Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Boris Johnson urges voters to get Britain ‘out of neutral’ and blasts Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘failure of leadership’ on Brexit in TV debate Boris Johnson has tonight blasted Jeremy Corbyn for a “failure of leadership” over Brexit in their final live BBC debate – with just a week to go until polling day. The PM went up against the leftie leader for their last showdown before polling day, and repeatedly attacked him for staying neutral on the biggest issue of the day. The two leaders were grilled by BBC presenter Nick Robinson, and faced questions from 100 members of the audience in an hour-long showdown. Boris, who is flying at least ten points ahead of his rival in the polls, immediately got onto the front foot by attacking the Labour boss on Brexit, saying he was “stuck in neutral”. He said it was “inconceivable” and a “failure of leadership not to have a position on the greatest issue of our time”. – The Sun > WATCH: Boris Johnson & Jeremy Corbyn clash on Brexit on the BBC Prime Ministerial debate Johnson’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ strategy is resonating with voters in marginal seats Amid ongoing concern from Labour strategists about whether the party can hold on to the support of leave voters in marginal seats, focus groups conducted for the Guardian this week suggested Boris Johnson’s “get Brexit done” strategy was cutting through. In Rainham in Essex, a group of leave voters, some of whom had voted Labour in the past, spoke warmly about the prime minister. And if his endlessly repeated mantra was familiar, warnings about his character appeared to have made less of an impact. “I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but he cheers me up,” said Sarah (participants agreed to be referred to by their first names). “He’s like a puppy: you can’t kick a puppy,” said Norman . “He reminds me of a bog brush: I like him!” said Lisa. – Guardian Leaked Brexit paper negates PM’s Northern Ireland stance, claims Jeremy Corbyn… Labour has accused Boris Johnson of misrepresenting the impact of his Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, as Jeremy Corbyn revealed a leaked Treasury document that suggested prices will rise and businesses will struggle to bear the costs of border checks. The Labour leader said the document revealed the “cold, hard facts” about the impact of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal on Northern Ireland. The document, entitled Northern Ireland Protocol: Unfettered Access to the UK Internal Market, warns that “the withdrawal agreement has the potential to separate Northern Ireland in practice from whole swathes of the UK’s internal market”. Corbyn said: “This drives a coach and horses through Boris Johnson’s claim that there will be no border in the Irish Sea.” – Guardian > WATCH: Jeremy Corbyn says he has a confidential government report on Northern Ireland …but the Tories dismiss Corbyn’s ‘secret document’ and vow ‘no checks’ on goods travelling from Northern Ireland to Britain Boris Johnson has dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s “secret document” as “nonsense” – and vowed there will be “no checks” on goods going from Northern Ireland to Britain and back after Brexit… Tories claimed Labour’s leaked document was compiled by “junior civil servants” and was never seen by senior ministers, or the PM. They said it was an “initial assessment” not a final report on the impact of the deal. A Government source told The Sun: “We are committed to no checks on the border. “Obviously, one can’t say what the Irish government will do, but the British government will not put up any checks on the Irish land border.” Another source added that “Great Britain and Northern Ireland are in a customs union and there will be no customs checks”. – The Sun Russia involved in leak of papers saying NHS is for sale, says Reddit An anonymous online poster who disseminated documents later brandished by Jeremy Corbyn as evidence the Conservatives would put the NHS “on the table” in US trade talks was part of a campaign directed by Moscow, the site hosting the papers has said. On Friday evening, Reddit confirmed it has banned 61 accounts; including that of a user called Gregoriator, who it believes was part of a Russian information operation known as Secondary Infektion. The anonymous user posted copies of the leaked official documents on the site in late October. Corbyn presented the same documents at a news conference last week, saying they “leave Boris Johnson’s denials [that the NHS would be for sale] in absolute tatters” and touting them as “evidence that, under Boris Johnson, the NHS is on the table and will be up for sale”. – Guardian EU reportedly drops commitment to get a post-Brexit trade deal done quickly EU leaders have scrapped plans to try and finalise a trade deal with the UK by the end of 2020, in a major blow to Boris Johnson’s claims that he can “get Brexit done”. An early draft of the EU’s negotiating guidelines seen by The Independent had said that “negotiations