IDS is giving a speech at 10 a.m. in which he’ll elaborate on his claim – on the front page of today’s Sun – that Angela Merkel blocked the key immigration emergency brake in Cameron’s renegotiation:

“I saw the draft. I know that right up until the midnight hour, there was a strong line in there about restricting the flow of migrants from the European Union – an emergency break on overall migration. That was dropped, literally the night before. And it was dropped because the Germans said if that is in the speech, we will have to attack it. The whole thing was shown to them. The Germans said from the outset, you are not getting border control. Full stop.”

Which makes this little nugget from a source in Downing Street very interesting. Guido understands that in a recent phone call between the PM and Merkel, Cameron is said to have asked the German leader to keep out of the referendum campaign. The source says a heated Cameron argued that an intervention from her would not help his case to the British people. Downing Street would of course deny any such conversation took place. Though the sceptical reaction of voters to Obama, and the potential for a migrant crisis-mired Merkel to bring toxic contagion, mean Dave probably had a point. The Remainers have made a big play of their support from the global elite – it would seem that when it comes to Merkel, they don’t want her public support…