General election news - live: Tories plunged into spate of fresh fake news scandals, as BBC admits 'mistake' over edited Boris Johnson footage

Tory candidate gets pal to pose as ‘fake swing voter’

A Tory candidate has been caught getting one of his friends to pose as a fake swing voter, raising further questions about the party’s use of disinformation and “fake news”.

Lee Anderson, standing for the Tories in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, forgot he was wearing a live microphone while he phoned his friend to set up the fake encounter to impress a journalist.

“Don’t make out that you don’t know who I am ... you know I’m the candidate, but not a friend, alright?” Anderson was recorded saying.

All the details here:

Applications to register to vote reaches 2.8 million

According to the Electoral Reform Society, there have been a 2.8m applications to register to vote since the start of the election campaign – more than a million more than the comparable pre-deadline period in 2017.

A reminder that you only have one more day to register to vote, if you haven’t already done so – with the deadline arriving at 11:59pm on Tuesday night.

Scottish Labour leader says party wouldn’t block indyref2 – if SNP gets majority

The Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has said the party would not block a second independence referendum if the SNP “got a mandate” for it by winning a majority at Holyrood.

Leonard has been at odds with the Westminster leadership over the issue, but appeared to soften his own stance on the conditions necessary for indyref2.

“We know that at the moment there is not a mandate, despite the claims of the SNP,” he said.

“A mandate I think would need to be achieved through the election of parties into a majority that had a clear mandate to hold a second independence referendum.

“But as the leader of the Scottish Labour party, I am determined that that will not happen because for example, in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, I will be leading the Labour party to win those elections.”

He added: “If the SNP or other parties put in their manifesto that they wanted to hold a second independence referendum and they got a mandate for that, either 2021, 2026 or at some future point, then of course what we're saying is that that would not be blocked by a UK Labour Westminster government.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard (PA) 

Tory candidate apologises for retweeting Tommy Robinson

A Tory election candidate has apologised for retweeting posts from the anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson and far-right agitator Katie Hopkins.

The Hope Not Hate campaign group - which said the posts contained “anti-Muslim and antisemitic material” - said McCartney should be suspended as the Conservative candidate for Lincoln.

In a statement, he said: “I apologise unreservedly. In no way do I endorse the tweets or the accounts behind them. I accept retweeting them was ill judged and could cause offence.

“This divisive figure [Robinson] has no place in our politics or public life.”

YouGov to make election prediction Wednesday night

YouGov said it would publish a highly-anticipated poll which will seek to predict the outcome of the 12 December at 10pm on Wednesday.

The company said its multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) poll “accurately forecast the hung parliament” in 2017.

BBC admits ‘mistake’ over clip of PM with laughter edited out

The BBC has admitted it made a “mistake” by editing a BBC Question Time video of Boris Johnson.

A BBC News Channel clip that cut out audience laughter after the prime minister had been asked about telling the truth was widely shared online – and led the Lib Dems to write to the media watchdog Ofcom demanding an apology.

The BBC has issued a statement saying the clip was “shortened for timing reasons on Saturday’s lunchtime bulletin, to edit out a repetitious phrase from Boris Johnson”.

It added: “However, in doing so we also edited out laughter from the audience. Although there was absolutely no intention to mislead, we accept this was a mistake on our part, as it didn’t reflect the full reaction to Boris Johnson’s answer.

“We did not alter the soundtrack or image in any way apart from this edit, contrary to some claims on social media.”

Labour candidate apologies for post using term ‘gassed’

A Labour candidate has apologised for an old Twitter post referring to Israel which used the word “gassed”. In 2012, Peymana Assad tweeted: “Some man I just met thought I was Israeli so I cracked the 10 lost tribes of Israel joke to him and he got gassed.”

The tweet was highlighted on Monday by GnasherJew, a Twitter account dedicated to “exposing left-wing anti-Semitism” which claims to be run by Jewish journalists and former Labour party members.

The account said it was not sure what Assad meant by the post, but described it as “exceptionally distasteful”.

In a statement shared on Monday afternoon, Assad apologised and said she used the word “gassed” in as a “common slang term for being happy and excited”.

“It didn’t occur to me at all that it would have other connotations and I'm completely mortified that I didn’t realise this. I unreservedly apologise,” she wrote.

Others initially criticised Assad for the tweet, with Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein responding: “This is the person Labour is asking my family & neighbours to vote for in my constituency.” He later tweeted that he accepted her explanation.

Umunna says Johnson has ‘said and done’ racist things

Leading Liberal Democrat Chuka Umunna has launched a stinging attack on Boris Johnson who he says is unfit to be prime minister, accusing him of having said and done racist things.

In a wide-ranging speech, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman said the PM had chosen to align himself with “right wing, authoritarian nationalists” on the world stage.

Asked if he thought Johnson was racist, Mr Umunna said: “I think the things that he has said and done are racist.

“Only he in his heart knows whether he is a racist.”

Umunna also attacked the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He said: “And likewise with Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Corbyn has done things which, arguably, amount to anti-Jewish racism. And he has allowed anti-Jewish racism to proliferate in the party, the Labour Party, during his leadership.”

Stormzy says ‘change possible’ under Corbyn government

Stormzy has backed Jeremy Corbyn and Labour at next month’s general election, one of several grime artists to sign an open letter calling on people to register to vote and help “end austerity, rebuild our communities and take back the means to change our lives for the better”.

Professor Green, Kano and Saskilla are among the other artists backing the Labour leader, stating: “Jeremy Corbyn has been one of the few people who has fought against injustice all his political life, from apartheid South Africa to the bombing of Libya.”

It adds: “The opportunity for people-led change can be made possible under a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government.”

Stormzy is backing Jeremy Corbyn (Reuters) 

Corbyn hopes the NHS might be Boris Johnson's weakness - Andrew Grice

"Labour has not had much good news to celebrate in this election campaign, but there is one ray of hope for the party. The NHS is now cited by more people than Brexit when they are asked to choose from a list of issues likely to determine how they will vote.

"According to Ipsos Mori, health (60 per cent) has overtaken Brexit (56 per cent). The NHS is the issue cited most often by people who backed Labour at the 2017 election (68 per cent). But it is also important for those who voted Conservative then: 58 per cent mention health, putting it in second place behind Brexit (69 per cent). However, other polls suggest that when people have to choose the single most important issue, Brexit trumps health."