivocal message that we have reached make your mind up time.

As so often in the Brexit process, the government’s approach is to continue to kick the can down the proverbial road. But the end of the road is in sight. With local elections due next week, the Conservatives have imposed a light whip on their MPs. Some select committees, including the Brexit committee, are scheduled to be on overseas visits. It is important, nevertheless, that as many pro-European MPs as possible attend this debate and vote for the motion. Most businesses in Britain, especially in manufacturing, want to remain in the customs union or to join one that is effectively the same thing after Brexit. Crucially, the government has also made a solemn agreement with the EU to maintain a frictionless border in Ireland. Both are essential. This motion must be carried.

Welsh government’s acceptance of UK concessions leaves Scotland fighting lone battle

The Welsh government has left Nicola Sturgeon unexpectedly isolated after agreeing to sign a controversial deal with UK ministers over the sharing of EU powers after Brexit.

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh finance secretary, said significant concessions the UK government had made in the last few days were enough to protect the Welsh assembly’s powers when Britain leaves the EU.

MEPs say problems with app is further proof of Home Office’s poor grasp of technology

A mobile phone app for EU nationals seeking to stay in the UK after Brexit – claimed to be as user-friendly as “an online account at LK Bennett” – will not work on iPhones, Home Office officials have admitted.

After arriving late for a meeting in Brussels to reassure MEPs of the efficiency of the British government, officials from Amber Rudd’s department conceded that a key function on the app would not work on the phone brand used by more than half of the adult population in the UK.

Debate raging around customs union can be baffling. It may be technical, but it’s key to trade, prosperity and peace in Northern Ireland.

The post Confused about customs unions? Here’s why it’s important appeared first on InFacts.

Brexit must not endanger hard-fought rights won through EU membership. Keeping EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is first step to doing that.

The post Brexit leaves LGBT Brits at risk of having rights cut back appeared first on InFacts.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has had to apologise for breaching Parliamentary protocol over his visit yesterday (Monday) to border areas in Northern Ireland.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has written to MPs promising he will announce new ideas on NHS funding later this year.

The government suffers a series of humiliating defeats in the House of Lords

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The House of Lords has handed the Government another defeat over Brexit, this time over the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

It’s clear a sensible withdrawal will involve compromise. No one will be totally happy but a brave PM would do what was right

Who can say, hand on heart, that the customs union was uppermost in their mind in the polling booth on referendum day? Each vote contained a multitude of motives, and the subtleties of the EU’s common external tariff were in the mix somewhere, but as obscure chemical elements in a complex electoral compound. The only certain description we have of that substance, sometimes called the will of the people, is that it is made up of 52 parts leave to 48 remain. Views on what Brexit means beyond that express preferences, not facts.

Theresa May wants it to mean no customs union, although that might not even be her personal preference. It is borrowed from Tory MPs who believe total autonomy, when striking future trade deals, is the supreme goal to which all other economic considerations – not disrupting existing trade, for example – are subordinate. That faction was incensed by reports that the prime minister was amenable to compromise. Following the usual pattern, Downing Street quickly nursed their distemper with reassurance that the old red lines are unmoved.

The National Farmers’ Union of Scotland has released a statement strongly criticising the UK Government’s refusal to reconsider its decision to leave the EU Customs Union.

Cut through all the noise and we’ve got a relatively uncompetitive economy dependent on a weakish currency and strong global growth.

The post UK’s Brexit economy is under-performing and vulnerable appeared first on InFacts.

The Government is attempting to recruit nurses in Jamaica as the Brexit-induced crisis in UK nursing continues to worsen, and as the scandal of the treatment of the ‘Windrush generation’ continues.

Continuing to kick immigration policies into long grass will make Brexit negotiations difficult and rob Parliament of “meaningful” role.

The post Silence on post-Brexit immigration will become deafening appeared first on InFacts.

Business services firm Capita today posted a £513m loss and announced a £701m rights issue to fund a restructuring.

Downing Street are continuing to resist cross-party moves to keep the United Kingdom in the Customs Union.

