Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

During this election campaign, the Conservatives in particular have wanted to avoid anything unexpected. That pretty much is the attempt from all the major parties because they like to keep things in as much control as possible

Today was meant to be about Boris Johnson pushing his core message which is of course his Brexit offering - him saying he would sort it out fairly quickly were he to be re-elected.

There have been two things that have come up which have have distracted from that. The first is an off the cuff, if you like, suggested policy announcement that Boris Johnson would look at the licence fee - the way the BBC is funded - in the future. It's the first time we've heard him go that far on that.

And the second one, and perhaps the one that could have more impact in this campaign, was that earlier on this morning Boris Johnson was asked to look at a photograph of a four-year-old boy, Jack Williment-Barr, who was photographed on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary earlier this month where he attended Accident and Emergency and apparently there were not enough beds available.

An ITV reporter showed this image to Boris Johnson and initially the prime minister did not look at that and then he took the reporter's phone.

Now we're told by sources close to the prime minister that in fact he was offered the phone. But this has got a lot of traction on Twitter, this clip has been picked up and played out on social media and already condemned by some members of the Labour Party.

You have to bear in mind that this is a prime minister who is trying to win round people who perhaps have never voted for his party before on the basis of trust and relatability.

When this was put to Boris Johnson, what he spoke about was his desire to invest in the NHS and he brought the conversation back to the key campaign message of Brexit which is what he's been very much trying to do in these final days.

But the fact that this has come up, the fact he himself has made this announcement about the licence fee, that could shift the rhetoric away from what the prime minister had wanted in what are a very crucial last 72 hours on the campaign trail.

Image source, YouTube

With just three days of campaigning left, the political parties are all upping the ante when it comes to advertising.

The Conservatives have paid for a second YouTube advert sitting at the top of the homepage of the video-sharing platform.

They have also launched two ad campaigns, attacking Jeremy Corbyn, on Facebook and Instagram.

On Snapchat, there are dozens of new adverts trying to tempt young people in the direction of particular parties. Labour has two new Snapchat ads which have gained about a million impressions between them.

The Liberal Democrats have also managed to garner millions of impressions with reams of new advertising - with many of their ads concentrating on claims the the two “old parties” are failing.

Image source, Jane Russell/wpragency/PA Wire

We've seen plenty of politicians pulling pints during the course of this election campaign.

But portraits on pints is a new one on us.

The bar staff at the Two Chairmen pub in Westminster have reached these heady (cough) new heights. The specially-decorated pints will be available to buy from tomorrow.

Can you match each of the above drinks to a political leader? We'll give you a few minutes and then share the answers with you...

In an interview after his speech in Bristol, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn again holds up a copy of the Daily Mirror, which shows a four-year-old boy lying on a hospital floor.

The boy, with suspected pneumonia, was forced to sleep on a treatment room floor because of a lack of beds.

Mr Johnson earlier said he sympathised with people who had bad experiences with the NHS, but initially refused to look at the picture during an interview with ITV News political correspondent Joe Pike.

Mr Corbyn says of the prime minister: "He's had nine years to properly fund the NHS, and a child being treated on the floor is a disgrace to our society."

He holds up the newspaper and goes on to point out that waiting times in the NHS have increased.

"40,000 nurse vacancies are just one of the many problems the NHS faces. It needs the resources a Labour government would put into it," he says.

"Those problems didn't exist in 2009 and 2010. They've all come since the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition and restricted funding to the NHS."

Here are a few NHS election claims and counter-claims fact-checked by our colleagues.

Amol Rajan
Media editor

It is customary for election campaigns to strain relations between the BBC and whoever happens to be in government.

But the advent of social media - where criticism of the BBC frequently goes viral - and the rise of streaming giants who operate a different model, have increased pressure on the BBC recently.

So too has the prime minister's refusal to be interviewed by Andrew Neil for the BBC. Last week, Neil, who has interviewed all the other party leaders, issued a challenge to Mr Johnson and showed an empty chair. That clip has been viewed several million times on social media. Number 10 didn’t appreciate that much and doubled down on its position.

