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Boris Johnson gets an election boost as it emerges the Brexit Party has not put up candidates in another 38 non-Tory seats

Boris Johnson’s election hopes got a boost yesterday as it emerged that the Brexit Party has not put up candidates in a further 38 non-Tory-held seats. It gives the Conservatives a clear run at Labour in three marginals and opened the way for them to run opposition parties close in another six. The Brexit Party will not contest Dudley North, where Labour has a majority of just 22, or Canterbury where the Tories trail by only 187. And it is not standing in Lanark and Hamilton East, where the SNP has a 226 majority over the Tories and 550 people voted for Ukip in 2017. It also will not contest Bristol North West — a bellwether seat the Tories held comfortably until the last election — or a further five Scottish seats where Conservatives trail Labour and the SNP by fewer than 4,000 votes. – The Sun

Boost for Boris Johnson as Brexit Party fields just 274 candidates – Telegraph (£)

Johnson says there is ‘bags of time’ next year to negotiate the post-Brexit EU relationship…

Boris Johnson has said that one year is “bags of time” to negotiate a new free-trade agreement and post-Brexit relationship between the UK and EU. “There is absolutely no reason why between January and the end of next year, we shouldn’t complete that free-trade deal and have a wonderful new partnership with the EU based on zero tariffs, zero quotas,” the prime minister said on BBC Breakfast this morning. “On developing the free-trade partnership, we’ll have bags of time to do it,” he added. “The deal that we’ll be doing with the EU is unlike any other deal they have ever done. They’re doing it with a state that is already in perfect harmony with their arrangements.” – Politico

…as he Johnson unveils a new Tory ‘Get Brexit Done’ battlebus…

Boris Johnson’s new battle bus for the general election campaign was unveiled on Friday, with a message urging voters to vote Conservative and “Get Brexit Done”. The prime minister unveiled the Mercedes-Benz Tourismo bus, which uses diesel and AdBlue, at a small rally with Tory activists in Greater Manchester. The full slogan imprinted on the side of the bus reads: “Back Boris and vote Conservative to… Get Brexit Done.” There was also a tagline which read: “A stronger economy to invest in our NHS, schools, police, infrastructure.” Mr Johnson, a self-confessed bus enthusiast, described the vehicle as “wonderful”. – ITV News

…while the Tories pin their hopes on gaining the nine extra seats they need for a majority as they dismiss talk of a landslide

Behind the door of Number 10, it is the campaign mantra that is uttered as frequently as Boris Johnson’s catchphrase about how voting Conservative is the only way to ‘get Brexit done’. While political pollsters and commentators obsess over the size of a potential Tory majority, the party’s general election ambitions are actually far more modest than many might imagine. “What we are saying to the country is we only need nine more seats to get a working majority government,” said the Prime Minister in an interview on Remembrance Day. The phrase popped up again during Mr Johnson’s speech in Coventry on Wednesday, and in a campaign email sent a day later which read: “The Conservatives only need to win nine more seats than in 2017 to unblock Parliament and get it working again – and our campaigns in key seats across the United Kingdom are going to be critical to making that happen.” – Telegraph (£)

Jeremy Corbyn faces split over freedom of movement as Labour prepares to finalise election manifesto…

Jeremy Corbyn was on Friday facing a frontbench split on immigration, amid claims that a draft version of Labour’s manifesto contains a commitment to freedom of movement. Shadow cabinet ministers and trade union leaders are on Saturday expected to clash over the wording of the document, which will be finalised at a ‘Clause V’ meeting of senior Labour grandees and officials. Whilst Mr Corbyn has repeatedly refused to say whether Labour will pursue an open border policy with the European Union, multiple sources have told this newspaper that the proposal will be put to the meeting. – Telegraph (£)

…and the party complains to Ofcom about Sky’s ‘Brexit Election’ slogan

The Labour party has complained to Ofcom about Sky News branding its coverage of December’s poll as “the Brexit Election”. The party told the broadcasting watchdog the description “gives undue and unfair weight to the Conservative party’s political agenda”, pointing out that the Tories are using the word in their “Get Brexit Done” campaign slogan. Labour said the news channel’s branding “represents unnecessary and slanted editorialising”. The party also wrote: “We are requesting that Ofcom investigates Sky News for its corporate branding of the general election as ‘the Brexit Election’. We believe it gives undue and unfair weight to the Conservative party’s political agenda because it frames the election in terms chosen by Boris Johnson and the Conservative party, which is using Brexit in its campaign slogan.” – Guardian

