Boris Johnson has rejected Donald Trump's advice to form a Brexit pact with Nigel Farage in the general election.
He told Sophy Ridge of Sky News that he has "ruled out a pact with everybody because I don't think it's sensible to do that".
Mr Farage says if Mr Johnson does not agree to a “Leave alliance”, he has 500 candidates ready to stand across Britain. Polling guru John Curtice said it was likely the Brexit Party would harm the Tories more than Labour if candidates were fielded across the country.
The prime minister's refusal of a pact came as ITV announced plans for a televised election debate in which he and Jeremy Corbyn will go head-to-head.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond, as Nigel Farage prepares to launch The Brexit Party’s election campaign.
Farage set to reveal where Brexit Party candidates will stand
This morning Nigel Farage is set to reveal whether his party will field candidates against Conservative MPs at the general election, after he offered to support Boris Johnson if the PM abandons his “dreadful” Brexit deal.
In a move that could have a major bearing on the outcome of the election, the Brexit Party leader will announce his party’s strategy at an event in Westminster, amid speculation that it could stand aside in areas represented by Eurosceptic Tory MPs.
Reports suggest that some senior figures in the Brexit Party are “fighting hard” to persuade Farage to field as few as 20 candidates and focus the party’s efforts on unseating Labour MPs in Leave-voting areas.
Nigel Farage lays out conditions for pact with Boris Johnson before revealing if Brexit Party will stand against Tories
Brexit Party demands that PM ditches EU deal as leader mulls whether to back Conservatives during campaignTrump calls for Johnson and Farage to ‘get together’
If you’re still catching up with Donald Trump’s wild interview on LBC, he told the Brexit Party leader said he and Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage should team up to form an “unstoppable force”.
Describing them as “two brilliant people”, Trump called for them to “get together” to form a pact.
“I would like to see you and Boris get together because you would really have some numbers … [Johnson] has a lot of respect and like for you. I just wish you two guys could get together – I think it would be a great thing.”
Trump says Boris Johnson's Brexit deal might hinder trade agreement with US
Labour leader accuses president of interfering in Britain’s politics after saying electing Jeremy Corbyn would be ‘so bad’ for countryTory rebel defects to Lib Dems
Antoinette Sandbach, one of the 21 Conservatives expelled from the party last month, has joined the Lib Dems.
She said she was “excited and almost liberated” to be sticking on a yellow rosette in her Eddisbury constituency at this election.
All the details here.
Ex-Tory MP defects to Liberal Democrats weeks before election
MP was one of 21 to have the whip withdrawn by Boris Johnson over decision to block a no-deal BrexitCabinet minister rejects idea of Tory pact with Brexit Party
The Tories do not want an electoral pact with the Brexit Party, a cabinet minister has said.
Communities secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are not interested in doing any pacts with the Brexit Party, or, indeed with anybody else. We are in this to win it.”
Jenrick also brushed aside reservations about the government’s Brexit deal expressed by Donald Trump – who claimed the two countries could do “much bigger numbers” without the deal.
He said: “Well, that’s not how we see it.
“We think that the new deal the prime minister has negotiated... enables the whole of the UK to leave the EU customs union and that means that we can now strike our own free trade deals around the world.”
Labour dismisses Donald Trump election intervention
Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner dismissed Donald Trump’s criticism of Jeremy Corbyn.
The president said the Labour leader would be “so bad … he’d take you into such bad places”.
Referring to a potential Labour government, Gardiner told the BBC: “Of course he sides with the super-rich, Labour doesn’t.
“So, it’s no surprise to me that he thinks it would be bad news for people like him.”
Corbyn himself responded by saying Trump was “trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected” – and raised a previous comment by the president suggesting the NHS was “on the table” for a US-UK trade deal.
Despite concerns the US president is interfering in a British election, plenty of commentators have suggested the Trump’s bizarre interview could play quite well for Labour.
A YouGov poll found two-third of British people dislike Trump, so his apparent endorsement of Johnson and Farage isn’t exactly damaging.
Farage promises to ‘reveal all’ on election strategy
Ahead of the Brexit Party’s general election campaign launch at 10.30am this morning, leader Nigel Farage has been teasing his announcement on the number of candidates.
“Some newspapers are suggesting that we will fight vast numbers of seats, others think we will fight as few as 20 seats,” he told LBC.