British skippers weren’t denied fair quotas by the EU, Britain let them sell their fishing rights to foreign boats

Standing on the shingle of Hastings beach beside his fishing boat, Paul Joy says his family have fished these waters since before the time of William the Conqueror. He’s done the research, and the Joys have had boats here since records began. His boat had been out at dawn that morning, hugging the coastline with a skipper, two crew and the “boy” ashore, aged 80, who winches the Kaya up the pebbles with a rusty bulldozer. “My father, Will, born in 1906, made an adequate living with a smaller boat than mine. Now everyone subsidises fishing with other work. I earned the same as a carpenter, now you’re lucky to get a Tesco shelf-stacker’s pay.” Fishing quotas are killing the small fishermen, he says.

Stand here to breathe in the heart of Brexit. Last week, in ports around the country, fishing boats protested – sending up flares to oppose the transition deal that leaves them in the common fisheries policy (CFP), but without a seat at the EU table sharing out the fish. Protest organisers said: “We are sickened by remainers gleefully peddling the deliberate narrative that fishing doesn’t matter.”

A major readers’ survey published today (Monday) with 17,000 participants across Johnson Press, Newsquest and Trinity Mirror titles in Scotland has found that twice as many Leave voters (11%) as Remain voters (5%) said they would change their votes if a new People’s Vote on Brexit was held.

The President of the CBI, Paul Drechsler, has directly criticised Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid via Twitter for promoting a policy of leaving the EU Customs Union. 

We know that the Brexiters want to recapture a lost Britain; and few Britons can rival William Shakespeare in the patriotism stakes.

It intrigued me, therefore, to hear the following from a Shakespearean scholar who recently delivered a Bardic talk in – where else? – Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford-upon-Avon is as near to Middle England as any Brexiter could wish.

Nissan announced today that it will be cutting hundreds of jobs from its Sunderland plant, although the company denied the decision was related to Brexit.

NAO says divorce bill could be billions over £35-39bn estimate. Another case of truth having to be dragged out of government.

The post Time to come clean: Brexit bill could be billions more appeared first on InFacts.

UK’s unlikely proposals to solve Irish border question leaves Brussels wondering if customs union may be most realistic option

From the minute the UK government first proposed its idea last August of maintaining “invisible borders” after Brexit, the convoluted plan was dismissed as “magical thinking” by EU officials. What has changed this week is that the time for pretending otherwise has run out.

First, Downing Street reassurances were rejected on Wednesday by the House of Lords, where peers voted by a majority of 123 to push Britain toward a customs union – arguing it was the only practical alternative to wrecking the Irish peace process with a hard border.

Government and companies are having to spend hard cash to prepare for Brexit. They are also being distracted from their other work.

The post Don’t forget Brexit’s transitional costs! They are big appeared first on InFacts.

Polling published today by The Guardian/ICM suggests that the British people support a People’s Vote on the terms of Brexit by 47% to 37%.

A report today in The Telegraph suggests that the Government’s half-baked plans for avoiding a return to a hard border in Northern Ireland have been comprehensively rejected by the EU.

A new report out today (Friday) from the National Audit Office has found that “the total amount the UK will pay in the financial settlement on leaving the EU remains uncertain…The UK could have to pay towards other costs, which are not in the estimate, such as potential liabilities that may depend on future events.”

International trade is firmly on the agenda as the group of 53 disparate nations meet in London

Any 80-year-old institution based on the contours of a defunct 19th-century empire and largely held together by the charming drive of a 91-year-old woman is going to struggle to prove its modern relevance. Described once in the New Statesman by James Fenton as “one of the world’s least obnoxious institutions”, the Commonwealth can probably only ever aspire to faint praise. In an already overcrowded schedule of diplomatic summits, this is often seen as the “zombie summit”, a biennial gathering of whimsy that refuses to die.

