Brexit news: Boris Johnson falls behind Jeremy Hunt in poll of British voters' preferred PM, amid Trump-esque hustings claim and no-deal hint

Rory Stewart has said he would find it "difficult" to trust Boris Johnson.

Speaking to Channel 4, the international development minister said: "It's a difficult one. I mean, I'm pretty cross with him at the moment because I don't make much sense with the Brexit strategy.

"I don't understand what he's doing. The fundamental problem I feel is that he is promising two completely incompatible things to two different sets of people, who are going to be extremely disappointed."

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has urged the Labour party to reconsider its decision to re-admit Chris Williamson.

That YouGov poll, released earlier this afternoon, also found that voters believe Jeremy Hunt would do better as prime minister than Boris Johnson, by 28 per cent to 25 per cent.

For the poll voters were asked the question: "If you had to choose between them, who would you prefer as prime minister?"

Among the general public, Jeremy Hunt led Boris Johnson by 41 per cent to 29 per cent, with the remaining 30 per cent "don't know".

However among only Conservative voters, Mr Johnson led 49 per cent to 39 per cent. For Brexit Party voters, it was 69 per cent to 17 per cent.

YouGov said Boris was falling back among the public while perceptions of Jeremy Hunt were improving.

"It is impossible to tell whether the changes are because of the coverage of Boris Johnson's personal life, the campaign itself, or just a reflection of Jeremy Hunt becoming the sole "anti-Boris" candidate, and therefore being seen more positively by those people opposed to Johnson's coronation," says YouGov director Anthony Wells.

"If the Conservatives are looking towards Boris Johnson as a magic election winner, the evidence is simply no longer there. A decade ago he had a reputation as the Tory who could reach voters other Tories could not, and significantly outperformed his party in the 2012 mayoral election. However our latest polling does not suggest he offers any innate electoral advantage over Jeremy Hunt."

It’s a war of attrition now, as futile and pointless as it is grinding and desperate. All hope of gaining ground is gone, but we are still compelled to defend our territory or else lose it. And so, with our hearts longing for impending death, we must return to our positions once more, writes political sketchwriter Tom Peck.

There’s been another round of Tory leadership hustings. Boris Johnson’s position on Brexit is still meaningless garbage. He still wants to “disaggregate bits of the withdrawal agreement”. He still wants to deal with the Irish border question “during the implementation period”, all the while continuing to have “frictionless trade” with the European Union.

It’s still the case the European Union say they will not countenance this. It is still the case that there is no implementation period unless an agreement is signed. It is still the case that his own deputy prime minister, David Lidington, has had to put out a statement saying exactly this – that the almost certain next prime minister’s plan for Brexit is a complete non-starter.

David Gauke is facing a no-confidence vote by his local Conservative Association this evening.

The justice secretary, who represents southwest Hertfordshire, is one of the cabinet's most prominent opponents of a no-deal Brexit.

A no-deal Brexit would have a serious impact on the Holyhead-to-Dublin trade route, Ireland's premier has said.

Leo Varadkar warned that Ireland would have to impose tariffs on goods entering from the UK.

At an event marking the 20th anniversary of the British-Irish Council in Manchester, he said: "I think in the event of a no-deal Brexit, there would be a very severe impact on trade between Dublin and Holyhead.

"In the first instance, we would have to impose tariffs on all goods being imported into Ireland from the UK and we would have to put in place the necessary customs checks and controls, and we have the infrastructure in place at Dublin port and the staff to do that but we really don't want to do it."

Holyhead is a major port in Wales.

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, said it was the third-busiest in the UK. He added: "We have said at this council that a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for the Welsh economy, would make the sustaining of those economic links far more difficult.

"We will plan against the worst eventualities but we certainly cannot plan in a way that simply wipes away the impact that a no-deal Brexit would have."

Jeremy Hunt has backed off on the banter in his campaign to beat Boris Johnson to Number 10, at least on Twitter.

It's "unify the country"-type rhetoric for the moment, in contrast to the deluge of snark seen earlier in the week.

Labour has removed the party whip from Chris Williamson for the second time this year - only two days after he was re-admitted to the party following a four-month suspension.

The party said the decision to lift Mr Williamson's suspension was now under review and he would therefore not be allowed to sit as a Labour MP, writes Benjamin Kentish.

The EU and Mercosur, the major Latin American bloc, have agreed a draft trade deal following negotiations going back to 2000.

The provisional agreement would link the EU with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay after 39 rounds of talks.

An agreement faces a potentially difficult road to approval. France and other countries fear the impact of a sharp hike in beef imports, while environmental groups, whose influence is stronger in the new European Parliament, argue that the agreement could exacerbate deforestation.

EU countries and the European Parliament both need to give their backing for the agreement to enter force.