“I run a very tight ship, we don’t leak,” he added. “I will reveal all later on today.”
“But, I can assure you that most of what I say will be about Boris’s deal and the need, in my view, for some kind of Brexit alliance.”
Remember, Farage unveiled 600 candidates in the summer and promised to fight up and down the country. But there is speculation he is ready to pull “hundreds” if those candidates.
According to The Times, he is expected to avoid standing candidates against staunch Brexiteers in the Tory party.
Government insists UK can strike trade deal with US
Arguably the most important part of Donald Trump’s strange LBC phone-in interview, president criticised the PM’s Brexit agreement, claiming it could hinder a potential trade deal with the US.
The government has been very keen to claim approving Boris Johnson’s “over ready” withdrawal agreement bill would allow the UK to strike a trade deal with the US.
A No 10 spokesman has responded to the Trump interview by stating: “Under this new deal the whole of the UK will leave the EU Customs Union, which means we can strike our own free trade deals around the world from which every part of the UK will benefit.”
Tory MP David Mundell said people would “take Donald Trump's interventions in any matter with a pinch of salt,” adding: “Mr Trump is the sort of character who as we know makes colourful comments. He’s said many different things about a possible trade deal.”
And communities secretary Robert Jenrick has said this morning that Trump’s view is “not how we see it”.
Senior Tories insist Brexit deal would not kill a US trade deal after shock Trump intervention
'We can’t make a trade deal with the UK,' says US presidentNew Lib Dem recruit says ‘we need a confirmatory referendum’
The newest Liberal Democrat candidate Antoinette Sandbach – one of the sacked Tory rebels who has announce she will stand for Jo Swinon’s party at the election – has been asked about policies.
The MP for Eddisbury didn’t sound too sure about the policy to revoke Article 50 if the party wins a majority.
“They have to win a majority. If they do win a majority they’ll have a mandate to do that. I’ve argued that we need a confirmatory referendum, we should go back and check and see if that’s really what Britain wants.”
Asked on Sky News why she previously voted for a Brexit deal: “I have tried to get every compromise … I like many of my constituents have been on my journey.”
She also told The Times: “I have to say, I have not scrutinised with a magnifying glass every [Lib Dem] policy.”
Labour ‘won’t roll over’ for Donald Trump, says frontbencher
Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner has again dismissed Donald Trump’s criticism of Jeremy Corbyn – and says the party would not
“A Labour government will not roll over and have its tummy tickled by Donald Trump,” he told Sky News. “We will stand up robustly to him over the issues of the NHS and drug pricing that they want to increase.”
Ken Clarke warns of danger in ‘purging’ moderates
The Tory veteran Ken Clarke – the Father of the House who is standing down at the election – has been complaining about the influence of the PM’s right-hand man Dominic Cummings.
“There are zealots inside Downing Street who are purging the party of its moderate one-nation members,” he told Sky News.
He was one of the 21 rebels who had the Tory whip removed. One of those who recently had the whip restored is Alistair Burt.
He has warned that the exodus of moderate Tories from parliament could put off Remain-voting Conservatives tempted to back the Lib Dems.
Burt has told The Times the “purge” might be “the canary in the coalmine” – suggesting the selection of new Tory candidates too slavishly loyal to the PM’s Brexit-at-all-costs stance.
Spoof Tory ad uses Cummings’ ‘poorer people’ remarks
The political campaign group Led By Donkeys is attempting to remind people of previous comments made by the prime minister’s strategy Dominic Cummings on “poorer people” and the NHS.
It’s playing a spoof Tory party ad on a van moving around Westminster, with Cummings saying: “I know a lot of Tory MPs and I am sad to say the public is basically correct. Tory MPs largely do not care about these poorer people. They don’t care about the NHS – and the public has kind of cottoned on to that.”
Will it give the Labour party some ideas?
Watch out for Boris Johnson’s ‘lies’, Tom Watson tells broadcasters
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson has written to broadcasters calling on them to challenge Boris Johnson’s “repeated attempts to rely on fake news, lies and distortions”.
Watson said the PM had a history of not telling the truth and urged TV and radio chiefs to be aware of this in their coverage of the countdown to the December 12 poll.