Lured by the internet, many younger viewers now spend much more time on Netflix or YouTube than watching BBC services. That does pose a significant, perhaps existential, challenge to the BBC in the long term.

The BBC has always argued, however, that the licence fee is vital to its public service model and that if it moved to a subscription model it would necessarily be driven only by those who could afford a subscription, and not the whole country.

Sooner or later, a decision needs to be made about how best the BBC can compete and satisfy the British public in today’s global media. It’s probably best that that discussion takes place when there isn’t an election on.

BBC News Channel

The BBC is broadcasting live from Crewe, where some of our correspondents are taking questions from viewers about key election questions.

One big topic which has come up is the health service, with one woman asking: "Is the NHS safe from privatisation?"

The BBC's Reality Check correspondent, Chris Morris, takes this one.

Labour have released leaked government documents which show over last few years, there have been meetings between UK and US officials about a possible post-Brexit trade deal.

"What these documents show is that officials have discussed things like the price of medicines," says our correspondent. We know that big American pharmaceutical companies want more access to the NHS as it's a big valuable market. We also know the price of medicines in the US is much higher than in the UK.

"The Amercians want to discuss all this. Now the government said 'we're not going to discuss it.'

"If they don't put the price of medicines on the table then when we try and do a trade deal with the United States there's things we're going to want that they're not going to give us. That's the balance you have to address there.

"But overall, do those documents show the whole of the NHS is going to be privatised? No.

"The opposition says these talks are evidence of a thin end of the wedge and things will get worse.

"In terms of the government's promise that this is not on the table, you have to decide whether you believe Boris Johnson and take him at his word."

Read more on the Labour documents.

Back to the Jeremy Corbyn rally in Bristol where he shows the crowd the front page of the Daily Mirror, which displays the picture of the four-year-old boy at the centre of the Boris Johnson hospital row.

"The Tories have had nine years to fund our NHS properly," he says.

"It's time to bring their regime to an end and elect a Labour government that's determined to fund our NHS properly."

He says Britain faces a "very, very clear choice" in the election.

"Carry on with the Tories and that's what you get," he tells the crowd.

"With Labour you will get investment, you will get that sense of security for the future and you'll get the protection of our National Health Service."

• Conservative leader Boris Johnson is visiting traditional Labour seats which voted for Brexit in the north-east of England. He's there to sell his "get Brexit done" message but is facing criticism after refusing to look at a picture of a sick child that spurred complaints about cuts to the NHS. An ITV reporter tried to show Mr Johnson the picture on his phone, but he initially took the phone away from him instead. When the Tory leader was asked about the incident later he refused to address the question directly
• In the same Q&A, Boris Johnson was asked about the future of the BBC licence fee. He said "you have to ask yourself whether that kind of approach to funding... still makes sense in the long-term"

• Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell has given a speech setting out his party's plans for the first 100 days, if they won power. He has promised to announce a Budget on 5 February and said Jeremy Corbyn, after arriving in No 10 by bike, would immediately start on plans to nationalise water and energy firms. Labour leader Mr Corbyn is touring Labour target seats in the south of England today

• Meanwhile, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she was confident that if Labour needed her party's support to form a government, she could reach an agreement and get another independence vote secured. Ms Sturgeon also said the "contemptuous way in which Scotland has been treated" is justification for a new indyref - regardless of Brexit
• And the Lib Dems are pledging to table legislation to stop Brexit immediately after the election by introducing two draft bills they say would pave the way for another EU referendum. Earlier, leader Jo Swinson took part in a live BBC Radio 5 Live phone in. She defended her support for plans to make it easier for people to legally change gender, saying it will address transgender "demonisation"
• Read the latest analysis from our political editor Laura Kuenssberg here.

Expect him to talk about Labour's plans for office and to be asked about that Boris Johnson clip.