should be organised in a way that makes the best possible use of the limited time available for negotiation and ratification by the end of the transition”. But in a new leaked version of the European Council’s conclusions, due to be published by leaders at a summit in Brussels next week, the stipulation to complete the deal quickly has been completely removed. – Independent John Major urges support for ex-Tory Brexit rebels Sir John Major has urged people to re-elect three MPs who were expelled from the Conservatives for voting against Boris Johnson over Brexit. The ex-Tory PM is backing independent candidates David Gauke, Dominic Grieve and Anne Milton, all running against his party in the general election. Sir John said “tribal loyalties” had been loosened by Brexit. But Mr Johnson described the comments as “very sad” and “wrong”, calling his predecessor’s views “outdated”. The Conservatives say they will take the UK out of the EU in January if they win a parliamentary majority. They say this honours the result of the 2016 referendum, in which 52% of people backed Leave. – BBC News Beleaguered People’s Vote campaign asks Electoral Commission to review its own donations The new board of the People’s Vote campaign has asked the Electoral Commission to urgently review between £300,000 and £500,000 in donations it believes were not properly declared under the group’s previous leadership. It is the latest development in the six-week row that has engulfed the group campaigning for a second EU referendum and could lead to an official investigation covering donations made around the time of the European elections in June. If the commission finds the rules were broken, it has the power to levy a fine and ask the police to make a further inquiry, as the body did when it accused Vote Leave of breaching spending limits in the final stages of the 2016 referendum campaign. – Guardian Nigel Farage ducks out of Brexit Party rally 24 hours after humiliating walkouts Under-fire Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage ducked out of a rally in Westminster today, 24 hours after being rocked by dramatic walkouts. He had been due to speak at a defence event – but party officials claim he feared putting in an appearance would have been a “distraction”. He’s had a tough week after four MEPs walked out of the fledgling outfit on Thursday to back Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. They announced their departure just an hour-and-a-half before he was due to be interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil. A party spokesman said Mr Farage felt his presence would be a “distraction” at the event following the resignations. – Mirror Patrick O’Flynn: Only Brexit voters can save Nigel Farage from himself now The Farage ego has once again backed itself into a corner. This time it is difficult to work out how he will escape. There is no outcome of this general election that will leave his reputation enhanced. If the Tories fail to win a majority, then the Brexit party – despite getting an embarrassingly low vote share and zero MPs – will be blamed by millions of Leavers for killing their dream. If the Tories do get a majority, Farage will be seen as a tangential figure decisively seen off by Boris Johnson when their antlers finally locked. Farage’s current predicament is rooted in a disastrous strategic decision he and an inner-circle of yes men took on the day Boris Johnson unveiled his new Withdrawal Agreement. Within minutes (possibly before the document had even been published) they decided to rubbish Boris’s deal as “not Brexit”. Farage bet the farm on being able to win that argument in the country. His aim was that the Brexit party would then take permanent possession of the huge Leave electorate, much of which had coalesced around it at the European elections. – Patrick O’Flynn for The Spectator (£) Robert Tombs: This election will change Britain – and Europe – for good This election campaign feels unreal. Commentators focus on spending plans and personal foibles, but what will make next week’s vote historic is something else, something so momentous that we draw back from discussing it seriously. The Lib Dems boast of Stopping Brexit, knowing that as things are now they will never have to try. Jeremy Corbyn pleads neutrality: the first leader not sure which side he was on since poor Henry VI in the Wars of the Roses. The Conservatives, whose hopes of office depend entirely on this issue, downplay its importance: ‘Get Brexit Done,’ ministers repeat, as if it were a tiresome distraction from real politics. Perhaps it is, if ‘real politics’ is only about mending potholes and recruiting nurses. But however much politicians, and perhaps voters, would prefer it all to go away, this election will change us and Europe, and have an impact on the wider international system. – Robert Tombs for The Spectator (£) Brexit in Brief Senior British diplomat in US quits with tirade over Brexit ‘half-truths’ – CNN Brexit Party candidate who was sent death threats from far-left activists is ‘run off the road’ – The Sun