Boris Johnson news: PM delivers rambling Brexit speech on election trail, after being repeatedly jeered by angry members of public

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the general election campaign, with only 29 days until we go to the polls.

Corbyn and Swinson call on PM to declare ‘national emergency’ on floods

Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Tories of neglecting northern England in favour of the south as he attacked the government’s “woeful” response to the severe flooding. 

The Labour leader said spending on flood defences had fallen in Yorkshire, the northwest and the East Midlands since 2016 – while increasing in the southeast, and claimed if the flooding had happened in Surrey, “it would have been a very different story”.

Jo Swinson joined Corbyn in calling on the prime minister to declare a “national emergency” and vowed the Lib Dems would commit £5bn to a flood prevention flood.

Boris Johnson criticised for using 'crude' biblical insult

The prime minister has been accused of descending to “crude insults” in the election battle after using a lewd biblical term in an attack on Jeremy Corbyn.

In his first keynote speech of the election campaign on Wednesday, the prime minister will accuse the Labour leader of political “onanism” - an arcane word meaning masturbation.

More details here:

Gauke backs second Brexit referendum, as he stands as independent

Former Tory cabinet minister David Gauke has backed a Final Say referendum to stop Boris Johnsons’ “hard Brexit” as he announced he will run as an independent.

The ex-justice secretary became the campaign’s most high-profile ex-Tory supporter, urging voters to deliver a hung parliament to deny his former boss the chance to pass his “disastrous” deal.

“My view is the way forward now to have a confirmatory referendum on Boris Johnson’s deal,” Gauke said.

All the details here:

Lib Dem candidate withdraws to help Labour Remainer – but party will field someone else instead

Liberal Democrat candidate Tim Walker has withdrawn from the race for Canterbury to help Labour’s Rosie Duffield win and keep out Tory Brexiteer Anna Firth.

Duffield is the incumbent MP, having won it in 2017 with a majority of less than 200.

But the Lib Dems said they will field another candidate in the seat.

A spokesperson for Jo Swinson’s party said: “We will be announcing a candidate in due course to contest the seat of Canterbury.”

A senior Lib Dem source told ITV that local members had a vote amongst themselves and decided to back Walker’s decision by not fielding a candidate, but were then overruled by the party’s HQ.

Walker himself explained his decision in a piece for The Guardian.

“Politics does not always have to be grubby and small-minded; sometimes it’s possible to acknowledge that what’s at stake is more important than party politics – and personal ambition – and we can do what’s right,” he wrote.

“Rhe nightmare that kept me awake was posing awkwardly at the count beside a vanquished Duffield as the Tory Brexiter raised her hands in triumph. I wanted no part in that.”

People’s Vote shares list of over 100 ‘Remainer’ candidates to back in marginals

Dominic Grieve, Chuka Umunna and Rosie Duffield head the tactical voting list of more than 100 candidates who will receive backing from the People’s Vote group in a bid to topple the Tories in the election.

The cross-party group will lend financial and campaign support to its “PV100” list of candidates, chosen in key seats in hope of engineering a Conservative defeat and forcing a second Brexit referendum.

“These seats are the PV100 - the seats that will decide the election,” People’s Vote said in a statement. “It’s especially important that our supporters vote tactically here to secure a final say referendum. If they don’t, Boris Johnson will win this election and we will leave with his deal."

While the list in fact comprises 112 candidates in key seats, one omission is Anna Soubry, who is fighting to hold Broxtowe for Change UK after winning it for the Tories with a majority of just 863 votes at the last election.

Grieve is running as an independent in Beaconsfield, having held the seat for 22 years as a Tory MP before becoming one of 21 MPs who lost the Conservative whip in September. Umunna, formerly a Labour MP but now the Lib Dems, is a candidate for the Conservative-held Cities of London and Westminster.

And Duffield is the incumbent Labour MP for Canterbury, having won it in 2017 with a majority of less than 200.

Lib Dem candidate Tim Walker withdrew from the race for Canterbury on Tuesday to help Duffield keep out Tory Brexiteer Anna Firth. The Lib Dems, however, say they will field another candidate in the seat.