Not surprisingly, the task of finding a thematic rationale for a Commonwealth summit of 53 nations, the first to be held in the UK since 1997, is not simple. The 70-strong Cabinet Office unit which planned the summit’s welcome chose the theme of our common future, and of welcome. Unfortunately, a sequence of decisions taken by the UK Border Force and former home secretary Theresa May on Commonwealth citizens up to five years earlier meant the headlines in the run-up to the summit were chiefly about rejection. The true motive of the British prime minister, it seemed, had been to a create a hostile environment for Commonwealth citizens, and to remove what they had assumed were unchallengeable rights. As PR disasters go, they rarely come much worse. Her Majesty was probably not amused.

Given Home Office attempt to kick out Commonwealth citizens legally here, what’s the chance it can smoothly register 3 million EU citizens?

The post We mustn’t repeat Windrush scandal with EU citizens appeared first on InFacts.

Cross-party grouping is seeking what it carefully avoids calling a second referendum

Welcome to the Guardian’s weekly Brexit briefing. If you would like to receive it as a weekly email, please sign up here. You can also catch up with our Brexit Means … podcast right here.

Also, 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 your perspective, too. If you value our Brexit coverage, please become a Guardian Supporter. Thank you.

In less than a year, Britain goes over the cliff edge of departing from the EU – with a 'transition' to unknown arrangements. If regrets set in afterwards, it will be too late as we will have to re-apply under Article 49 - just as any other applicant. When those `unknown arrangements’ become somewhat clearer during negotiations this summer, “the people” may well look at the implications and decide for themselves whether they want to proceed over the cliff.

New Zealand’s prime minister tells the Guardian how her life has changed and her ambition for a can-do country. She says she appreciates still being able to do 'normal things' and says her pregnancy has given her a wider perspective: 'There's been a couple of meetings where I'll be working away, very focused on an issue, and I'll get a sharp kick in the ribcage and it's this little reminder that there's something else going on in my life'

• Full interview: Ardern on life as a leader, Trump and selfies in the lingerie department

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, has caused concern among some Labour MPs following comments made at a Chatham House talk on Wednesday in which she appeared to suggest the Brexit divorce bill could be so vague that her party would support it. Thornberry told the audience, 'We have our six tests. If you hold up blah, blah, blah to six tests, you’ll probably pass it'

• Keir Starmer says Labour is prepared to vote down Brexit bill

The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, tells a Commons committee that Vote Leave 'cheating' may have swayed the EU referendum result. Wylie told MPs Vote Leave used Aggregate IQ, a 'franchise' of the data analytics firm, to target swing voters using information drawn from CA's database

• Vote Leave 'cheating' may well have swayed EU referendum result, Wylie tells MPs - Politics live

Shahmir Sanni, who worked for the official Vote Leave campaign, today breaks cover to raise concerns that the group behind the knife-edge 2016 vote in favour of Brexit – including key figures now working for Theresa May in Downing Street – may have broken the law by flouting referendum spending rules and then attempting to destroy evidence. 

Sanni claims that a donation of £625,000 was made by Vote Leave to an independent referendum campaign organisation called BeLeave. Sanni says that the money, which was then channeled to a Canadian digital services firm, AggregateIQ, that has links to the controversial Cambridge Analytica, violated election regulations. The donation was sanctioned by the most senior figures in Vote Leave, including campaign director Dominic Cummings and CEO Matthew Elliott

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: 'We spent $1m harvesting millions of Facebook profiles' – video

An exclusive interview with former Cambridge Analytica business development director Brittany Kaiser, who claims that the data analytics firm worked on a pro-Brexit campaign, despite chief executive Alexander Nix denying this to a parliamentary committee

The Labour MP and Brexit campaigner Kate Hoey tells Owen Jones she has no regrets about campaigning alongside Nigel Farage during the Brexit referendum, despite the former Ukip leader's 'Breaking Point' poster. She believes that eventually people will look back and say 'thank goodness' the UK voted to leave the EU.

Hoey and Jones discuss foxhunting, grammar schools and Momentum in an extended version of this interview

It is becoming increasingly clear that while Theresa May’s Mansion House speech may have applied some sticking plaster on the gaping wounds within the Conservative government, it fails to address vital issues on which it simply offers more unrealistic fudge.

