General election news – live: Boris Johnson 'did not contact' family of London Bridge terror victim, as PM faces fresh accusations on NHS crisis
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has faced new questions about the state of the NHS after The Independent revealed a 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.
Mr Johnson remained under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy who slept on a hospital floor.
It came as the father of London Bridge attack victim Jack Merritt accused Mr Johnson of using his son’s death as “an opportunity” and said there was “no attempt” to contact the family from Downing Street, despite the insistence of a Number 10 spokesperson to the contrary.
Labour have accused the Conservatives of lying about an alleged assault on health secretary Matt Hancock’s aide in a bid to distract attention from the NHS crisis, while Jeremy Corbyn denied his party was using the case of the four-year-old boy as a “political football”.
Trade experts also uncovered fresh evidence that Boris Johnson is misleading voters about the impact of his Brexit deal on Northern Ireland – leading them to warn it is unlawful. The UK Trade Policy Observatory found tariffs would be charged on around 75 per cent of imports, including those from Britain, under the PM's plan for a customs border in the Irish Sea
Corbyn gives Ashworth his "full support"
Jeremy Corbyn has given Jonathan Ashworth his "full support", despite the shadow health secretary having been recorded suggesting that the Labour leader was a national security threat and was leading his party to election defeat.
Speaking during a campaign visit to Carlisle, Mr Corbyn insisted that he was "cool with Jon" and claimed the comments were an example of Mr Ashworth's "rather odd sense of humour".
He said:
"He said to me it was all about reverse psychology banter as in football supporters and the other person was saying the opposite about their party and it all got a bit out of hand."
Johnson uses campaign event for bizarre JCB digger stunt
Boris Johnson has driven a Brexit digger through a polystyrene wall at a bizarre campaign event as the election campaign enters its final days.
The prime minister got behind the wheel of a JCB digger with "Get Brexit Done" written on its bucket and smashed through a wall emblazoned with the word "Gridlock".
He posed for a photo before giving a thumbs up and shouting "Get Brexit done" to waiting photographers.
Full story:
Extinction Rebellion "bees" stick themselves to Tory campaign bus
Here's a photo of the climate change activists gluing themselves to the Conservative battlebus in Staffordshire.
The protest delayed the bus's departure from the JCB factory where Boris Johnson has been speaking.
(PA)
Tories' Scottish secretary compares austerity to 'housekeeping'
Alister Jack has told ITV the Conservatives' austerity policy was equivalent to a 1 per cent reduction in government spending.
He compared the austerity of the last decade to "housekeeping", adding "true austerity" took place after WWI and WWII.
He said he was "not disputing" there were people in poverty, but claimed to believe believe that "child poverty numbers have gone down by 400,000 across the UK".
The number of children growing up in poverty in working households has increased by 800,000 since 2010, a study by the Trades Union Congress suggested in November, bringing the total number of child poverty cases to 2.9 million last year.
Swinson now less favoured than Corbyn, Ipsos Mori finds
The pollster's tracker of favourability ratings of the party leaders has seen Jo Swinson drop below Jeremy Corbyn for the first time in the campaign.
The Labour leader saw his net favourability surge eight per cent to -30.
Ms Swinson has dropped from -20 near the campaign's beginning to -31, while Mr Farage now sits at -34.
Mr Johnson has a score of -14, with a third of those polled viewing him favourably, compared to Corbyn's 26 per cent.
After a delay of more than 100 minutes, the three Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed as bees have been unstuck from the Conservatives' bus.
The three men were placed in handcuffs by police.
Nicola Sturgeon open to idea of 'Devo Max' as option in IndyRef2
Scotland's first minister has said she is not against the idea of putting "Devo Max" - full devolution of powers except defence and foreign affairs - as a third option on the ballot of an another independence referendum if other parties wish to propose it.
But she reaffirmed her personal belief that any choice should be set on the same binary basis as in 2014, when Scotland voted 55-45 to remain part of the UK.
Push for third-placed candidates to endorse rivals to stop hard Brexit
In a last-ditch effort to stop a hard Brexit, campaigners for a Final Say referendum are calling on Liberal Democrat and Labour candidates in 20 key general election seats to cease campaigning and announce they are voting for Remain-backing rivals who stand a better chance of denying Boris Johnson a majority, Andrew Woodcock reports.
The eve-of-poll plea came as new polling suggested that in at least one constituency – Stockton South – a few thousands votes for the third-placed Liberal Democrats could make the difference between Labour and Conservative victory on Thursday.
Read more details here:
Not long now until YouGov publishes the results of its extensive UK-wide poll.
While many argue over the accuracy of current polling in what is arguably the most unpredictable race in modern history, the poll due to be released at 10pm tonight tests the mood of roughly 100,000 potential voters.
Scottish Labour leader jokes about Ashworth's anti-Corbyn recording gaffe: 'I don't have any Tory friends'
During the BBC's Scottish leaders debate Richard Leonard was asked about the recording published today by right-wing blog Guido Fawkes that heard shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth denouncing Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
Mr Leonard repeated Mr Ashworth's assertion that the comments were merely attempts at humour with a friend, joking that he would not be caught in the same situation as he's not sure he has any Tory friends.
The comment comes after SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon urged her fellow politicians to remember they were "opponents, not enemies" during a discussion on the waning public trust in politics.
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