Dismiss by the Tories as an election stunt, Watson’s letter to the BBC’s director general and the chief executives of other major broadcasters refers to the “serious matter of honesty in public life and trust in politics”.
Labour deputy leader urges broadcasters to challenge Boris Johnson’s ‘fake news’ in election campaign
Tom Watson issues list of 12 Tory campaign claims which Labour have branded falseBrexit Party election campaign launch gets under way
The Brexit Party’s chair Richard Tice is speaking first at the party’s election launch in Westminster. He kicks off by attacking “this stinking rotten borough of Westminster”. Maybe they should have chosen somewhere else for the launch?
Tice seems to be sticking to policy stuff, leaving the teased announcement on candidate numbers to leader Nigel Farage.
He says the party could save money: they would scrap HS2, stop sending “billions” to the EU, and cut the “bloated” foreign aid budget.
Ann Widdecombe accuses Boris Johnson of ‘rot’
Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory MP, is speaking now.
She accuses Theresa May’s Tory government of “outright lies” and describes Boris Johnson’s “do or die” pledge to get out of the EU by 31 October as “rot”. She goes on to claim we now have “rotten, rotten politics”.
Widdecombe says she was “delighted” to join the Brexit Party and thinks they can make “a hugely significant difference” at this election.
Nigel Farage says Labour Leave areas ‘among our top targets’
The Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage is speaking now.
“It’s November 1st and we’re still in the European Union - yet more broken promises,” he says Boris Johnson’s missed Halloween deadline.
Farage says Labour’s Brexit position is “a complete and utter betrayal” and says he will be campaigning in Labour areas.
“In terms of winning seats,” he says he views Labour Leave-voting areas “among our top targets”.
Nigel Farage wants PM to forge ‘Leave alliance’
The Brexit Party leader has turned his attention to Boris Johnson, the Tories and a possible “Leave alliance across this country”.
Farage says: “Boris tells us it’s a great new deal. It is not … quite simply, it is not Brexit.”
He attacks the prospect of “regulatory alignment” and says that under the withdrawal agreement bill “we will not be taking back in any way control of our law, our money or our borders”.
Farage continues: “It will not get Brexit done … I want to urge Boris Johnson to reconsider.
“Drop the deal because it’s not Brexit ... I also, am more than willing to compromise my position.
“If Boris wanted to say he wanted to go down the route of a free trade deal … if Boris was to go along with that I would view that as being a totally reasonable position.”
BREAKING: Farage threatens to contest ‘every seat’ if PM doesn’t agree to deal – and says 500 candidates are ready
“I believe the only way to solve this is to build a Leave alliance … If it was done, Boris Johnson would win a very big majority.
If Johnson doesn’t agree to an alliance, Farage says “we will contest every single seat in England, Scotland and Wales.”
“Please don’t doubt that we are ready … Next Monday we have 500 candidates to coming to London and they will all be signing their candidate forms that day.”
Farage claims some at No 10 want to forge alliance
Our own correspondent Benjamin Kentish asks Nigel Farage what conversations he and his party have had with Boris Johnson and people at No 10.
“We have not spoken formally to anybody about this,” he says. “My understanding is there are some within the inner sanctum that think this is absolutely necessary, there are others who think it’s the last thing they would ever do.”
Asked if he is standing to become a MP somewhere, Farage says he will reveal that in “the next few days”, describing the matter as a “distraction” right now.
He says he won’t want any “silly, wild predictions” about how many seats his party could win.
Farage suggests electoral pact would mean contesting only 150 Labour seats
Nigel Farage has finished up answering questions. Before bringing his launch event to an end, The Brexit Party leader said: “There’s two weeks to construct a Leave alliance – and it needs to be done.”
He may have called Boris Johnson on to start a new negotiation for a Canada-style free trade agreement, but he must know his offer of a “Leave alliance” if the PM ditches his own Brexit deal is certain to be rejected.
So how many Brexit Party candidates will actually stand?
Farage said there were 500 candidates ready to sign the relevant forms and stand across the country.
But back in August Farage claimed: “The Brexit Party has 635 men and women from all walks of life who are prepared to fight a general election.”
If Johnson were to make the highly unlikely move of agreeing to Farage’s offer of an electoral pact, Farage said he wanted a free run in up to 150 mainly Labour seats that the Tories have never won.
