General election news – live: Boris Johnson 'did not contact' family of London Bridge terror victim, as PM faces fresh accusations on NHS crisis

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the general election campaign, with only two days until we go to the polls.

12-year-old girl waits more than 50 hours in hospital emergency department

Our exclusive this morning show the depths of the NHS crisis have been laid bare by a series of cases of sick children forced to wait hours in A&E departments for hospital beds.

One 12-year-old with learning disabilities and mental health issues had to stay in an Essex hospital A&E for 57 hours for a specialist bed to become available, a leaked NHS email shows.

She was one of four children left “in the middle of an emergency department” because of bed shortages. Another child, which was not a mental health case, had to wait 17 hours in A&E over the weekend at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Our health correspondent Shaun Lintern has all the details.

False news story claiming Labour activist punched Tory aide spreads 

Labour have accused the Conservatives of lying about an alleged assault on an adviser to health secretary Matt Hancock in a bid to distract attention from the case of a four-year-old boy with suspected pneumonia left lying on an NHS hospital floor.

Senior journalists began tweeting that they’d been told about a Tory aide getting punched by a Labour activist outside the Leeds hospital. But when footage later emerged, it showed the adviser walking into a man on a bicycle’s outstretched hand.

Both the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston apologised for getting it wrong.

More details here:

Brexit Party figures caught on hidden camera in racist tirade

Key figures from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in its number one target seat were caught on film making a string of racist comments.

One of the party’s councillors in Hartlepool said Muslims are “outbreeding us” and “live like animals”, boasting he once tried to bury a pig’s head under a mosque being built in the town. 

David Mincher also made racist language against Pakistanis and Asians, saying: “Nearly all of Middlesbrough is P***s. Boro’s f***ing rife with all the f***ing Asians now like.”

Channel 4 News also filmed Gordon Parkin, who claimed to be the party’s assistant manager for the North East region, making a series of derogatory remarks against Muslims inside the Hartlepool campaign office.

The Brexit Party condemned the “grave and appalling comments”, saying it had removed the whip from Mincher and dismissed Parkin.

Tory minister blames PM’s refusal to look at photo of sick boy on ‘fluid situation’

The justice secretary Robert Buckland has said the election “should be fought upon the high ground and the big issue” as Boris Johnson continues to come under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy left sleeping on a hospital floor.

Buckland told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That particular story yesterday was one of those occasions where I think everybody was dealing with a very fluid situation.

“I note that the family of the young lad concerned want their privacy to be maintained, they don’t want the issue to be used as some sort of political football and I think we need to respect that and remember that this a general election fought upon - should be fought upon the high ground and the big issues, rather than ending up in a sort of argument about who said what to whom.”

Defending Johnson over pocketing a reporter’s phone when asked about the treatment of Jack Williment-Barr and shown a photograph of him, Buckland said: “There will come moments where you’re suddenly sprung with something and it's difficult to know exactly what is happening.”

He added: “He did talk about it and he did express sorrow and regret for what he saw and an apology and of course the health secretary went to Leeds as well, spoke to the family and apologised and I think that apology is a very important part of all of this, an understanding and a recognition that what happened to this young lad was not acceptable.”

Corbyn denies using four-year-old boy’s case as ‘political football’

Jeremy Corbyn has been asked about the NHS during his interview with BBC Breakfast.

Asked if the case of Jack Williment-Barr was being used as a “political football,” the Labour leader said: “It’s an example of what’s happening in our NHS, and it is obviously awful for that little boy and the family.

“All research shows there is a very large number of hospitals where patients are at risk because of staff shortages, because of equipment, because of hospitals too. It is a serious issue. It is a political issue – how we fund the NHS … The NHS has to be properly funded and at the moment it isn’t.”

Asked about whether Labour’s spending plans are credible. “Our plans are completely credible.”

Challenged on the Labour administration’s record in the NHS in Wales, Corbyn said: “Of course A&E waiting times is a bad record … the issue of the Welsh government has lost a billion pounds in funding.”

