Boris Johnson news: PM faces new grilling on groping claim, as talks on toppling him stall and senior MP expelled from Tory conference

The government has been told to take urgent action after new figures revealed that the number of homeless people dying on the streets has hit a record higher.

Asking an Urgent Question on the matter in the House of Commons, John Healey, Labour's shadow housing secretary, said"

"This shames us all in a nation as decent and well-off as Britain today.

"Every one in shop doorway, in bedsit, on park bench, has been known and loved as someone son or daughter, friend or colleague..

"This demands a response from the prime minister himself tomorrow in his party conference speech.

"This demands that he leads a new national mission to end rough sleeping and this rising level of homeless deaths.

Responding for the government, housing minister Luke Hall admitted the statistics were "heartbreaking" but said the government was acting to tackle homelessness, including by increasing funding by £54m next year and delivering 750 extra staff and 2,600 more bed spaces.

He said: "There is no shying away from these statistics. They are heartbreaking."

NEW: Boris Johnson has given a series of interviews to UK broadcasters. Top lines to follow.

Here's the first of the stories from Boris Johnson's television interviews that are being aired tonight.

The prime minister has told ITV News that he does not remember a lunch at which he is alleged to have put his hand on a woman's thigh - but has still insisted that the accusation is untrue. 

Full story here: 

And here's the second big story from Boris Johnson's evening media round.

The prime minister has insisted that his Brexit plan will not require any new physical checks in Northern Ireland, but admitted that the 'moment of truth' is approaching in talks with the EU.

Boris Johnson has suggested that recent allegations about him groping a women and handing public money to someone with whom he was having an affair are because people wants to "stop Brexit".

He insisted that women could "absolutely" trust him and claimed that his administration as Mayor of London was "more or less a total feminocracy".

He told ITV News:

"I'm not going to deny that lots of stuff is being thrown at me at the moment but this is a very turbulent time in British politics and people will want to try and knock Government off course because at the moment the task is a difficult mission, but a vital mission, that is to get Brexit done by 31 October."

  ↵NEW: Opposition parties split over who should lead a temporary government if they oust Boris Johnson

Team Johnson do not have many tricks up their sleeve when it comes to securing a Brexit deal, writes Andrew Grice...

This could be interesting.... Bloomberg are reporting that the EU is considering offering the UK a time-limit on the controversial Northern Ireland backstop. Boris Johnson has insisted the backstop must be scrapped completely, but a time-limited version might be enough to win over some Tory MPs...

Ministers would be guilty of "rendition" if the government brought British Isis fighters and their families back from Syria against their will, the defence secretary Ben Wallace has claimed.

The minister told the Conservative party conference: "People say 'bring them back, put them on trial'. If I bring someone back against their will, I'm guilty of rendition. Under international law I can't just swoop into a country and grab someone ... unless they come under extradition. We don't have an extradition treaty with the Syrian regime, not surprisingly.

However experts have challenged the claim over rendition, which commonly refers to the extra-judicial transfer of people from one state to another for interrogation and potential torture.

Maya Foa, director of the Reprieve legal charity, said Mr Wallace's rendition argument was the "the latest in a string of different excuses" the government has used to justify its inaction.

Ashley Cowburn and Lizzie Dearden report.

Reports that EU governments are considering time limiting the backstop have already faced some push back through the bloc's official channels.

Putting a time limit on the customs union agreement for Northern Ireland meets in the middle on the red lines of both sides - the UK government have said they won't accept any backstop, the EU have said they won't accept a deal without it or a suitable alternative.

However Buzzfeed's Europe editor reports the EU commission is not in any way considering the move.