Remainer Roland Rudd quits People’s Vote campaign after rows over strategy

Remain-backing PR executive Roland Rudd has quit the People’s Vote campaign after weeks of rows over how to fight Brexit and accusations of sexual harassment by a member of staff. His decision comes less than a month after he ousted two of the campaign’s most senior officials following disagreements over how explicitly it should campaign for Remain rather than just a second referendum. Staff members walked out in protest at the departure of James McGrory and Tom Baldwin, while new Labour grandees Lord Mandelson and Alastair Campbell became embroiled in abriefing war with Mr Rudd, the brother of former Home Secretary Amber Rudd. – Telegraph (£)

Roland Rudd exits People’s Vote amid continuing rancour – Guardian

Donald Trump to visit UK for major summit days before the election

The US President is due to attend the Nato summit between 2 and 4 December, which comes as Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn enter the penultimate week of campaigning. Mr Trump, who will be joined by wife and first lady Melania, will also attend a reception at Buckingham Palace, to be hosted by the Queen. In a statement, the White House said: “President Trump looks forward to meeting with the other NATO Heads of State and government to review the Alliance’s unprecedented progress on burden-sharing, including adding more than $100 billion in new defence spending since 2016.” The announcement comes a fortnight after the outspoken President branded Mr Johnson a “fantastic man” while insisting a Corbyn-led government would take the UK “into such bad places”. He told LBC, in an interview with Nigel Farage: “You know as President of the United States I have great relationships with many of the leaders including Boris, he’s a fantastic man and I think he’s the exact right guy for the times,” he said. – PoliticsHome

Charles Moore: Brexit has its logic. Not even Nigel Farage has the right to get in its way

A year ago next week, the Brexit Party Limited was incorporated at Companies House – an unusual structure for a political party. By the beginning of February this year, the party was registered with the Electoral Commission. By the end of March, Nigel Farage had become its leader. Two months later, it won over three times more votes than the Conservatives at the European elections, returning 29 MEPs. Its Euro-election victory doomed Theresa May’s deal and her premiership. – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£)

Paula Surridge: It’s Tory remainers – not Labour leavers – who are the real key to this election

The 2017 election saw the highest two-party share of the vote for three decades. The electorate in England was largely sorted between the Conservatives and Labour, but there are important groups within each cohort who are not aligned with their parties’ respective positions on Brexit. We have heard recently about the “red wall” of Labour leave seats crossing the country through South Yorkshire and the West Midlands, symbolised farther north by the “Workington man”. Among Labour party voters in 2017, about three in 10 voted leave. We have heard a lot about them over the past three years. They are left-leaning voters who are socially conservative and who had been falling out of love with Labour for some time. More will be written about them in the weeks to come. But there is another group of voters who are also “cross-pressured” in the same way and are perhaps even more cast adrift by their party in recent months: among those who voted Conservative in 2017 a similar three in 10 voted to remain in the European Union. We have heard less about this group, but they could also be key to the parties’ fortunes. – Paula Surridge for the Guardian

Iain Dale: Worryingly for the Conservative Party, it’s unclear how Tory Remainers will vote

I have to say I thought that the Conservative Election Broadcast this week was really good. As someone who’s a bit of a connoisseur of these things (having compiled a three hour VHS video of them in 1998), I thought it was quite original, a bit cheeky and showed off Boris Johnson’s character in a positive light. However, it doesn’t really matter what I think – it matters what ordinary voters think of it. And there, the reception hasn’t been so good. Admittedly on a sample size of five, the consensus was that it was to coin a modern word, ‘a bit cringe’. They thought it was cheesy and scripted and didn’t like the mix between light-hearted questions, and serious ones. On the bright side, everyone was talking about it – and that doesn’t happen very often with PEBs. – Iain Dale for ConservativeHome

Joanna George: Reconciling Brexit with Unionism – the challenge ahead for our political leaders

Is the future of the United Kingdom at risk because the traditional Unionist parties have no explicit vision (manifesto-published or otherwise) about how their commitment to the Union is compatible with their plans for Brexit? Such an important question is being squashed in the wider general election debate—which makes no sense at all, as Brexit is intrinsically linked with the future of the Union and the future of the Union is intrinsically linked with Brexit. Party leaders must address both in tandem, or we risk a huge political and constitutional rupture further down the line. – Joanna George for Prospect Magazine

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