Boris Johnson news – live: PM rejects Trump call for Farage general election pact as head-to-head televised leaders debate announced
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Your support makes all the difference.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.
Trump 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.”
Tory 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.
Cabinet 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”.
New 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.”
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