Boris Johnson news – live: PM apologises for failing to deliver his ‘do or die’ Brexit, as Tory MP steps down amid groping claims
Conservative leader says failure to leave EU in October is matter of ‘deep regret’
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Boris Johnson has apologised to voters for failing to take the UK out of the EU by 31 October and called the Brexit extension a matter of “deep regret”.
In an interview on Sky News this morning, the prime minister also refused to say what is the naughtiest thing he has ever done after he was asked the question that stumped Theresa May in 2017.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has announced that he will not be standing as an MP in the December election but said he would not be standing down Brexit Party candidates to help the Conservatives win a majority.
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Nigel Farage has claimed Boris Johnson twice offered him a peerage in an attempt to get the Brexit Party to stand down in the upcoming general election.
The Conservative Party has ruled out an election pact with Mr Farage’s party, who could pull hundreds of candidates across the country to improve Mr Johnson’s chances of gaining a majority.
He has also claimed that the Tories offered a senior Brexit Party colleague a safe seat as part of the alleged deal.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Farage added that he was considering standing in Thurrock in the election – a Conservative-Labour marginal which was a former target seat for Ukip in 2017.
On Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday, Mr Johnson was questioned over his failure to deliver Brexit by 31 October.
The prime minister said he is “deeply disappointed” by the extension to the UK’s EU membership and described it as a “matter of deep regret”.
Mr Johnson had promised to take the UK out of the EU "do or die" during his Conservative leadership campaign.
Mr Johnson has also refused to say what the naughtiest thing he has ever done is, telling Sophie Ridge he would not “improvise” an answer that he had “not cleared with his handlers”.
Theresa May was famously asked the question during the 2017 general election campaign and replied that she had “run through fields of wheat” as a child.
It seems unlikely that Mr Johnson’s answer would have been similarly innocent.
In other news, there have been a couple of commitments this morning from the two main parties.
The Conservative government has confirmed that the freeze in benefit payments introduced in 2016 will come to an end in 2020.
Working-age benefits such as universal credit and jobseeker's allowance will rise by 1.7 per cent from April 2020, the Department for Work and Pensions has said.
Labour has called the announcement “cynically-timed” for the general election.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn’s party has also pledged to spend £60bn on energy-saving upgrades to low-income households over the next decade to help cut UK carbon emissions.
BREAKING: Nigel Farage has said he will not stand as an MP in the general election.
The Brexit Party leader has stood for election to the House of Commons seven times but has never won.
Here’s the video of Mr Farage announcing his decision to not stand as an MP in the December election.
The Brexit Party leader has said he can serve the “cause of Brexit” best by travelling around the country campaigning for other Leave-supporting candidates.
He also repeatedly criticised Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal, suggesting that an informal election pact with the Conservatives is unlikely.
Meanwhile on Ridge, Rebecca Long-Bailey has been asked if she agrees with a Labour MP who recently said no-one in the UK should be a billionaire.
The Labour shadow business secretary said Labour wants to “rebalance the economy” to tackle “staggering inequality” across the country.
Ms Long-Bailey rejected the suggestion that her party was practicing the “politics of envy”.
In his interview this morning, Mr Johnson said Donald Trump was “patently in error” when he claimed the current Brexit deal would hinder trade with the US.
Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has the full story below:
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have been making moves to avoid a split Remain vote in the general election.
This morning, Jo Swinson did not rule out an alliance in dozens of seats with Remain-supporting parties.
It has been speculated that the Lib Dems could work with Plaid Cyrmu and the Greens in up to 60 seats, but Ms Swinson said people shouldn’t “necessarily assume that the numbers are accurate.”
Last night, former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable urged people to vote tactically to block Brexit.
Mr Cable said:
“If 30 per cent of Labour, Lib Dems, Green and nationalist voters vote tactically in their constituencies, any majority for Johnson is wiped out and there is a majority for a people’s vote in the next parliament.”
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