PM warns tactical voting could deny Tories election victory

Boris Johnson will try to rally Tory supporters after coming under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy left sleeping on a hospital floor because there was no bed available.

With two days to polling day, the PM will warn there is a “clear and present” danger of another hung parliament unless voters back the Conservatives on Thursday.

On thecampaign trail in Staffordshire, he will say the opposition parties need to gain just 12 seats to put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.

The opinion polls have consistently shown the Tories on course for an overall majority, but senior figures - including Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings - have warned the race is much tighter.

A leaked memo from Tory pollster Michael Brooks to campaign director Isaac Levido seen by The Daily Telegraph said the “major risk” for the party was “the belief that the Conservatives are indeed on course to win a comfortable majority”.

At the same time the Remain United campaign - which opposes Brexit - said polling it had commissioned from Savanta ComRes showed the Tory lead was down to 7 per cent, which it projected would give them a majority of just two in the new parliament.

The PM is expected to say on Tuesday that while the Conservatives need just nine more seats to secure a majority, they face “sophisticated and well-financed” efforts to thwart them.

“The danger of another hung parliament is clear and present. There are sophisticated and well-financed attempts under way to prevent a Conservative majority through tactical voting,” he will say.

Tory minister says ‘confusing scene of public disorder’ led to false story about punch

Justice secretary Robert Buckland, as well as defending Boris Johnson for his refusal to look at photo of four-year-old boy, has tried to explain a false Tory media briefing about Matt Hancock’s aide being punched by a Labour activist.

He said: “I don’t know who briefed what to whom and I have seen the footage... what I saw was a very confusing scene of public disorder.

“People who had clearly organised themselves to come along, create trouble and mischief, the sort of disorderly conduct I'm afraid from the left that we've seen in this campaign. It’s not a way to conduct civilised politics, people were shouting and gesticulating towards Matt Hancock and his team.”

Asked about it on BBC Breakfast, he said: “Clearly there was something going on there … it seems like some sort of public order incident.”

BBC host Dan Walker said: “It was just pointing, how’s that a public order issue?”

Buckland said: “I think there’s more to it than that.”

Jeremy Corbyn will appoint new team of Brexit negotiators backing 'both Leave and Remain' 

Jeremy Corbyn has revealed he would appoint a new team of ministers to negotiate a fresh Brexit deal – backing both Leave and Remain – after criticism of who would carry out the role.

The announcement throws doubt on the continued influence of Keir Starmer the current Remain-supporting shadow Brexit secretary, who was not mentioned by the Labour leader in his interview.

On BBC Breakfast, Mr Corbyn said: “I will be appointing ministers representing different parts of country and whose personal views are different – both Leave and Remain.”

Asked if that would include new ministers, he said: “Of course, yes, but I’m not naming any ministers now.”

Hugh Grant mocks Boris Johnson over ‘tell the truth’ card

The rom-com star Hugh Grant, who has been campaigning for both Lib Dem and Labour candidates, has mocked the Tories for adapting one of his most famous films for a campaign ad.

In a video posted by Boris Johnson on Monday evening, the PM emulated a scene from Love Actually as he approached an apathetic voter with a series of placards on her doorstep.

Referencing a famous moment from the 2003 Christmas-themed romantic drama, the “Vote Conservative Actually” video showed him silently showing a woman a series of Brexit-themed messages after pretending to be a group of carol singers.

One of the placards read: “With any luck, by next year we'll have Brexit done (if Parliament doesn't block it again).”

“I thought it was quite well done,” the actor told Radio 4’s Today programme. “Clearly the Conservative party have an awful lot of money. Maybe that’s where all the rubles went.

“One of the cards from the original film that he didn’t hold up is the one Andrew Lincoln holds up saying: ‘Because of Christmas you tell the truth.’ I just wonder if the spin doctors in the Tory party thought that was a card that didn’t look too great in Boris Johnson’s hands.”