Boris Johnson has rejected the suggestion from Nigel Farage and Donald Trump that he should work with the Brexit Party during the election. The Tory leader told the BBC he was “always grateful for advice” but he would not enter into election pacts. His comments come after the US president said Mr Farage and Mr Johnson would be “an unstoppable force”.

Downing Street sources say there are no circumstances in which the Tories would work with the Brexit Party. In an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister said the “difficulty” of doing deals with “any other party” was that it “simply risks putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10”.

“The problem with that is that his [Mr Corbyn’s] plan for Brexit is basically yet more dither and delay,” Mr Johnson said. Mr Johnson also said there was “no question of negotiating on the NHS” as part of any future trade deal with the US, but he did not rule out expanding the amount of private provision in the health service in the future. But Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said the public “can’t trust the Tories on the NHS”, saying they would “increase privatisation even further and do a deal with Donald Trump”.(BBC)…[+]