Voters can visit the People’s Vote website to learn more about the group's recommended candidates.

“The PV100 candidates were selected using sophisticated analysis of both public and private polling, including data from general, local and EU election results... and constituency specific data,” People’s Vote said.

Labour vows to outspend Tories on NHS

Health funding will be boosted by £26bn under a Labour government which will cover the cost by taxing the richest in society, the party has pledged.

On Wednesday, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth will announce Labour's proposals to “end the Tory NHS crisis” with a £26bn in real-terms - £40 billion in cash terms - healthcare funding boost.

In a speech at the Royal Society of Medicine, they are expected to announce an annual average 4.3 percent funding increase for health spending over the next four years, funded from Labour's proposals to reverse corporation tax cuts and tax the wealthiest people in society.

Labour’s plan includes NHS capital expenditure rising to the international average, £1 billion-a-year training and education budgets, and £1 billion more to fund an expansion of public health services.

McDonnell is expected to say: “The world-class health service we all need and depend on needs proper funding.”

Arron Banks calls on ‘gambler’ Farage to drop more candidates

Nigel Farage’s friend and ally Arron Banks, co-founder of Leave.EU, is urging him to stand down yet more Brexit Party candidates and concentrate on around 40 Labour-held seats where the Tories “haven’t got a hope”.

Banks said: “Nigel reminds me of a gambler at a casino that’s been winning all night and it’s time to take the chips off the table and step away. What we are offering the geezer ... is Brexit.”

With Brexit Party candidates getting antsy about whether they’re part of a proper political outfit or merely Farage’s plaything, the leader has until the end of Thursday – the deadline for candidates to declare – to decide what to do.

A Brexit Party spokesperson said: “We are not going to listen to [Banks].”

Banks responded to news Lib Dem candidate Tim Walker was stepping down to forge a local Remain alliance in Canterbury by stating: “The side that unites the Brexit or Remain vote the best wins this election.”

Army sent into flood-hit areas, as PM promises action

Boris Johnson has responding to the floods crisis by pledging £2,500 for businesses affected, while an additional 100 Armed Forces personnel will be deployed to help the recovery effort.

It comes after criticism from opposition leaders over the government’s response to the issue.

Severe flooding hit several areas in Yorkshire and the East Midlands last week, with parts around the River Don near Doncaster worst affected after the river burst its banks.

Johnson chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency committee Cobra on Tuesday afternoon, as pressure mounted on ministers to take action.

Speaking afterwards, the PM said the country had to “prepare for more floods” this winter because the ground is so waterlogged.

Johnson said the authorities are working “flat out” to deliver an adequate response, adding: “I know there will be people who feel that that isn’t good enough.

“I know there will be people who are worrying about the damage to their homes, who will be worried about the insurance situation, worried about the losses they face. All I want to say to those people is that there are schemes to cover those losses.”

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said the government’s action was “too little, too late”.

Extensive flooding in Doncaster, Yorkshire (Getty) 

Idea of Corbyn at No 10 ‘chills me to the bone’, says ex-Labour minister

A former Labour minister has revealed he will be voting for the Tories, saying the idea of Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister “chills me to the bone”.

Tom Harris, who served as a junior minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, branded the Labour Party leader an “extremist” and claimed he was "”not someone who can be trusted with the security of the nation”.

Suggestions that a future Labour government would allow a second vote on Scottish independence “add to the many reasons to vote against the Labour party”, Harris added.

The former Glasgow South MP spoke out as Corbyn began a two-day campaign tour of Scotland.

Harris, who announced in 2018 that he had left the Labour Party, claimed Corbyn “represents a kind of strain of left-wing politics that is a compete anathema to the traditional Labour party”.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “He is not someone who can be trusted with the security of the nation as far as defence is concerned, he is a man who has instinctively sided with our country's enemies over the years he has been an MP.

“The idea of him becoming prime minister just chills me to the bone. The only way of stopping Corbyn becoming prime minister is to vote for Boris Johnson's Conservatives, it is a very simple, logical conclusion.”