Donald Trump tonight lavished praise on Boris Johnson and urged him to strike an election pact with Nigel Farage as the US President launched a stinging attack on Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Trump said if Mr Johnson and Mr Farage 'get together' and form an alliance before December 12 they would be 'unstoppable'.

He then warned voters against backing Mr Corbyn at the ballot box as he said the Labour leader would be 'so bad' for the UK.

He also rubbished Mr Corbyn's claims that the NHS would be on the table during post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and US.

The US President made the bombshell intervention during an unexpected interview with Mr Farage on LBC this evening on the day the general election campaign began in earnest.

Mr Farage has repeatedly offered Mr Johnson an electoral pact to avoid splitting the Leave vote - but only if the PM agreed to ditch his deal with Brussels and campaign for a 'clean break' from the EU.

Mr Johnson has so far rejected the offer and has insisted he will campaign on a pledge to deliver his Brexit deal.

However, Mr Trump piled the pressure on the PM to change his mind tonight as he backed Mr Farage, his political ally, and suggested together the Tories and Brexit Party could do something 'terrific'.

He also delivered an unprompted assault on Mr Corbyn who he said would take Britain to 'such bad places' if he became PM.

He said: ‘I have great relationships with many of the leaders, including Boris. He is a fantastic man and I think he is the exact right guy for the times and I know that you and him will end up doing something that could be terrific.

‘If you and he get together, you know, unstoppable force and Corbyn would be so bad for your country.

‘He would be so bad. He would take you in such a bad way. He would take you into such bad places.’

He added on the possibility of a pact with Mr Johnson: 'I wish you two guys could get together I think it would be a great thing.'

Mr Farage is ardently against Mr Johnson's Brexit deal on the grounds he believes it would leave the UK too close to the EU but he insisted tonight his offer of an alliance still stands.

He asked Mr Trump to persuade the PM to drop his Brexit agreement in favour of a No Deal split but the US President said he would not want to tell his counterpart what to do.

Mr Trump did give Mr Farage a major boost as he suggested the PM's current agreement with the EU could make a future trade deal with the US difficult.

‘We want to do trade with the UK and they want to do trade with us and to be honest with you this deal under certain aspects of the deal you can’t do it,' he said.

‘You can’t do it, you can’t trade. We can’t make a trade deal with the UK.

‘I think we can do many times the numbers that we are doing right now and certainly much bigger numbers than you are doing under the European Union.’

Mr Trump then moved to dismiss suggestions that the US will demand access to the NHS as the price of negotiating a trade deal with Britain as he said 'we wouldn't even be involved in that'.

Donald Trump, pictured in December last year, urged Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson to strike an election pact. He said they would be an 'unstoppable force' if they formed an alliance

Mr Trump made the bombshell comments during an LBC interview with Mr Farage this evening

Mr Johnson, pictured on the campaign trail at a self defence class in Hendon today, has previously rejected Mr Farage's offer of a pact but he will now be under massive pressure to reconsider

Later, Mr Johnson was steadied by Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick as he visited a self-defence class at the force's college in Hendon, north London

The PM today insisted that he can be trusted to deliver Brexit despite breaking his 'do or die' vow

The key quotes from Donald Trump's interview with Nigel Farage On the PM's Brexit deal: 'To be honest with you this deal under certain aspects of the deal you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t trade, I mean we can’t make a trade deal with the UK.' On Mr Farage: 'You’re like a great tea leaf reader.' On a Tory/Brexit Party pact: 'I wish you two guys could get together I think it would be a great thing... if you and he get together as, you know, unstoppable force.' On meeting the Queen: 'A great, great woman, and I think we hit it off really well.' On Theresa May: 'I told her exactly how to make a deal but she didn’t listen to me and that’s okay, not everybody listens to me, some people do.' On Jeremy Corbyn: 'Corbyn would be so bad for your country. He’d be so bad, he’d take you in such a bad way. He’d take you into such bad places.' On Brexit: 'I think they’re gonna get that done. People are tired of hearing about. We’re even tired of hearing about it over here. I think you’ll get that done.' Advertisement

The US President said he believed Mr Corbyn had 'put that out there' on the NHS and that he had never even heard of any such demands before he came to the UK for a state visit in June this year.

Mr Corbyn hit back hard on Twitter and said: 'Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.

'It was Trump who said in June the NHS is “on the table”.

'And he knows if Labour wins US corporations won’t get their hands on it. Our NHS is not for sale.'

Mr Trump expressed optimism that Brexit will be sorted out before the US presidential election next November as he said 'people are tired of hearing about it'.

He said: 'No, I think Brexit will happen first. I hope so ‘cause otherwise Brexit’s gonna be, you know, you should be able to knock that off.

'I think they’re gonna get that done. People are tired of hearing about it. We’re even tired of hearing about it over here. I think you’ll get that done.'

Liberal Democrat MP Chuka Umunna said Mr Trump and Mr Johnson are both 'unfit' to hold public office.

'This endorsement is yet another example of the cuddly relationship between the two men,' he said.

'As the saying goes, you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.'

Mr Trump's incendiary election comments came as Mr Farage was today struggling to contain deep splits in the Brexit Party over whether to axe hundreds of election candidates to avoid depriving Mr Johnson of a Commons majority.

The veteran MEP had been due to launch the party's campaign for December 12 today, but the event was pushed back to tomorrow amid claims he is wavering over whether to ditch the commitment to stand in all 650 seats.

There are rumours that instead the Brexit Party will target resources on perhaps as few as 20 Leave-backing Labour seats in the North, and not stand against Eurosceptic Tories.

