A few days ago, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith revealed that his office had been vandalised with graffiti. Now, he says the abuse is continuing, with a suspect package arriving at his constituency containing a decomposed rat.

Mr Duncan Smith says these are "unacceptable acts of intimidation" against campaign volunteers.

Image source, EPA

There are just hours to go until the last scheduled meeting between the two party leaders before next Thursday's election.

The hour-long head-to-head debate, hosted by Nick Robinson, kicks off at 20:30 GMT. Here's how to watch it:

• It will be televised live in the UK on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer
• The debate will also be streamed live on the BBC News website, where you can follow the latest reaction and analysis on our live page
• It will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sounds app

For any other questions, read our full guide to the debate here.

Image source, Getty Images

Opinion polls have been cropping up constantly during this election campaign - referred to by politicians and analysts alike who want to back up their points.

But how do these polls work, whose opinions are asked and how valuable are the results? Find out more here.

The minister was asked on 5 Live about the chances of Boris Johnson being interviewed by Andrew Neil.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

In lots of ways this is a complicated election.

Derbyshire is not the same as Dundee, Birmingham is not the same as Bangor.

Westminster sure isn't the same as Widnes - and London, maybe above all else, isn't the same as Linlithgow, Leeds or Ludlow.

There are a multitude of contenders as well - not just the traditional parties, but the SNP and Plaid Cymru, the Brexit Party, what remains of the Independent Group for Change, moveable tribes of party defectors and a clutch of independents as well.

But as we enter the last week of this election, in our first-past-the-post system, whether you believe it is the best or the worst of all worlds, the choice irrevocably, and inevitably perhaps, moves towards the two big teams - the reds and the blues, and the two big, flawed, characters of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

You can read Laura's full blog via the link here.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Yesterday, Andrew Neil issued a challenge to Boris Johnson to take part in a sit-down interview with him before next week's general election.

Discussing the monologue on Politics Live, Ayesha Hazarika of the Evening Standard, says: "I thought it was very powerful.

"To give some credit to the BBC, and having been on the other side as political advisor, you cannot compel somebody. If your boss doesn’t want to do the interview you cannot force them. I think we have to get some guidelines down about what happens at future elections."

Madeline Grant of The Telegraph adds: “Last time I checked, Andrew Neil’s monologue had received five million views and that number will only continue to rise and that will become the story. I think perhaps they were hoping that the news cycle would move on without him."

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

It’s quite cosy in here – there are about two metres between the podiums where Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will be standing later, giving them plenty of opportunity for interrogation.

The debate will begin with one-minute pitches from both men.

Mr Corbyn will be first – he was given the choice after winning a coin toss.

The audience will have a roughly even number of Conservative and Labour supporters – also some backers of other parties and some voters who haven’t made their minds up yet.

I think Boris Johnson will be trying to play it fairly safe – that’s a hallmark of the Tory campaign. The polls suggest he’s ahead by around 10 points and I don’t think anyone is expecting Mr Johnson to change course now. Steady as he goes.

For Jeremy Corbyn, this could be one of his last big chances to make up some of that ground and to try and land a few blows on Mr Johnson to eat away at that poll lead in the next few days.

A lot of this campaign has felt pretty safe – parties returning to their key messages whenever they can.

I’m sure that’ll be a big part of their strategy tonight.

But six days until voters go the polls – prime time TV – a live studio audience – anything could happen.

The internet and airwaves are full of talk of marginals, a hung parliament, and tactical voting.

But what do all these things really mean?

We're here to help. Use our translator tool to check the meaning of some of the terms that have left you confused during this election campaign.

Tom Symonds
Home Affairs Correspondent

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson faced a tough audience on the plot of the Gruffalo and the best icing for biscuits, during her visit to Parkview Community Playgroup in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire.

Natural conversations with "future voters" are always tricky but her aides had to cut short her long discussion with two pre-school children.

Asked by journalists why the party’s promise to deliver free child care for children over nine months didn’t appear to have cut through with voters, she side-stepped the question.

She said Labour and the Conservatives wouldn’t be able to deliver their long list of promises if they had to pay the costs of Brexit, and people should vote for the Lib Dems to remain.

John Campbell
BBC News NI Economics and Business Editor

The leaked documents are not nonsense, as the prime minister said – either he doesn’t understand his own deal or he’s misrepresenting it.

What the unionist parties here say is what this Treasury document is talking about should not be hugely surprising to anyone who has read and understood the Northern Ireland protocol - and it again emphasises why the DUP in particular opposed it.

The language used in this Treasury document is very blunt. It says that the deal has the potential to symbolically separate Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and would also undermine the economic union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

The reason it would be undermined is because there would be new checks and processes on the Irish Sea.

There’s some ambiguity about precisely what those processes would be from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. The prime minister insists there would not be any new checks at all, this document suggests there might be.

What is very clear is the type of Brexit that is pursued by the prime minister’s deal would mean new checks on goods coming in to Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

The extent and intensity of those checks is still up for grabs. That needs to be negotiated between the UK and EU over the next year or two.

But it’s clear from this Treasury document that some civil servants in Whitehall see the potential for this deal to be very economically disruptive for Northern Ireland.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

A bit more from The World at One - Conservative peer Lord Daniel Finkelstein weighs in on a big intervention in the campaign from former Tory Prime Minister Sir John Major, who urged voters to re-elect three MPs who were expelled from the party for voting against Boris Johnson over Brexit.

"The Conservative Party should certainly be extremely struck by somebody as distinguished, with such a following and admiration... saying something quite as remarkable as this," he says.

