Ben Wright
BBC political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Boris Johnson’s appearance at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair had been kept under wraps, as most campaign visits are. But if the farming community here was either surprised, delighted or appalled to see the prime minister they didn’t show it.

There were no boos or cheers from spectators as Mr Johnson walked into the judging arena to pat some prize-hopeful heifers. Instead, there seemed to be a polite indifference from the voters Mr Johnson was here to court in the constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire, a huge and beautiful rural seat the Liberal Democrats took from the Conservatives in a by-election last summer.

It’s one of several marginal seats in Wales the Tories are targeting.

Mr Johnson trimmed some sheep and posed with some cattle, but his campaigning style feels more restrained than his mayoral zip-wire days. The buffoonery has been buttoned up.

He’s leading a party that appears to be ahead in the opinion polls and Tory strategists are desperate to avoid a repeat of Theresa May’s calamitous 2017 campaign. The new Tory manifesto is certainly risk-averse in comparison.

As for voters? At the farming show there was little sense of election excitement.

“I don’t think this election was necessary,” said one man. “They should have pulled together and sorted it out.”

Another told me many people felt downhearted and more concerned with Christmas than competing political promises. “A lot of people who’ve been loyal to one party or the other are saying they don’t know,” one woman said.

The BBC has said editing footage of Boris Johnson for a news bulletin was "a mistake on our part".

He appeared on the Question Time: Leaders Special on Friday evening and the audience laughed when he was asked how important it is for people in power to tell the truth.

But the laughter and subsequent applause was absent from a cut-down version of the exchange on a lunchtime news bulletin the following day.

The BBC said in a statement on Monday afternoon the clip was "shortened for timing reasons" and while "there was absolutely no intention to mislead, we accept this was a mistake on our part, as it didn't reflect the full reaction to Boris Johnson's answer".

"We did not alter the soundtrack or image in any way apart from this edit, contrary to some claims on social media."

Image source, Reuters

Mr Johnson ends by saying: "It's a close fight, folks, we are fighting for every single vote.

"We’ve got a good chance by we have to work very hard.

"Good luck in the campaign ahead - I sense that you’re full of beans, full of confidence.

"I will support you in absolutely any way I can, I will be back."

Mr Johnson says this the "most crucial election of our times", adding that there had been three-and-a-half years of a "paralysed and deadlocked Parliament".

He says this is the "only party to move country forward and get Brexit done".

He goes on to attack Labour's position on Brexit, saying Jeremy Corbyn "doesn't want to be prime minister, he wants to be prime ditherer".

"If he sits on the fence any longer the iron is going to enter his soul," he says.

He asks whether the public wants to "waste next year with two more referendums (on Brexit and Scottish independence)" if Labour get into government.

Mr Corbyn has previously defended his stance.

The prime minister is now answering some questions from the media after his speech - but this is how the land currently lies for his party in Wales.

• At the last election in 2017, the Conservatives won eight seats, although they were down to six MPs when this election was announced
• That's because Chris Davies was unseated by a petition following his conviction for a false expenses claim, while Guto Bebb was part of the group of 21 Tory MPs suspended by the party for rebelling over their Brexit plans
• The Conservative vote share at the last election was 33.6% - up 6.4% from 2015 but still well behind Labour’s 48.9%
• Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have agreed a pro-EU electoral pact in 11 of the 40 seats in Wales. Candidates will stand aside for each other in those constituencies to increase the chances of a Remain-supporting MP being elected

Boris Johnson spent the morning shearing sheep and now, in his speech launching the Conservatives' Welsh manifesto, he emphasises the prospect of selling Welsh lamb to the US and China in a post-Brexit world.

Wales currently sends 60% of its exports, such as lamb, to EU countries and also imports large quantities of food from the EU.

Last month Wyre Davies investigated the impact of Brexit on the Welsh food industry.

Farmers and food importers said delays in finding a trade deal after Brexit could be devastating.

Commentators and journalists continue to digest the Conservative manifesto with two deciding that it is anything but risk-free.

The political editor of the New Statesman, Stephen Bush,, external says the Conservatives are promising a form of Brexit that will "end British manufacturing as we know it and have radical implications for the UK's economic model".

He thinks "safety first" is the message that "the Tories want the media to repeat and voters to take from the manifesto" but it is "every bit as transformative a programme as Labour's".

He adds: "Where Labour think their interests are best served by talking up how radical they are, the Conservatives think their aims are better served by stealth."

Meanwhile, Tom Baldwin, the head of communications at People's Vote, calls Brexit "the biggest act of economic self-harm ever committed by a democracy".

Boris Johnson is in north Wales today launching the Conservative's Welsh manifesto.

