Image source, Reuters

Outgoing EU Council President Donald Tusk has suggested UK voters shouldn't give up on stopping Brexit, the Guardian reports, external.

From a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, Mr Tusk is quoted as saying: "I want to tell you something I wouldn’t have dared to say a few months ago, as I could be fired for being too frank.

"The UK election takes place in one month. Can things still be turned around?"

"The only words that come to my mind today are simply: don’t give up. In this match, we are already in extra time, perhaps it will even go to penalties?” he says.

Mr Tusk is stepping down from his post in December.

Jeremy Corbyn has been facing questions today about Labour's position on a fresh Scottish independence referendum.

Initially he told reporters his party would not back a second independence referendum in the first five-year term of a Labour government.

However, he later appeared to row back on these comments, saying it would not be a priority in the "early years".

In response, the SNP's David Linden tells the BBC it would be "foolish" not to accept his party's "mandate" for a second independence referendum.

Image source, Getty Images

Labour's Stella Creasy has hit back at the Christian Peoples Alliance, which campaigns against abortion and is focusing its election campaign on unseating her.

Ms Creasy, who is fighting to keep her Walthamstow seat, is a vocal campaigner for abortion rights and has criticised the party in a tweet.

CPA leader Sidney Cordle tells the PA news agency that his party is "concentrating" on her seat in north-east London, although it is expected to field about 30 candidates across the country.

Mr Cordle describes the CPA's candidate for Walthamstow - 19-year-old law student Deborah Longe - as "the Greta Thunberg of abortion".

Ms Creasy, who is heavily pregnant, has previously been targeted by an anti-abortion billboard campaign in her constituency.

Other candidates standing in Walthamstow include:

• Molly Samuel-Leport (Conservatives)
• Meera Chadha (Liberal Democrats)
• Andrew Johns (Green Party)

A full list of candidates will be available on the BBC News website when nominations close.

Earlier today the Tories attacked Labour plans for a shorter working week, saying they would "cripple the NHS".

Labour has said it could introduce a 32-hour full-time working week, with no loss of pay, within 10 years.

But shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth tells the BBC's Andrew Neil Show that his party would not impose a four-day week on the NHS.

Read more about Labour's proposals here.

Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight

Image source, PA Media

An old hand once offered me a wise piece of advice: if an opinion poll generates a strong headline it will probably turn out to be wrong.

So it is sensible to treat the polls with caution. At this stage of the 2017 general election, the world was debating whether Theresa May's majority would be above or below 100.

But opinion polls can provide a helpful snapshot of the electorate's thinking at the moment they are conducted.

With four weeks to go until election day, there appear to be two clear strands in the current polls.

First, Boris Johnson is ahead, in part because the Leave vote is rallying behind the Conservatives.

The second theme is that the Remain vote is splintering. That explains, in part, why Labour is so far behind the Tories and why the Liberal Democrats are continuing to enjoy a revival.

Read more from Nicholas.

Image source, Reuters

More on a developing row between Labour and the SNP over the prospect of another referendum on Scottish independence.

Earlier, Jeremy Corbyn ruled out supporting one during the "first term" of a Labour government, before later saying it would not be a priority in the "early years".

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon hit back this evening, saying she would not help Mr Corbyn into power if he does not support the timescale being determined by the Scottish Parliament.

She wants another referendum to take place next year.

Now, Jeremy Corbyn has responded to her, tweeting, external that her stance means the SNP "can't be trusted not to let Boris Johnson back in".

BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley says it is hard to see how the parties could work together if they hold on to their current positions.

The estranged wife of a former Tory MP, who sent thousands of sexual messages to two women, has been selected as the candidate for his seat.

Andrew Griffiths, 49, who is standing down from frontline politics, says he is backing his wife Kate.

However, Mrs Griffiths says she is divorcing her husband, and has not sought, and does not accept, his offer of political support.

Mr Griffiths resigned as small business minister in July after a newspaper reported he sent the women more than 2,000 messages in 21 days, weeks after the birth of his first child.

He was cleared of wrongdoing by the parliamentary standards watchdog, which said it found no evidence he sent the messages while engaged in parliamentary activities.

Read the full story here.

It's been another busy day on the campaign trail.

If you're just settling down for the evening and trying to catch up, here's a re-cap of what's been happening:

• In his first big speech of the election campaign, Boris Johnson promised to boost regional industry and drive a "clean energy revolution" after the UK leaves the EU. Read the full story here.
• The prime minister had earlier faced hecklers while on a visit to flood-hit areas, with some residents critical of the government's response
• Jeremy Corbyn has been in Scotland, where he has faced questions about Labour's position on a second independence referendum
• Nicola Sturgeon said Labour shouldn't expect SNP support unless the party accepts the "prinicple" of holding indyref2
• The NHS has also been a focus for Labour today, with a promise to spend billions to cut waiting times and boost mental health services
• Meanwhile, the SNP announced it was taking legal action against ITV over its exclusion from the broadcaster's general election debate

• Elsewhere, the Lib Dems are pledging £500m a year for youth services - but leader Jo Swinson is facing questions over her refusal to form an election pact with Labour
• And the Green Party have outlined plans for a "carbon chancellor" to allocate funding to tackle climate change

In his speech earlier, Boris Johnson promised to tackle "injustices" in regional investment and productivity after Brexit.

