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Oct 18 prev
$ per € 1.114 1.
$ per £ 1.290 1.
£ per € 0.864 0.
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¥ per £ 139.991 139.
SFr per € 1.099 1.
€ per $ 0.898 0.Oct 18 prev
£ per $ 0.775 0.
€ per £ 1.158 1.
¥ per € 120.880 120.
£ index 79.196 79.
SFr per £ 1.273 1.COMMODITIESOct 18 prev %chg
Oil WTI $ 53.62 53.93 -0.
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Gold $ 1492.65 1485.10 0.INTEREST RATES
price yield chg
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UK Gov 10 yr 148.20 0.63 0.
Ger Gov 10 yr -0.38 0.
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US Gov 30 yr 110.46 2.23 0.
Ger Gov 2 yr 100.87 -0.68 -0.price prev chg
Fed Funds Eff 2.04 2.13 -0.
US 3m Bills 1.66 1.66 0.
Euro Libor 3m -0.44 -0.43 -0.
UK 3m 0.79 0.78 0.
Prices are latest for edition Data provided by MorningstarG E O R G E PA R K E R , L AU R A H U G H E S
A N D JA M E S B L I T Z— LONDONBoris Johnson’s plan to take Britain out
of the EU on October 31 will today face
its moment of truth, as Conservative
grandees prepared to join forces with
Labour to derail the prime minister’s
freshlymintedBrexitdeal.
With hundreds of thousands of protest-
ers expected in Westminster to demand
a second EU referendum, the stage is set
for a “super Saturday” in which Mr
Johnson faces knife-edge House of Com-
mons votes to push ahead with Brexit.
But before he can get to the crucial
vote on his Brexit deal he must first
overcome a new hurdle erected by Tory
grandee Oliver Letwin and former
cabinet ministers, including Philip
Hammond and David Gauke.
The Letwin amendment, also backedby Labour, would defer full parliamen-
tary approval of Mr Johnson’s deal until
the relevant implementing legislation is
passed. Mr Johnson would then have to
write to the EU seeking a Brexit delay.
Mr Johnson arrived back from
Brussels yesterday, having secured the
EU’s backing for a Brexit deal, and spent
a frenetic day urging Conservative and
Labour MPs to join him in “getting
Brexit done”.
Mark Carney, the Bank of England
governor, predicted yesterday that the
UK economy would pick up if MPs voted
for the Brexit deal.
Downing Street was confident that it
could win the backing of most or all of
the 28 Brexiter Tory rebels who
defeated Theresa May’s deal, while 10
Labour MPs also endorsed the new deal,
pushing Mr Johnson closer to the 320
votes he needs for victory.Meanwhile, Mr Johnson offered new
guarantees that Britain would uphold
high employment standards after Brexit
— and new legislation to protect new
staff at companies from wrongful dis-
missal — to win over more Labour MPs
from Leave areas.
With Northern Ireland’s Democratic
Unionist party refusing to back the deal,
MrJohnson spent yesterday trying to
win every vote. The prime minister was
helped by Emmanuel Macron, French
president, who raised the pressure on
MPs by suggesting that the EU would
not accept any further delay. Although
many MPs believe that Mr Macron is
bluffing, the French president has pro-
vided valuable cover to Labour MPs.
Additional reporting by Michael Peel in
Brussels and Chris Giles in Washington
Can Johnson get it done?page 7
Camilla Cavendishpage 9Johnson faces moment of truth as
Brexit deal goes before parliament
© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2019
No: 40,225★
Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Seoul, Dubai, Doha
AnalysisiPAGE 15London start-up aims to
construct a Buffett ‘bot’SATURDAY 19 OCTOBER/SUNDAY 20 OCTOBER 2019Europe edition
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AY L A J E A N YAC K L E Y— ISTANBUL
A N D R E W E N G L A N D— LONDON
A I M E W I L L I A M S— WASHINGTON
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that
Turkey will not hesitate to resume its
military operation in north-east Syria if
a US commitment to allow a buffer zone
free of Kurdish militants falls short.
Speaking a day after the US and
Ankara agreed on a five-day truce, the
Turkish president said that he hoped
the US would “keep its promise”.
“But if the promise is not delivered,
the minute that the 120 hours lapses,
our operation will be resumed much
more determinedly from the point
where it was left off,” Mr Erdogan said
yesterday. Hours after the deal was sup-
posed to be in effect, the Kurdish-
dominated Syrian Democratic Forces
accused Turkey of breaking the agree-
ment by shelling areas it controls near
the border, killing five of its fighters.
Donald Trump, the US president, said
that he had spoken to Mr Erdogan who
told him there was “minor sniper and
mortar fire that was quickly elimi-
nated”. Under the deal reached on
Thursday, after Mr Erdogan held nearly
five hours of talks with Mike Pence, US
vice-president, Turkey agreed to
“pause” its offensive for five days while
Kurdish militants withdrew from the
north-east Syria border region.
The Kurdish forces have been armed
and trained by the US to fight Isis, but
Ankara considers them terrorists and
an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’
party (PKK) that has fought a more
than three-decade insurgency against
Turkey. Mr Erdogan launched the offen-
sive on October 9 after Mr Trump
cleared the way by withdrawing US
troops from the border region after a
phone call between the two leaders.
The US president’s decision triggered
a rare bipartisan backlash in Congress
amid criticism that the move meant
Washington was abandoning important
allies in the Kurdish forces and would
embolden Syria’s Assad regime and its
main backers, Russia and Iran.
Mr Trump responded by threatening
to “destroy” Turkey’s economy with
sanctions and sent Mr Erdogan a letter
telling him “don’t be a tough guy”. MrErdogan said that he wished to turn a
“new page” in Ankara’s ties with Wash-
ington but slammed the Trump letter,
saying that it “did not conform with
political and diplomatic etiquette”.
“Of course, I haven’t forgotten this,”
Mr Erdogan said. “When the time
comes, we will do what is necessary.”
Analysts say the truce handed Mr
Erdogan what he has long pressed for
from the US — the creation of the safe
zone and the marginalisation of the US-
backed SDF. Under the deal, the US also
said it would lift sanctions on Turkey.
“What happened [on Thursday] was
afarce, not real negotiation because theUS is an exiting power. It was a de facto
acceptance of the fait accompli and of
the new balance of power in the north-
ern Middle East,” said Emile Hokayem
at the International Institute for Strate-
gic Studies.
Analysts say the main beneficiaries of
the US withdrawal are Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad and Russia.
Mr Erdogan is set to meet Vladimir
Putin, his Russian counterpart, on Tues-
day — the deadline for the Kurdish mili-
tants to withdraw from the border area.
Trumps claims victorypage 2
Editorial Commentpage 8
Gérard Errerapage 9Turkey to resume Syria assault if
truce fails to spur Kurdish retreat
3 Erdogan warns on US pledges 3 Anger over Trump letter 3 Skirmishes mar ceasefire
President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan
yesterday said
that he had not
forgotten a
harshly worded
letter from
Donald Trump,
his US
counterpart
Presidential Press Service via
AP