Boris Johnson has apologised to voters for failing to take the UK out of the EU by 31 October and called the Brexit extension a matter of “deep regret”.
In an interview on Sky News this morning, the prime minister also refused to say what is the naughtiest thing he has ever done after he was asked the question that stumped Theresa May in 2017.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has announced that he will not be standing as an MP in the December election but said he would not be standing down Brexit Party candidates to help the Conservatives win a majority.
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Nigel Farage has claimed Boris Johnson twice offered him a peerage in an attempt to get the Brexit Party to stand down in the upcoming general election.
The Conservative Party has ruled out an election pact with Mr Farage’s party, who could pull hundreds of candidates across the country to improve Mr Johnson’s chances of gaining a majority.
He has also claimed that the Tories offered a senior Brexit Party colleague a safe seat as part of the alleged deal.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Farage added that he was considering standing in Thurrock in the election – a Conservative-Labour marginal which was a former target seat for Ukip in 2017.
On Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday, Mr Johnson was questioned over his failure to deliver Brexit by 31 October.
The prime minister said he is “deeply disappointed” by the extension to the UK’s EU membership and described it as a “matter of deep regret”.
Mr Johnson had promised to take the UK out of the EU "do or die" during his Conservative leadership campaign.
Mr Johnson has also refused to say what the naughtiest thing he has ever done is, telling Sophie Ridge he would not “improvise” an answer that he had “not cleared with his handlers”.
Theresa May was famously asked the question during the 2017 general election campaign and replied that she had “run through fields of wheat” as a child.
It seems unlikely that Mr Johnson’s answer would have been similarly innocent.
In other news, there have been a couple of commitments this morning from the two main parties.
The Conservative government has confirmed that the freeze in benefit payments introduced in 2016 will come to an end in 2020.
Working-age benefits such as universal credit and jobseeker's allowance will rise by 1.7 per cent from April 2020, the Department for Work and Pensions has said.
Labour has called the announcement “cynically-timed” for the general election.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn’s party has also pledged to spend £60bn on energy-saving upgrades to low-income households over the next decade to help cut UK carbon emissions.
BREAKING: Nigel Farage has said he will not stand as an MP in the general election.
The Brexit Party leader has stood for election to the House of Commons seven times but has never won.
Here’s the video of Mr Farage announcing his decision to not stand as an MP in the December election.
The Brexit Party leader has said he can serve the “cause of Brexit” best by travelling around the country campaigning for other Leave-supporting candidates.
He also repeatedly criticised Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal, suggesting that an informal election pact with the Conservatives is unlikely.
Meanwhile on Ridge, Rebecca Long-Bailey has been asked if she agrees with a Labour MP who recently said no-one in the UK should be a billionaire.
The Labour shadow business secretary said Labour wants to “rebalance the economy” to tackle “staggering inequality” across the country.
Ms Long-Bailey rejected the suggestion that her party was practicing the “politics of envy”.
In his interview this morning, Mr Johnson said Donald Trump was “patently in error” when he claimed the current Brexit deal would hinder trade with the US.
Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has the full story below:
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have been making moves to avoid a split Remain vote in the general election.
This morning, Jo Swinson did not rule out an alliance in dozens of seats with Remain-supporting parties.
It has been speculated that the Lib Dems could work with Plaid Cyrmu and the Greens in up to 60 seats, but Ms Swinson said people shouldn’t “necessarily assume that the numbers are accurate.”
Last night, former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable urged people to vote tactically to block Brexit.
Mr Cable said:
“If 30 per cent of Labour, Lib Dems, Green and nationalist voters vote tactically in their constituencies, any majority for Johnson is wiped out and there is a majority for a people’s vote in the next parliament.”
Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told Andrew Marr that his party wants to get rid of all NHS privatisation if they are able to form a government.
Mr McDonnell said the government should not allow businesses to “profiteer from the NHS”.
The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope has noted that Mr Marr did not ask one question about Brexit to the shadow chancellor, which could indicate how other issues may dominate during the election campaign.
Here’s another suggestion Mr Farage is not planning on going soft on the Conservatives in the general election campaign.
He has produced a double-page ad in the Leave-supporting Sunday Express today with the message “Boris’ deal is not Brexit” and a letter dismissing the prime minister's deal.
The Lib Dems complained to ITV last night about the exclusion of Jo Swinson from an election debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
On Sky News this morning, Ms Swinson explained why she is angry at the prospect of a debate with only the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.
“Either it's sexist, or they're scared, or maybe it's a bit of both,” she told Sophie Ridge.
Here’s another detail from John McDonnell’s interview on Marr today.
The shadow chancellor has strongly suggested that a Labour government would cancel the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
He said Labour has set out criteria for policy on environmental, economic and social impacts and currently Heathrow expansion “does not qualify on the basis of the criteria”.
Scottish independence is set to be a major policy dispute during this election campaign, with the Labour Party potentially allowing a new referendum on the issue.
Despite Mr Johnson rejecting another independence vote, Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that “things have changed” since the last referendum five years ago.
Ms Sturgeon said she believes Jeremy Corbyn will allow a request to hold a legally-binding vote if he is voted into Downing Street.
Rebecca Long-Bailey appeared to confirm that view by saying Labour would not advocate for Scottish independence but it would not “stand in Scotland’s way” if its government wanted a new vote.
Another MP has announced they will not be standing in the general election.
Margot James was part of a group of Conservative MPs who were kicked out of the party for backing the Benn Act in September but she had the whip restored on 29 October.
However, Ms James has decided she will not be seeking re-election in December.
The former minister resigned from the government in July after she voted for an amendment to try to block a no-deal Brexit.
Here's an important point on the government’s announcement about the benefits freeze coming to an end next year.
A number of political journalists have pointed out that the 2016 benefits freeze was already set to end in 2020 and the announcement is not a new commitment – it is simply a confirmation of a pre-existing plan.
In Northern Ireland, opposition parties are hoping to break the DUP and Sinn Fein’s political dominance in the upcoming election.
Naomi Long, the leader of the centrist Alliance Party, has urged voters to change their minds over the “unicorn” Brexit they were promised.
Ms Long said:
“People were promised back in 2016 that we were going to get unicorn Brexit, that everything was going to be wonderful.
“What we are now getting is lame donkey Brexit and I think people have a right to say, in the context of seeing all of that, that they have changed their minds.”
Meanwhile, former Ulster Unionist Party MP Tom Elliott has refused to confirm if he will stand in the election.
Mr Elliott has found himself at the centre of speculation after the DUP’s Arlene Foster said her party would back him as an agreed-unionist candidate in the Fermanagh South Tyrone constituency.
Additional reporting by PA
Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has the full story on Nigel Farage’s decision to not stand as an MP in the December election.
If he did stand, it would be his eighth bid to become an MP after a run of failed attempts dating back to 1994.
You can read the story below:
Jo Swinson has been challenged about “misleading” campaign literature from the Liberal Democrats.
A poll commissioned by the Lib Dems was criticised this week for asking voters in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s constituency how they would vote if the result was “expected to be very close between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidate”.
In 2017, the party was in a third place behind the Conservatives and Labour with just 8 per cent of the vote.
Ms Swinson has defended the poll by saying “politics has changed significantly since the 2017 election”.
In response, Sophie Ridge compared it to the “£350m for the NHS” pledge by the Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum.
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