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.
Steve Baker says he ‘won’t be bullied’ by Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage’s offer hasn’t gone down well with the Brexiteers in the Tories’ European Research Group (ERG).
The ERG chief Steve Baker said he was “at a loss” as to what Farage wants to achieve.
The MP said he wouldn’t abandon his support for the PM’s Brexit deal to avoid a challenge from The Brexit Party, saying: “I am no more willing to be bullied by Nigel Farage than anyone else into acting against my best understanding of the national interest.”
Baker added: “I’m now at a loss to know what Nigel Farage wants to achieve. The reason every Conservative eurosceptic MP backed the deal is that it can deliver a Brexit worth having.
“But Boris will only negotiate a great future for the UK if he has a good majority of resolute Conservative MPs. Nigel now risks that and our future.
“It is completely inconceivable that the Conservative party would now go for no deal and a pact. Is Nigel a statesman or a campaigner? We are about to find out.”
Tory MP Steve Baker, chair of ERG (EPA)
Nigel Farage has ‘cocked up’, says Mark Francois
And now Tory MP Mark Francois – another media-friendly member of the ERG – has had his say on Nigel Farage’s offer of a “Leave alliance”.
“If that is meant to be an olive branch – Nigel cocked it up. You cannot say, ‘I want to work with you – but you’re all liars’,” he told the BBC’s World At One.
“If you genuinely want to work with another political party, you don’t go on live national television and call them liars, which is what he did,” he said, explaining he continued to support the PM’s Brexit deal.
“He said Boris’s deal doesn’t take us out of the European Union. That is not true. It does take us out of the European Union ... I’m sorry, but Nigel is just simply mistaken.
“I’m sorry, Nigel is a very talented politician, but anyone who works with him will tell you he’s often his own worst enemy. And his ego has got the better of him. I don’t think he’s going to bully any Tory MP into doing anything they don’t want to do.”
Tory MP Mark Francois (EPA)
Brexit Party set to hurt Tories more than Labour, says top polling expert
The polling guru Sir John Curtice thinks the Brexit Party standing across the country would hurt the Tories more than it would hurt Labour.
“If you simply look at the evidence in the opinion polls as to where the Brexit Party’s vote is coming from … twice as much of it is coming from people who voted Conservative in 2017 than voted Labour,” he told the BBC Radio 4’s World At One.
“It is unlikely that the Brexit Party standing is going to be more harmful to Labour than it is to the Conservatives.”
Curtice added: “If you look at those constituencies that the Conservatives want to pick up – the 50 most marginal Labour seats, they are disproportionately seats where Leave did well, about an average 55 per cent Leave vote.
“They are places where Ukip did well in 2015 and the odds therefore than these are places where the Brexit Party can be expected to do well.”
Leading polling expert Sir John Curtice (Reuters)
Cummings could be forced to appear before fake news inquiry
Dominic Cummings could be forced to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into fake news, after a minister accepted that the government’s reasons for keeping him away were invalid.
Boris Johnson’s right-hand man was invited to give evidence earlier this year to discuss his work on the Vote Leave campaign, but MPs received a reply to say that he could not appear in a private capacity as he was now a temporary civil servant.
But in a second letter to the committee, the government’s constitution minister has now admitted that his original refusal “contained statements that were not in accordance with the government’s approach to the appearance of civil servants at select committees”.
Our political editor has all the details:
‘Only Boris will get Brexit done,’ says Douglas Carswell
Former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell - a former Conservative - has urged Brexit-backing voters to ignore Nigel Farage’s new party and stick with the Tories.
Tory divisions let EU set agenda in talks, study says
Divisions in the Conservative Party allowed the EU to set the agenda during Brexit negotiations, a study has claimed.
The EU was able to monopolise the production of key negotiating texts and guidelines because the Tories were distracted by infighting, academics suggested. This allowed the EU to "box in" the UK, and British negotiators were forced into a series of last-minute concessions.
Researchers from King's College, University College London and the University of Exeter tracked key Brexit decisions and developments by the Conservative government between June 2016 and May 2019.
The study suggests the path towards Britain leaving the EU would have been smoother if then prime minister Theresa May and her ministers had listened more to experts and the public, so there could have been a genuine learning process about a new deal and what it would involve.
Johnson filmed not wearing seatbelt
Boris Johnson posted video footage of himself in the back of a car apparently not wearing a seatbelt, which is punishable by a fine of up to £500.
The prime minister posted a clip with the message "Hi folks, here’s why we’re having an election", and Mr Johnson blaming Labour for blocking Brexit on Halloween. He was in the back of a car, with no obvious sign of a seatbelt on.
Twitter users said he could be punished. The government website warns: "You can be fined up to £500 if you don’t wear a seat belt when you’re supposed to."
'The usual political rules are history'
What is the "Cummings effect"? Our columnist Sean O'Grady answered this and other questions around the election here, in case you missed it:
Decision on Huawei delayed until after election
The government’s decision on the controversial involvement of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in the UK’s 5G network has been put off until after next month's general election.
Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, has now confirmed it is being delayed, writes Andrew Woodcock, our political editor:
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