Speaking of polls, three of the major broadcasters have confirmed they will once again combine forces to release the same exit poll once voting ends on election night.

BBC News, ITV News and Sky News have announced they will jointly publish the 2019 poll at 22:00 GMT on Thursday.

Exit polls, based on interviews with people as they come out of polling stations, have in the past successfully predicted the exact outcome of general elections, even correctly working out the number of seats the major parties will win.

It will be the fourth exit poll to be produced by the three broadcasters following similar exercises in 2010, 2015 and 2017.

As we head towards the final straight of this election campaign, you can see where the parties stand with our poll tracker.

It lets you check the latest opinion poll trends by measuring how people say they are going to vote at the next general election.

The People's Vote campaign has asked the elections watchdog to look into the "possible non-disclosure of donations under the organisation’s previous executive management".

An interim management team took charge of the pro-second referendum organisation last month, and conducted a "fundamental review" of its systems, policies and processes.

In a statement, the campaign says that during the review it became "extremely concerned" donations may not have been declared to the Electoral Commission.

Image source, Getty Images

Arlene Foster says she believes there will be opportunity for "significant influence" at Westminster after the general election.

Her Democratic Unionist Party's 10 MPs helped prop-up the Conservative government in the last Parliament.

Mrs Foster says they scored "billions of additional investment" through their confidence and supply deal with the Conservative Party.

She adds: "I anticipate there will still be the opportunity for the largest party from Northern Ireland to have significant influence at Westminster after this election, too."

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

The prime minister's decision not to be interviewed by Andrew Neil is part of a "consistent pattern of flouting conventions", says Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation.

Citing other examples such as the prorogation of Parliament this year, she says: "It goes to the heart of the fact that things we need for our democracy to work, he's quite happy to thwart them."

Miranda Green, deputy opinion editor at Financial Times who previously advised to the former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, agrees.

"This is actually symptomatic of something much wider in our politics, which has been exposed in this short campaign, which is a sort of death of shame in public life. You're supposed to turn up," she says.

Conservative peer Lord Daniel Finkelstein, a Times columnist who has worked as a Tory adviser, says: "From a point of view of political accountability I'm absolutely clear - I think Andrew Neil was within his rights - those were great questions, I think Boris would have struggled with them."

But "from an advising point of view", he adds, he would have advised the prime minister not to attend, noting that "most voters" will not be concerned about which interviewer he sits down with.

Daniel Sandford
Home Affairs Correspondent

Last Friday's stabbing attack by Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist who was released early on licence from prison, raised questions about probation.

So what do the major parties say on the issue?

CONSERVATIVE PARTY: The Tories do not mention probation in their manifesto, but say that on parole (a different issue) they will conduct a root-and-branch review of the parole system to improve accountability and public safety, giving victims the right to attend hearings for the first time.

LABOUR: The party says it will reunify probation and guarantee a publicly run, locally accountable probation service. Labour says probation staff and professional standards will once again be properly valued.

LIB DEMS: The party says it will improve and properly fund the supervision of offenders in the community, with far greater coordination between the prison service, probation service providers, the voluntary and private sectors and local authorities, achieving savings in the high costs of reoffending.

PLAID CYMRU: The party does not mention probation but commits to make justice a devolved issue.

GREEN PARTY: The party does not mention probation but says it will enhance the rehabilitation services on offer to long-term prisoners, commissioning rehabilitation services that have a track record of success.

BREXIT PARTY: The party does not mention anything to do with probation or prisons or justice.

Ben Wright
BBC political correspondent

Tonight's BBC programme will be the last time the two contenders for No 10 meet in debate before polling day and Boris Johnson knows he has a pretty comfortable lead in the polls at the moment.

But there’s no complacency in the Tory campaign, I don’t think. They know these elections can change quite dramatically in the final days.

They are desperate to avoid any mistakes and slip-ups and that definitely applies to how they’re preparing for the debate.

It feels like the Tory campaign is picking up pace a bit: Boris Johnson is cramming in visits before that debate.

He tends to speak to just Tory activists and visit small businesses - now it feels that Boris Johnson is out and about a bit more.

And he's facing some tricky questions today. The former Tory prime minister John Major has been saying in three seats he doesn’t want people voting for the official Tory candidate.

Instead he thinks they should back the former Tory ministers who are standing as independents.

John Major thinks Brexit is a disaster, and he clearly doesn’t want Boris Johnson to finish this election with a thumping Tory majority.

Mr Johnson was asked about this earlier and though these were "sad" comments and that John Major was out of date. But it’s a very awkward intervention.

Woman's Hour

Ms Swinson has also denied the Lib Dems have made a mistake in not "picking a side" when it comes to whether her party could support the Conservatives or Labour in a hung Parliament.

Asked repeatedly on the BBC's Woman’s Hour about whether she would work with either party in such a scenario, she says: “We have picked a side - we're on the side remaining in the European Union.

“Jeremy Corbyn is refusing to pick a side - he is famously saying that he is neutral on the biggest issue that is facing our country."

She adds: “Liberal Democrats are leading that Remain cause and there's [sic] millions of people in this country who want to remain in the European Union, and they know that if they elect a Liberal Democrat MP, then they're going to have that strong voice in the next Parliament.”

Boris Johnson has been expected in Kent, where he was supposed to make a speech to supporters outside a pub.

A small group of protesters arrived holding signs saying "Tories out", blaming austerity cuts for 130,000 deaths and declaring: "No to racism, no to Boris Johnson."

The Conservatives cancelled the visit, saying it was for "logistical reasons".