After her speech yesterday about the Brexit negotiations, the Prime Minister was asked by a German journalist whether she thought Brexit was worth all the effort and disruption it entailed. Although British withdrawal from the EU is probably the most important national decision taken since the Second World War and it will inevitably define the success or otherwise of Mrs. May’s Premiership, she was unable or unwilling to answer this question.

The prime minister sets out five key principles for the future relationship with the EU after Brexit in her third major speech on the issue. She says both sides have an interest in getting the UK's departure right and reaching an enduring solution.

May says Brexit will reduce UK access to single market

Darren McGarvey, also known as Loki, tells the Guardian columnist how he has enjoyed Jeremy Corbyn shaking things up in UK politics. The author, commentator and rapper argues that both the left and right are guilty of misunderstanding poverty and how people on lower incomes interpret the world. He says this sense of exclusion from the democratic process was a major factor in the Brexit vote

Poverty Safari is available from the Guardian Bookshop

An extended version of this interview is available on Owen Jones's YouTube channel

With thanks to the Rotunda Bar and Restaurant

Former PM says Commons should get free vote on final Brexit deal in which parliament can accept or reject the final outcome, with the option of ordering a second referendum. The Tory grandee says he fears Brexit has already diminished the UK's international standing

• Major says MPs should get free vote on final Brexit deal, with 2nd referendum or halting Brexit both options - Politics live

Jeremy Corbyn tackles May over her Brexit plan of  'ambitious managed divergence' at PMQs. According to the Labour leader: 'The government is so divided, the prime minister is incapable of delivering a coherent plan for Brexit. So when will she put the country’s interest before the outsized egos of her cabinet?'

• PMQs verdict: Corbyn misses key Brexit attack line on Irish border
  

The European Union started out and continues to be an organisation whose primary objective is to create a lasting peace in Europe after centuries of conflict ending in two catastrophic world wars.  

When a young official at the nascent European Parliament introduced me to Altiero Spinelli, one of the people who had spurred my interest in European integration as a student, awe turned to action. In a very small way, everyone could contribute to shaping Europe’s future, as Jean Monnet had said.

On 22 June 1948, the MV Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying 492 Caribbean passengers. More followed afterwards. These migrants and descendants of migrants have played a vital role in the construction of the NHS since its creation. Without them the NHS would not have been possible. More recently Indian, Filipino and European doctors and nurses have come to the UK to ensure that our NHS continues to be the best health care system in the world.

Brexit supporters are organised and disciplined in their constantly repeated sound-bites. Almost every day you can hear the mantra “Take back control of our money, borders, laws and trade”.

The realisation that any post-Brexit transition period will leave the UK still subject to EU legislation, including modifications to such legislation and to new legislation, has given rise to the idea that Britain should extend its membership so as to serve any transition period as a voting member rather than as a “vassal state”.

New Year media reports suggest the UK Government thinks the EU27 is bluffing when chief negotiator Barnier states that UK-based banks will lose their “passports” to do business in the EU27. Instead, DexEU Secretary Davis has called for a “Canada plus plus plus” trade deal – implying that financial services will not find themselves at a disadvantage.

The age demographics of the Brexit vote in June 2016 are well-known: around 73% of young people under 24 voted to remain, compared with only 40% of people over 60. Yet it is self-evidently young people who are going to have to live longest with the consequences of Brexit, if it happens. These consequences are numerous and wide-ranging, and can be grouped into three categories: economic, social and identity.

Even during the European referendum last year it was clear that those who wished the UK to leave the European Union fell into two quite different camps, those who wanted Brexit to mark a decisive break in the economic and social life of the United Kingdom; and those who wanted Brexit to take place with minimal social and economic disruption. 

Yesterday morning, briefings from both sides in the Brexit negotiations were confidently looking forward to announcing a deal on the phase 1 “divorce” package.

I am disappointed for all those who have worked hard in Leeds, and the other contending towns, to hear this news. But there is a degree of hollowness to those in the government who are claiming this is a total surprise or a vindictive move.

