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Gaffe-prone Jacob Rees-Mogg stayed away from Sunday's Tory election manifesto launch amid claims he has been sidelined until polling day.

The blundering Commons leader has effectively been banished from the campaign frontline after a string of bungles.

He infamously used a live radio interview to suggest victims of the Grenfell Tower inferno could have been saved if they had used “common sense” and fled the blazing tower block when fire ripped through it in June 2017, killing 72 people.

That came after the posh Tory was caught lounging on Parliament's green leather benches during a crunch debate, infuriating Opposition MPs and TV viewers.

Multi-millionaire Old Etonian Mr Rees-Mogg was not at the manifesto unveiling at Telford International Centre, 127 miles from the North East Somerset constituency he is defending on December 12.

(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

Cabinet Ministers sat in the front row as Boris Johnson reeled off the Tories' ballot box offering.

But Mr Rees-Mogg was notable by his absence.

Defending his no-show, he told the Mirror: “Only full members of the Cabinet were expected to attend so I carried on campaigning in my constituency.”

(Image: PA)

It came as Boris Johnson today launched the Tory manifesto as he confirmed he will follow through on a threat to enact full-blown Brexit on 1 January 2021 - deal or no deal.

The Conservative Party leader pledged he would not delay the transition period a day beyond 31 December next year - which critics brand a 'trapdoor to no-deal'.

Meanwhile he unleashed a torrent of U-turns on years of Tory austerity as he launched the manifesto in Telford - three days after Labour pledged billions in spending.

In a screeching climbdown, the Tory leader said he'd bring back student nurse grants - four years after Tories decided to scrap them - and pledged to have 50,000 more nurses.

But he offered no answer to many of the crippling questions plaguing the nation - including the crisis in social care and Universal Credit .