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‘If you can bring yourself to vote Tory then do so,’ says Farage

The Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has claimed he put Boris Johnson in office, and advised some of his party’s supporters to vote Tory.

Answering questions in Bassetlaw on who Brexit Party backers should vote for in seats without a candidate, Farage said: “This is a difficult one, I decided not to stand against existing Conservative MPs.

“If we had stood against the Conservatives in those seats, I think you’d have seen two dozen more Liberal Democrats led by Jo Swinson.

“For God’s sake don’t vote Liberal Democrats or Labour. If you can bring yourself to vote Conservative then do so.”

Taking credit for Johnson being at No 10, Farage added: “The only reason Boris is prime minister is because, earlier this year, I had had enough. After the launch of the Brexit Party in Coventry in April ... we managed to get rid of the worst prime minister we have ever seen.”

Nigel Farage speaking in Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire (PA) 

Tories gave dozens of top donors seats in Lords, says report

Dozens of leading Conservative donors have been given honours after donating huge sums of money to the party, an investigation has revealed.

The party was accused of “cronyism” and faced calls for ab investigation after analysis by the OpenDemocracy website found that one in five people in the elite Tory “Leaders Group” had benefited from gongs like peerages and knighthoods.

In all, 36 out of 200 members of the group – membership of which costs a recurring donation of £50,000 a year to join – appear to have benefited after making large donations.

Our correspondent Jon Stone has all the details:

Tory candidate told to ‘shove off’ as he defends activists

Johnny Mercer, the Conservative candidate for Plymouth Moor View, has tweeted about a confrontation with a voter on the doorstep.

The Tory claimed the man “thought it was ok to shout and spit in the face of one of my young female activists”.

The video showed Mercer getting told to “shove off” as he tells the voter: “Don’t shout at young females who work for me” – before the door is slammed in the candidate’s face.

Johnson agrees to appear on ITV This Morning sofa despite refusing grilling by BBC's Andrew Neil

Boris Johnson has agreed to appear on This Morning before polling day as he continues to refuse to submit to a grilling by the BBC's Andrew Neil.

The prime minister is understood to have confirmed an interview with Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield on the ITV show before next week's general election, with discussions ongoing over the timing of his appearance.

But the move comes amid a row over Mr Johnson's continued failure to take part in a 30-minute one-on-one interview with Mr Neil, the fearsome BBC interrogator.

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This is interesting.

A new poll by Lord Ashcroft reveals the stories that voters say they have noticed in the last few weeks. It suggests the row over the Channel 4 climate change debate, which Boris Johnson refused to take part in, was followed by a surprising proportion of voters.

Board of Deputies responds to Corbyn's antisemitism apology

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has responded after Jeremy Corbyn said he was 'very sorry for everything that's happened" in relation to anti-Jewish abuse in his party. 

Appearing on ITV this morning, the Labour leader said he was "obviously" sorry but insisted he had "dealt with" antisemitism in Labour.

However,  Marie van der Zyl, the Board of Deputies president, said this was not the cause. She said:

"In an appearance on ITV, after again being asked five times for an apology on his party's inability to deal with the antisemitism in its ranks, Mr Corbyn finally said he was 'very sorry for everything that has happened', but immediately added 'I am dealing with it. I have dealt with it. Other parties are also affected by antisemitism'.

"Thousands of complaints have been made to Labour about cases of antisemitism from members; the 130 open cases often cited ignores many cases in which members were let off with a slap on the wrist for the most egregious antisemitism.

"Mr Corbyn has not dealt with it in the past few years; whether he will deal with it now remains to be seen. While we can and do criticise cases of antisemitism from other parties when these arise, we would resist any attempt to deflect from Labour's antisemitism problem by claiming that any serious rival party has the same issue with Jew-hate.

"When it comes to antisemitism, no other mainstream party in British society has anything close to Labour's current problem."

Another top campaign video from former Tory - and now independent candidate for South West Hertfordshire - David Gauke, whose last offering featured an endorsement from a lifelong Conservative voter who turned out to be his father.

Labour pledge to give everyone free high-speed broadband 'could reduce regional inequalities'

Rolling out access to fast broadband could minimise persistent regional inequalities, new analysis shows, as Labour vowed to roll out free full-fibre internet within the next decade.

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a respected independent thinktank, said lack of access to fast internet was a "driver of geographic disparities" and significant investment in digital infrastructure would narrow the gulf between different parts of the UK.

Analysis by NIESR found distribution of access was "highly uneven", with only 2 per cent of households able to access full fibre broadband in the North East and  4 per cent in the East of England.

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Tories buy fake website telling people not to vote Labour

The Conservatives have come under fire for more “dirty tricks” after buying up a website address in the name of a Labour candidate – to tell voters to “stop Jeremy Corbyn".

The domain name margaretbeckett.com – instead of promoting tte former Labour foreign secretary, a candidate in Derby South – reads ‘Don’t Vote Labour’ and attacks her voting record.

The stunt was attacked by Ms Beckett who told The Independent: “This seems to be more Tory dirty tricks, which is par for the course. It’s also a bit pathetic.

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Neil says 'not really' any negotiations going on with Tories over Johnson interview

The BBC's Andrew Neil has said there are no real negotiations going on with the Conservatives about allowing him to interview Boris Johnson - despite the Tories having insisted that there are.

Johnson is the only party leader not to have agreed to be interviewed by the forensic Neil. Despite the Tories having claimed talks were ongoing, Neil has tweeted this...