Boris Johnson news – live: PM launches Conservative election campaign after day of gaffes and mishaps

Follow all the latest developments

General Election 2019: Opinion polls over the last seven days

Boris Johnson launched his general election campaign with a rally in Birmingham, where he attacked Labour’s Brexit stance as a “Bermuda Triangle” barren of intelligence, and compared Nigel Farage to “candle sellers on the dawn of the electric lightbulb”.

But Labour party deputy leader Tom Watson stole the headlines as he announced his decision to stand down as an MP in the middle of Mr Johnson’s speech, citing reasons “personal, not political” and a desire to campaign about ”the public health challenge facing our country”.

Boris Johnson’s campaign had earlier been thrown into disarray as Alun Cairns quit as Welsh secretary after being accused of “brazenly lying” about his knowledge of an allegation that his former aide sabotaged a rape trial.

The Tories were also accused of doctoring footage to falsely suggest Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer was unable to answer a question about Brexit, while James Cleverly was brutally “empty-chaired” after missing a Sky News interview.

Mr Johnson was criticised for comparing Jeremy Corbyn’s “hatred” of wealth creators to the persecution of the Kulaks – a group of landowning peasants killed by Stalin in the 1930s.

One Tory MP admitted it hadn’t been a “great day” for the party and said “people cocked things up”.

Key Points

• Tom Watson steps down as an MP
• Anti-racism protesters make noise at Tory campaign launch
• Boris Johnson says he 'doesn't want' election as he launches election
• Welsh secretary resigns over rape trial controversy
• Bercow says Brexit 'biggest mistake since the war'
• Tories post manipulated video of Labour's Keir Starmer
• Tory MP apologies for suggesting Rees-Mogg 'cleverer' than Grenfell victims

[6 November 2019 20:39 · Andy Gregory]

Corbyn responds to Watson’s resignation

Jeremy Corbyn has responded to Tom Waton’s resignation letter, writing:

“Few people have given as much to the Labour movement as you have and I know that many thousands of members and trade unionists that you have inspired and worked with over the years will be very sorry to see you go.”

And another stand-out line:

“I hope the horseradish plants I gave you thrive.”

[6 November 2019 20:54 · Andy Gregory]

More flyering woes for Lib Dems

The Liberal Democrats have been on the sharp end of rebukes from YouGov and polling company Flavible.

If you can read the print below where it says "YouGov polling for Putney" on the leaflet tweeted below, you'll see that it cites Flavible as a source - which turns out to be a fairly essential point.

The company takes YouGov's national results and uses it alongside population data to project how a given seat may vote - which often provides a very different outcome to actual localised polling by YouGov.

George Rushton, Flavible's founder, said the party has "themselves misinterpreted the data or intentionally mislabelled the data for political advantage".

A senior YouGov director said the poll "shouldn't be represented as YouGov's".

[6 November 2019 21:07 · Andy Gregory]

Tributes pour in after Tom Watson announces departure

While it remains to be seen how his departure will affect Labour's campaign, and what the decision betrays about the relatively dormant battle for the soul of the Labour Party, tributes to the former deputy leader have poured in from all corners of the UK left.