I was delighted to be invited to speak at the Brexit and Agriculture event in York last week organised by the National Farmers’ Union and the European Parliament UK office. It was extremely instructive to talk with farmers, NFU officials and agriculture students about their concerns regarding the Brexit negotiations. Over the course of the event and the discussions that followed, four main themes emerged.

In his recent testimony to the House of Lords, Sir Ivan Rogers, former British Permanent Representative to the European Union, criticized as premature and ill-prepared the Prime Minister’s triggering last March of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. This is unfair to Theresa May. No different date for the beginning of the Brexit negotiations could or would have rendered them any less painful for the British participants. No amount of extra preparation on the British side before triggering Article 50 could or would have resolved the numerous internal contradictions of the Brexit project.

Time is not on the UK’s side in these negotiations: The latest ONS annual Pink Book on the UK’s balance of payments shows a further deterioration of the current account to 6% of GDP (£114 billion) in 2016.

If Brexit is going to be so great, why have so many Brexiters been opposed to the government releasing its Brexit impact assessments? Why keep them hidden away if it’s going to be glorious? And why not show the EU that we’ll do spiffingly when we leave thank you very much, deal or no deal?

It is possible to maintain an “invisible border” in Ireland after Brexit, says the head of the Swiss customs service to House of Lords Committee, IF you have:

I am a freelance classical musician. My work takes me all over the globe but the vast majority of mine and my colleagues’ work takes place within the EU. For us the ramifications of Brexit, and in particular the hard Brexit which the government seems keen to enact, are very serious as the cessation of freedom of movement is likely to render us uncompetitive at best and unemployable at worst.

Besides collectively asking for a Brexit transition period, industries are also looking at what comes after it. After all, a transition is not much use if it simply postpones disaster by a couple of years. In looking beyond this period, each industry is looking at its own interests and they are not yet acting together, despite their interests being rather similar. Essentially, they all want the status quo for their sector.

While Britain’s dealbreakers are well known, we look at what they are for its negotiating partners. Not all are shared, yet all will play a part in any final deal

The British government’s key Brexit red lines – controlling EU immigration, ending the jurisdiction of the European court of justice, calling time on further big EU budget contributions – are by now well known, set out first in speeches by Theresa May and later confirmed in a government white paper.

But what of the EU’s red lines? Here we map the concerns, priorities and demands of each of the UK’s 27 negotiating partners. Some are shared, more or less, by all; others are strictly national. All will play a part in the deal Britain gets – because Brexit also means what the EU27 want it to mean.

Britain accused of trying to ‘move the goalposts and do away with the referee’ in Brexit negotiations

British attempts to “blackmail and divide” EU countries in the run-up to Brexit negotiations will lead to a disastrous “crash-landing” out of the bloc, European politicians have told the Guardian.

They add that the approach being pursued by Theresa May’s government will leave the UK without a free trade deal – with perilous consequences for the country.

Yes, say pro-Brexit newspapers. But they seem to have misinterpreted remarks by the German chancellor about restricting benefits for EU migrants

According to the Daily Telegraph’s front page on Wednesday, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has “signalled that she may be willing to compromise on the issue of free movement”, suggesting “in comments interpreted as a significant shift” that Britain “may be able to gain full control of its borders while retaining access to the single market”.

Pro-Brexit MPs told the paper that Merkel’s comments marked “the beginning of a new realism” among the EU-27, who have hitherto been steadfast and united in their insistence that when the UK leaves the bloc, it will not be able to both curb EU immigration and keep enhanced access to the single market.

EU diplomats say need for Westminster vote and parliamentary scrutiny on Britain leaving union may skew timetable

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Official reaction on the continent to the high court’s ruling on article 50 has been muted, with national governments and the European commission regarding the decision as an internal matter.

Related: High court says parliament must vote on triggering article 50 - Politics live

Financial policy committee warns withdrawal from the EU poses risks but will not be used to reduce regulation of banks

The vote for Brexit has created a “challenging period of uncertainty and adjustment” Bank of England policymakers have said.

In a quarterly update on the health of the financial system on Thursday, the Bank’s policy makers also said the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union would not be used as a way to reduce regulation on the banking sector.