Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has pulled out of speaking at the party's defence rally in Westminster.

It comes after four MEPs walked out of the party 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.

"This was an event about defence but if Nigel was here every question would have been about the defections," the spokesman said.

Defence spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe led the speeches in Mr Farage's stead.

Boris Johnson is now taking some questions from the media. Asked about former Conservative PM Sir John Major urging people to back independent candidates who have left the Tory party, he says "it's very sad and I think that he is wrong".

"I think that he represents a view that is outdated alas - greatly though I respect him and his record."

Earlier, Jeremy Corbyn said he has obtained a confidential government report which "drives a coach and horses" through Mr Johnson's claim that there will be no border in the Irish Sea under his Brexit plan.

In response, Mr Johnson says he hasn't seen the document but it's "complete nonsense".

He says: "With the deal that we have we can come out as one whole UK. We can do free trade deals together."

The public should believe "exactly what I say", he says, that there will be no checks between Great Britain to Northern Ireland, or vice versa.

The prime minister has unveiled a new election poster, which declares: "Get Britain out of neutral."

He says if the Conservatives get a working majority in the election next week, they will finally be able to "get the country out of neutral".

He says: "We will get the whole nation motoring again - that is our objective."

After Jeremy Corbyn's speech earlier, it's now the turn of Boris Johnson, who is making a speech in Kent.

Former Conservative leader Sir John Major has urged people to back independent candidates David Gauke, Dominic Grieve and Anne Milton - who were all expelled from the party for voting against Boris Johnson over Brexit - rather than the official Tory candidates.

In a video message to a “Stop the Brexit Landslide” rally organised by the Final Say campaigners, he calls Brexit “the worst foreign policy decision" in his lifetime, adding it will make the country "poorer and weaker".

Sir John says "tribal loyalties" had been loosened by Brexit, “no single Party has a monopoly on wisdom” and that “sometimes you need to vote with your head and your heart for your country and your future, adding: “This is such a time.”

He calls David Gauke, Dominic Grieve and Anne Milton "principled, decent human beings", adding without their "talent" Parliament would be "poorer", which is why he says he would vote for them if he was a constituent.

Tony Blair, the former Labour PM is also expected to urge voters not to give Boris Johnson a majority.

“It's not Brexit that's getting done. We're getting done."

Image source, ITV

Here's a little more from Nicola Sturgeon's interview on ITV's This Morning.

Asked whether she should prioritise the NHS over getting rid of tuition fees and a second Scottish referendum, the SNP leader says one of the advantages of being an independent Scotland is getting to make their own decisions on things like the NHS and tuition fees.

She says she grew up in a working class community and went to university but she says “back then I don’t know whether I would have got to go to university if I had had to pay tuition fees.”

“Having had the benefit of a free university education, I don’t think I’ve got the right to take that away from the next generation of people,” she says.

Eamonn Holmes, who presents the show alongside his wife Ruth Langsford, asks whether Ms Sturgeon works with her husband Peter Murrell, who is the chief executive of the SNP.

She says: "I am in awe at how you manage to work in such close proximity.

"Where we have a choice we try not to (work together). If I had to sit on a sofa with him at work every day it might be a bit more difficult.”

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

In a big intervention in the election - Sir John Major is urging people to back independents like David Gauke who have left the Tory Party.

It's extraordinary that a former Conservative prime minister is urging people in some constituencies not to back the party he led.

This follows Tony Blair urging people not to give the party he used to lead, Labour, a majority.

It's another example of how Brexit has contorted politics so much. How many voters these interventions influence is a different question.

Nicola Sturgeon is the latest party leader to appear on the sofa at ITV’s This Morning – following on from Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson earlier this week.

Asked about how she is finding the campaign trail, she says it has been “good fun” but quite exhausting, adding that it’s always good “when the end point comes in sight”.

She denies that the SNP is a one-policy party, that is only focused on Scottish independence.

She says that a lot of Labour’s manifesto – free prescription, free personal care for older people, free university tuition fees – have already been done by the SNP.

Image source, ITV

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has been speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme.

