General election - live: Nigel Farage faces grilling from Andrew Neil after four Brexit Party MEPs defect to Tories
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has promised to cut taxes in a “post-Brexit budget” within weeks of the UK leaving the EU. But the plan – based on an existing pledge to raise the threshold for national insurance contributions – was branded as “pure fantasy” and the PM accused of lying.
It comes as Conservative officials are said to be concerned about evidence of a narrowing poll lead over Labour. Appearing on This Morning, Mr Johnson likened Labour's leaked, NHS-related government trade documents to “UFO photos”.
Sajid Javid has claimed Mr Johnson could secure a complex trade deal with the EU “within months”. EU documents leaked to The Independent show leaders in Brussels will issue an election result-day warning to Mr Johnson about the “limited” time to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
Meanwhile, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was grilled by the BBC's Andrew Neil, who issued a challenge to the prime minister, who has dodged appearing on his programme, telling him he has an interview "oven-ready".
Donald Tusk has said Brexit is "one of the most spectacular mistakes" in the history of the EU - and "the most painful and saddest experience" of his time as European council president.
Speaking for the first time since he stood down from the role last week, he blamed former prime minister David Cameron for the "mistake" of organising an EU referendum that he had "no chance" of winning.
In an interview with The Guardian, Mr Tusk said the EU referendum campaign was marred by "an unprecedented readiness to lie", and that it would be better for both sides if Brexit did not go ahead.
He added: “It’s pure illusion [to think] that it is easier to build good relations with the UK when they are outside.”
Piers Morgan has told Boris Johnson to "stop running away from any rigorous interviews" after the prime minister's team confirmed he would not be taking part in ITV's Tonight programme.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage is appearing on BBC One's The Andrew Neil Interviews.
Andrew Neil starts by saying this election should have been Mr Farage's "finest hour" and asks him what went wrong, to which the Brexit Party leader replies that his party "completely reshaped the debate around Brexit" after "dramatically" winning the European elections.
He adds: "In a sense what we did was to create Boris Johnson and a narrative that in 2017 had been ‘Brexit means Brexit' and now it’s ‘let’s get Brexit done'."
When Mr Neil tells him he is "irrelevant" in this election, Mr Farage replies: "I don’t think if you came with me and visited some of the Labour heartlands in the North you would think that."
Today, four Brexit Party MEPs resigned to join the Conservatives.
One of them, Annunziata Rees Moggs, said the Tories were the "only option for Brexit supporters".
Mr Farage told Mr Neil: "On the numbers she couldn’t be more wrong. We’ve been down this road before."
Mr Farage claims one of the MEPs "is a sister of a cabinet minister", another "has a boyfriend working for that cabinet minister" and another is a "personal friend of Boris Johnson's".
Mr Neil brands Mr Farage's claims as "smear", to which he says: "Not smears, they’re facts."
Mr Neil says Mr Farage knew Annunziata Rees Mogg's brother was in the cabinet but "still paraded her".
Mr Neil says she is an intelligent woman and can make up her own mind, to which Mr Farage replies: "Well, she doesn’t understand what is happening in the Labour seats in which we are standing."
Mr Neil asks Mr Farage whether it is acceptable to call Islam "a child rapist death cult" - a comment made by a Brexit Party candidate running in Edinburgh South West.
Mr Farage says: "Isn't that why we got rid of him?"
Mr Neil says he's not aware that he has, to which Mr Farage says: "I'm sure we have," adding: "Any attempt that gets made to try and paint the Brexit Party into being a right-wing political party that would harbour anybody with extreme views is completely and utterly wrong."
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