He's just taken to the stage to make a speech on a podium with "Get Brexit Done" written in both English and Welsh - "Cyflawni Brexit".

Image source, Labour Party

A Labour campaign video featuring comedian Rob Delaney has gained more than 10 million views since it was posted on Saturday.

In the short film, Delaney - the British-based American star of the Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe - talks about his experience of the NHS and of private healthcare in the USA. It has had 5.6 million views on Twitter and 4.6 million on Facebook.

The Huffington Post is reporting, external that of the 99,000 people who shared the video on Facebook, 64,900 (65.6%) had never shared a post from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn before.

The website said 37,400 (37.8%) had never interacted in any way with Mr Corbyn, but they shared the video despite previously never having even “liked” a single post from Mr Corbyn.

The BBC’s Digital Election team is keeping across what impact the political parties are making online.

Our team says a clip from Nicky Morgan’s interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain, external this morning - where she was pushed hard by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid for the Tories' 50,000 nurses pledge - is doing very well in pro-Labour and pro-Remain circles on Facebook and Twitter.

There are almost one million views for GMB's video on Twitter.

A piece by the Independent about 18,500 of those 50,000 nurses being existing - rather than new - is also doing very well.

Our team says that so far 76 Facebook pages and groups (all pro-Labour and/or pro-Remain) have shared the piece today to a potential audience of more than 700,000.

It has also been retweeted to a potential audience of nearly three million.

Here's Reality Check's verdict on the 50,000 promise.

The Conservatives launched their manifesto on Sunday - see our analysis of their 13 key policies here - and reaction to it continues.

This is one take from New Statesman columnist George Eaton.

The Evening Standard's politicial editor Joe Murphy,, external meanwhile, is questioning Labour's promise to compensate the so-called Waspi women.

In his view, the policy "makes no sense", asking: "Why on earth is Jeremy Corbyn promising vast sums, that eventually mean tax rises for by working people, to well off people who knew all about the pension age increase anyway?"

Mr Corbyn says the country has "a moral duty" to compensate those affected.

Image source, Karl McCartney

The Conservative candidate for Lincoln retweeted posts from former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson and commentator Katie Hopkins.

Campaign group Hope Not Hate said Karl McCartney shared several posts containing "anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic material".

He has now apologised.

Read more.

Reality Check

Image source, get

The Conservative manifesto pledges to add 50,000 nurses to the workforce in England by 2024-25.

How realistic is this target, particularly given that nurse numbers have gone up by only about 5,000 since 2010?

Read more.

Image source, Reuters

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, above, is seeking re-election in the seat of Esher and Walton in Surrey.

Now, according to a report by the website Politics Home,, external Mr Raab's predecessor as MP, the Conservative Ian Taylor, is urging people to vote Liberal Democrat.

Mr Taylor, who left the Commons in 2010, says: “Esher and Walton residents voted convincingly ‘Remain’ in the EU referendum. To achieve that objective or even to secure the least harmful Brexit, voting now will need to be tactical rather than by traditional allegiance."

And he says the Lib Dem candidate Monica Harding is "best placed" to pursue those politics in Parliament.

Read more about the seat here and all six candidates standing there: Peter Ashurst, Baron Badger, Monica Harding, Kylie Keens, Dominic Raab and Kyle Taylor.

Don't forget that tonight is the first of Andrew Neil's one-to-one interviews with the main party leaders.

The first one to take on the challenge is SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon. Catch the interview at 19:30 GMT on BBC One - or later on iPlayer.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair criticises the state of British politics, saying the country is currently "home to a unique political experiment."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan both attended the launch of a campaign poster highlighting what the Tories claim is Jeremy Corbyn's indecision in Westminster.

Matt Hancock used the launch to repeat claims that there will be 50,000 more nurses and 40 new hospitals under a Tory government.

Labour had claimed the Tory nursing figure was disingenuous when it included 19,000 nurses who the Tories wanted to re-train, and another 12,000 from overseas.

Mr Hancock said: “I've heard the Labour Party make some accusations and, of course, they would because they want to distract from the fact that their leader is the prime ditherer and they've got nothing positive to say."

He added: "The statistics show there are just over 280,000 nurses in the NHS. We're going to take that to just over 330,000 nurses in the NHS.

"That's 50,000 more. We couldn't be more straightforward than that."

Asked about the number of hospitals a Tory government will build, Mr Hancock said: "There's going to be 40 new hospitals over the next decade. That's our commitment in our manifesto."

Our Reality Check team has found the “40 new hospitals” claim problematic. You can read their analysis here.

What do you want to know ahead of the 2019 general election? Submit your questions to our team here.