General election: Andrew Neil lays down interview challenge to Boris Johnson – as it happened

Reaction to Andrew Neil issuing a direct challenge to Boris Johnson to face him one-on-one, and the prime minister yet to agree a date for the BBC interview.

Jeremy Corbyn did not directly respond to the question over whether he would resign if Labour does not win next week’s election.

It comes after Lord Falconer called for him to resign if Labour are unsuccessful while Len McCluskey, from the Unite union, said Corbyn should remain.

Corbyn told ITV: “I am leading the party to win the election, I am utterly determined to win the election.”

5 Dec 201914.56 EST

Libby Brooks

At a Liberal Democrat campaign rally in Edinburgh, which featured a “topple Boris” coconut shy, a “Swinzone” selfie area and rather unseasonal free ice cream, Jo Swinson told activists she was glad to be back in Scotland and attacked the government still sitting just down the road at the Holyrood parliament.

“The SNP try to pretend that if you’re against independence, you’re somehow against Scotland. They are wrong,” she told the audience, before taking the SNP government to task for their record on health, education and policing.

“It’s been a tough week for the SNP headline-wise, with the ongoing infections crisis at Glasgow’s flagship hospital, poor results in the Pisa schools study, and the resignation of the chair of the Scottish Police Authority, Susan Deacon, as she criticised police accountability and governance as ‘fundamentally flawed’.”

To laughter, she added: “Boris Johnson says he is committed to our family of nations. But we all know that he’s never been much of a family man.”

Corbyn was asked by ITV what his stance on Brexit was.

He responded: “A credible leave option maintains credible trading relations with Europe, the sale and manufacture of goods, a customs agreement that protects the Good Friday agreement.

“We would support either remain or leave with the economic relationship with Europe intact.”

The Labour leader added he would not support Scotland having a second referendum on independence.

Corbyn has reiterated his apology over the antisemitism allegations that have engulfed his party.

He told ITV: “Antisemitism is a vile evil. I have spent my life campaigning against racism.

“Where there has been a delay in processing [cases], I apologise to the people who suffered as a result of it.”

On safety and security following the London Bridge attack last week, Jeremy Corbyn told ITV “what concerns me is automatic release” for people convicted of serious offences.

He added his priority is a “properly funded prison service and probation service” which is able to intervene.

In an interview with ITV’s Tonight programme, Jeremy Corbyn responded to his standing in the opinion polls.

He said: “I never comment on opinion polls.

“I behave as leader of the party. Yes, I have had a lot of attacks from the media.

“I don’t indulge in personal abuse.”

Andrew Neil has urged Boris Johnson to commit to a BBC interview with him to face questions on why people have “deemed him to be untrustworthy”.

At the end of an interview with the Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, Neil – who was Johnson’s former boss at the Spectator – said: “It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say.”

Neil said Johnson was the only party leader who had not agreed to be interviewed, adding: “We have been asking him for weeks now to give us a date, time ... as of now none have been forthcoming.

“No broadcaster can compel a politician to be interviewed but leaders’ interviews have been a key part of the BBC’s primetime election coverage for decades … to hold to account, on your behalf, those who would govern us. That is democracy.

“We’ve always proceeded in good faith that the leaders would participate and in every election they have - until this one.”

Talks between trade unions and the Department of Health to prevent industrial action have ended without agreement.

Health workers in Northern Ireland have been taking part in action over pay and staffing levels.

There has been strike action as well as work-to-rule across the week, causing thousands of operations and appointments to be cancelled.

Negotiators from four trade unions which represent health workers and nurses held a three-hour meeting with the Department of Health in Belfast on Thursday.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Julian Smith, who met the unions before their talks with the department, welcomed its fresh offer.

But speaking on behalf of the unions, Anne Speed from Unison said it was “insufficient”.

“Despite the tweet from the secretary of state earlier this evening in the middle of discussions before the meeting concluded, our position is as follows: The department has presented a new position, trade unions have jointly agreed this remains insufficient and falls short of our members’ requirements and mandate that they have given us,” she said.

“Industrial action continues and joint planned trade union action remains in place for December 18.”

Nigel Farage has criticised the MEPs who left the party today to campaign for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Farage said Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister to the Commons leader, Jacob, and one of those to walk out, was “wrong” to suggest the Brexit party could put Britain’s departure from the European Union “at risk” by contesting Labour-held seats.

He countered by arguing it was the Tories that were guilty of potentially splitting the leave vote, by contesting constituencies such as Doncaster, Barnsley and Hartlepool where voters were “unlikely” to go blue.

Lance Forman and Lucy Harris also left the party while John Longworth lost the whip on Wednesday for criticising the party’s election strategy.