Mr Farage refused to be drawn on the situation earlier. But in an email to supporters last night he hinted at a more focused approach, saying the party face 'a big challenge' to 'clear out the Remainer Parliament and win a majority for Brexit'.

Arron Banks, founder of the Leave.EU campaign - a close confidant of Mr Farage - has been urging him not to split the Eurosceptic vote.

Mr Trump said Jeremy Corbyn, pictured launching his election campaign in London, would be 'so bad' for the UK

He is understood to have told Tory friends: 'The Brexit Party is completely split and Nigel has got to make a decision.'

There are also claims in Westminster that the party only has enough funds readily available to mount campaigns in a couple of dozen seats.

A final decision is not expected to be announced until the formal election launch tomorrow, with candidates urged to stay 'dark' over their intentions.

However, even targeting Labour Leave seats could deny Mr Johnson a majority - as those are the seats he is hoping to win to offset possible losses to the SNP and Lib Dems in pro-Remain parts of the UK.

Mr Farage previously said that the Brexit Party would contest every seat across the nation but it emerged earlier this week that the party has just over 450 candidates in place for the December 12 snap poll.

The party has been split about what to do since the Tories rejected an electoral pact.

The party's MEP John Longworth has urged it to concentrate its efforts on a smaller number of seats in Brexit and Labour-supporting areas.

Boris Johnson opens up MASSIVE 17 point poll lead over Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party Boris Johnson has urged voters to back his 'oven-ready' Brexit deal at the ballot box on December 12 as he started the general election campaign with a massive 17 point poll lead over Jeremy Corbyn. An Ipsos Mori survey conducted for the Evening Standard between October 25-28 has the Tories on 41 per cent - up eight points since September. But Labour is far behind on 24 per cent and only narrowly ahead of Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats on 20 per cent. An Ipsos Mori survey for the Evening Standard gives the Tories a 17 point lead over Labour with the Lib Dems in third place in 20 per cent The poll has Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party on just seven per cent as Mr Johnson appears to be winning back Leave voters who may have ditched the Tories for the upstart movement. Meanwhile, the Tories have a 15 point poll lead over Labour in a new YouGov survey conducted for The Times. The Tories and the Labour Party were in similar positions in the polls at the start of the 2017 general election campaign but ultimately ended up with 42 per cent and 40 per cent of the total vote share on polling day. A 2019 general election poll tracker suggests that the Tories are gaining ground while the Labour Party is struggling to make progress Advertisement

Mr Corbyn hit back on Twitter as he accused the US President of 'trying to interfere in Britain's election'

Boris Johnson looks at old photographs of London with students at a primary school in Bury St Edmunds today

The Mail revealed yesterday that chairman Richard Tice is receiving begging texts from Brexiteer Tory MPs calling for the Brexit Party to stand aside in their seats.

Mr Banks told the FT today: 'It's not as simple as whether the Brexit party should stand down across the whole country… the national polls say one thing, but there is a different dynamic in each seat that has to be considered.

'If Nigel takes a tactical, pragmatic approach on where to run to help deliver Brexit he'll be rewarded by voters.'

Prospective Brexit party candidates are still waiting to hear whether they are standing in the vote which was confirmed today after election legislation was given royal assent.

A message to all candidates on Thursday morning said: 'Important. Please all go DARK on social media. DO NOT respond to any questions about where we [are] standing, what the strategy or plan is from now on. Things will be made clear… very soon,' according to the FT.

Yesterday, arch-Eurosceptic Tory MP Steve Baker - seen on October 28 - said the Conservatives should reject a pact with the Brexit Party

It is even unclear whether Mr Farage himself will stand, despite reports that he will contest the Essex seat of Thurrock.

The party will reveal at a launch event on Friday where it will stand its candidates.

Yesterday, arch-Eurosceptic Tory MP Steve Baker said the Conservatives should reject a pact with the Brexit Party.

The chair of the Eurosceptic European Research Group previously urged cooperation with the party, but now says the Tories should fight them.

Mr Baker said that Mr Johnson's deal would make a pact with the Brexit Party, which supports a No Deal exit from the EU, all but impossible.

'A pre-Brexit pact with the Brexit Party won't happen all the time Mr Farage insists the Conservatives pursue no deal, which won't happen,' Mr Baker told the New Statesman.

'Boris will have to win without any arrangement.'

In September, Mr Baker warned that the Tories risked losing power altogether if they attempted to fight a pre-Brexit election without a pact.

'If we have an election before we have left the European Union and the Brexit Party think that we're heading in a direction which does not deliver our independence from the EU then they will stand candidates virtually everywhere and the result will be, as per Peterborough and in Wales, they will result in a Lib/Lab Remain coalition. We will lose Brexit,' he said.

The Prime Minister has always ruled out a pact with Mr Farage, which would be unacceptable to a majority of Conservative MPs.

Mr Johnson's team described the former Ukip leader as 'not a fit and proper person' to govern.

Mr Johnson has managed to unite the Tory party behind his deal, something that always eluded his predecessor.

He also managed to win over the 28 'spartan' members of the ERG who refused to vote for Theresa May's deal three times.

Without a pact with the Tories, Mr Farage's party could struggle to make an impact on December 12. It is more likely to split the Leave vote should it stand candidates across the country.

Although the Brexit Party is trailing the Conservatives in the polls, Tory MPs fear that Mr Farage's group could win enough votes to deny them victory in certain seats.

A Brexit Party spokesman said: 'We continue to wish to have the broadest collection of clean Brexiters — in line with the result of the 2016 referendum — in parliament as possible to ensure a clean Brexit.'