He added that delivering the UK's departure from the EU would allow the government to "get on with our programme of uniting and levelling up across the whole of the UK".

You may have seen some election broadcasts on social media where politicians answer questions put to them off-camera.

In Electioncast's first parody election broadcast, Adam Fleming answers a few questions.

You can listen to electioncast on BBC Sounds or watch it at 20:30 GMT on weekdays on the BBC News Channel.

Nick Eardley
BBC political correspondent

Nicola Sturgeon has said she will not help prop up a Labour government if Jeremy Corbyn does not allow an independence referendum at a time of Scotland's choosing.

Scotland’s First Minister was speaking after Mr Corbyn suggested he would not allow a referendum in the first term of a Labour government.

Ms Sturgeon told the BBC: “I won’t help him in power, to get into power, to stay in power if he doesn’t accept the principle that whether there is a referendum in Scotland, and what the timescale of that referendum should be, should be determined by the people of Scotland and their democratically elected Scottish Parliament."

She called it a “basic issue of democracy” but claimed it was “highly unlikely” Labour would give up a chance at being in government to reject an independence referendum.

Ms Sturgeon added: “The reason that I think Jeremy Corbyn keeps getting into a mess on this question is that he knows that it is not democratically acceptable or democratically sustainable to block the right of the Scottish people to choose their future.”

Reality Check

Image source, PA Media

Today Boris Johnson said: “Every month of pointless delay [before leaving the EU]… is costing this country a billion pounds for nothing.”

This is something he has said a number of times. But under Mr Johnson’s EU withdrawal agreement, contributions to the EU budget are to continue until the end of the transition period, the end of 2020.

So further contributions to the EU would only happen if that deadline is extended, which Mr Johnson has said would not happen.

Read Reality Check’s analysis of this claim in more detail.

With his speech over, Boris Johnson was questioned about what he said - but also on what he didn't say.

One of the journalists present spots that a line from the version of the speech briefed out to the media yesterday did not actually end up in the real thing.

Mr Johnson had been due to warn that further referendums on Brexit and Scottish independence would be an act of political "onanism", meaning masturbation.

Questioned about the omission, he says a "stray early draft" must have found its way into the journalist's story, by a "process that I don’t pretend to understand".

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has clarified his earlier comments after he was asked if he would consider voting for the Conservatives at the upcoming election.

He said he wanted to see the party's manifesto.

He has now tweeted that he could not vote Conservative.

Earlier in the week, Mr Farage announced Brexit Party candidates would not stand in all 317 constituencies won by the Tories in 2017, and that includes the safe Conservative seat where he lives in Kent.

Andrew Neil Show
Wednesdays from 7pm on BBC2

Guests for Wednesday evening's Andrew Neil Interview are Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth and the SNP's David Linden.The live programme will be on BBC Two from 19:00 BST until 19:30, and later on iPlayer for 30 days.

Boris Johnson is appearing at the factory of a West Midlands electric cab company which previously urged the UK to retain the benefits of being in the EU's single market.

BBC economics editor Faisal Islam tweets to highlight LEVC's submission to the Commons Business Committee in 2017.

The company said that “regulatory divergence would amount to non-tariff trade barriers, increasing costs & reducing competitiveness”.

BBC Radio 5 Live

The NHS was the focus of Nihal's Election Clinic on BBC Radio 5 Live earlier.

Nihal Arthanayake put questions from listeners to a panel of experts...

Elsewhere, Labour candidate Luke Pollard has been receiving messages of support from his colleagues after earlier revealing his office in Plymouth had been targeted by vandals again.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott responded to his tweet by saying:, external "These are terrible times when persons think they can attack my friend and colleague Luke Pollard's office with homophobic graffiti. Solidarity Luke."

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer tweeted, external: "Solidarity to my excellent colleague Luke Pollard. There is no place for hate in our politics."

With his speech having ended, Boris Johnson is asked by the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg, given the recent flooding and criticism from ex-Tories, whether he is in control of his campaign.

In response, the prime minister pays tribute to those who have helped with clear-up efforts, and says the government is ready to "sort out" any "problems with insurance".

In response to another question on the floods, he says the UK needs to be "investing in the long term" in flood defences, adding there is "much more work to be done".

Read our main story on the floods today here.

The prime minister is continuing his speech in the West Midlands on his big plans for, in his words, a "clean energy revolution".

He says if elected, the Tories will "double" funding for research and development to £18bn over the next five years.

He calls this the "biggest ever increase in support for R&D".

He adds the government would also increase investment to support electric vehicles.

It's worth noting that BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin pointed out earlier technology alone is not going to be enough to deal with climate change. The public need to consume less, drive less and pay more, as taxpayers, for things like mass insulation programmes - these, Roger notes, are the sort of hard truths politicians aren't enthusiastic about telling the public.