Here's a quick rundown of the key moments from that interview:

• Ms Swinson refused to answer when asked 11 times who voters would get as Prime Minister if they voted Liberal Democrat.
• Ms Swinson admitted she did not know whether Lord Rennard, a former chief executive of the party, was campaigning in the election. She had previously challenged him over allegations of sexual harassment against him, which he denied.
• When asked if she had asked Lord Rennard not to campaign in the election, Ms Swinson said "I have not spoken to that man in a very long time."
• Emma Barnett challenged Ms Swinson about her recent comments on Boris Johnson’s credentials as a father and a husband saying, “a man couldn’t trash you as a mother and get away with it as he would be a rampant sexist” but she defended her comments

If you'd like to listen to the full interview, you can do so via the link here.

Here is the background to what Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said about his Brexit policy and how it relates to Northern Ireland.

Mr Johnson has repeatedly said there would be no checks or tariffs on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the UK, telling his DUP allies there would never be a border down the Irish Sea.

However he has been accused of breaking his promise with the Brexit deal he has agreed with the EU, which would mean a regulatory border would be in place.

Northern Ireland will continue to follow EU regulations on goods and agriculture but the rest of the UK would not.

This could likely mean new checks on some goods at Irish Sea ports.

Northern Ireland would continue to follow EU customs rules, while the UK would leave the EU's custom's union.

This would result in goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain which are deemed to be at risk of being moved to the Republic of Ireland would be subject to EU tariffs.

Media at the press conference in central London were not told in advance what Jeremy Corbyn was going to say and were handed the document after his speech, just before the Q&A began.

Journalists are now beginning to digest what information the document contains...

This is the second time in just over a week that Jeremy Corbyn has done a big reveal with a government document at a press conference.

Just a reminder that last week it was about the NHS - with Labour claiming a 451-page dossier was "proof" the NHS was at risk under a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. Read that story here.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has been tweeting out extracts from the document, which Labour claims goes against what prime minister has promised his Brexit deal will mean for Northern Ireland.

The 15-page document shared by Jeremy Corbyn appears to be a slideshow prepared by the Treasury and is titled "NI Protocol: Unfettered access to the UKIM". UKIM stands for the UK Internal Market.

He says the document is proof there would be customs checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland after Brexit under Boris Johnson.

Jeremy Corbyn says he believes there will be other "secret reports like this one" in every government department that reveal "the disastrous impact" of Boris Johnson’s damaging Brexit deal.

He says those other reports will show the effect of Brexit on issues like the safety of the food, on the rights at work, on the pollution in the air.

"Those reports exist but the government is hiding them from you because in this election the Conservatives want you to vote blind.

"Ask yourself: if they hid this report what else are they hiding? How will they sell you out?'"

Mr Corybn and shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer are now taking questions from the press.

Mr Corbyn says the document "drives a coach and horses" through Boris Johnson’s claim that there will be no border in the Irish Sea, saying "it’s simply not true".

He goes on to say that another page of the confidential report reveals that Boris Johnson’s damaging deal may have “a significant effect” on the economies of Scotland and Wales.

He adds: "This is people’s livelihoods we’re talking about. So why is the government hiding this information from the people of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?"

Just to point out we haven't seen this document yet.

Mr Corbyn says Labour caught the Tories "red-handed selling out our NHS" and now it has caught Boris Johnson red-handed "misrepresenting his own Brexit deal".

He goes on to outline some of the things that he says the document shows.

He says: "Johnson has said definitively and I quote, 'there will be no checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain' under his deal.

"He told the people of Northern Ireland to their faces 'There will be no forms, no checks, no barriers of any kind – you will have unfettered access.'"

He says if you look at the confidential report the government says something very different. "It says there will be customs declarations and security checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain," he says.

The Labour leader says the "confidential report" by the government "exposes the falsehoods that Boris Johnson has been putting forward".

He says it is “cold hard evidence” that categorically shows the impact a damaging Brexit deal would have on the country.

It is 15 pages that paint a "damning picture of Johnson’s deal" on the issue of Northern Ireland in particular, he adds.