Boris Johnson faced a second challenging moment at his Q&A a short time ago.

A member of the audience asked why the Tories were setting up "fake websites" and paying for them to appear above Labour websites in Google searches.

The Tories have been criticised for setting up labourmanifesto.co.uk - a site which attacks the Labour Party leader and his policies.

Another Conservative Party website costofcorbyn.com, also appeared above the Labour manifesto in a Google search as a paid-for advert.

Mr Johnson appeared flustered by the question, replying: “The short answer to that question - I haven’t go the foggiest idea.

“As far as I understand it there’s an awful lot of activity on the internet to try to promote views of one kind or another."

“Shouldn’t you know what’s going on?” the audience member asks.

“I’m afraid I do not know… I’m pretty certain that you can find the Labour manifesto online - if you can’t then that’s obviously a problem but I think it’s there," Mr Johnson replies.

"And by the way, I think that the more people who are aware of what Labour’s plans are the better because I think it would be economically ruinous for this country.”

“A lot of this is basically a kind of media diversion - what the public really want to know about is what are our plans to get Brexit done and move this country forwards," he adds.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Unionist politicians backed Brexit but some talk of a "betrayal act" put forward by the UK government.

In Belfast, Politics Live reporter Ellie Price looks at the Brexit issue in the election campaign and what leverage Northern Ireland politicians could have after Thursday's vote.

The BBC is broadcasting all day from Crewe, a key marginal at Thursday's election.

Here are some of experts - Reality Check's Chris Morris, political correspondent Chris Mason and home editor Mark Easton - beavering away on answering your questions.

You can watch them at work right now on the BBC News Channel.

The Lib Dem leader is the latest to react to that video, currently going viral, of Boris Johnson refusing to look at a photograph of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr sick on a hospital floor.

He was lying there because there were no beds available.

Image source, PA Media

During the Q&A session following his speech, Mr Johnson is, as we thought he would be, asked about his reaction to a photo in the Yorkshire Evening Post of a four-year-old boy, with suspected pneumonia, sleeping on a Leeds hospital floor because there weren't enough beds.

The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg points out that Mr Johnson appeared to struggle to look at the picture and took journalist Joe Pike's phone away from him when he was shown it.

Mr Johnson side-steps the question completely.

Instead, he says: “I’m very proud of what we are doing to rebuild Leeds General Infirmary and it’s one of the hospitals that we will rebuild from the beginning.”

He adds that the Conservatives are putting the "biggest ever investment into our NHS - £34bn" as well as promising 50,000 more nurses and 6,000 more GPs over the next five years.

Read more on that 50,000 nurses pledge and the pledge on new hospital building.

The BBC's Emma Barnett is hosting a special election edition of Question Time tonight specifically aimed at the under-30s.

For four politicians on the panel tonight, it's the second night on the trot that they've faced questions. Angela Rayner, Jo Swinson, Adam Price and Jonathan Bartley all appeared on Channel 4's debate on Sunday night.

But unlike last night's Channel 4 debate, tonight the Conservatives and Brexit Party are choosing to take part.

The under-30s special will be broadcast on BBC One at 20:30 GMT tonight.

Here's the full line-up:

Image source, Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Image source, Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Image source, Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Nicola Sturgeon must win the prize for most picturesque battle bus tour.

Today she called in to speak to BBC Radio Scotland and told our colleagues the "contemptuous way in which Scotland has been treated" is justification for a new vote on independence regardless of Brexit.

The first minister has put a referendum at the heart of the SNP's campaign for the general election on 12 December.

She said a ballot should be held even if the UK ultimately does not leave the EU because the country's "interests, voice and views" had been "ignored" over the past three years.

The Guardian is reporting, external that a Conservative general election candidate has been accused of Islamophobia over her social media posts.

According to the paper, Linden Kemkaran, a former BBC journalist who is standing in Bradford East, retweeted Islamophobic messages on Twitter.

The party said an investigation was under way into the matter.

On Sunday, Tory chairman James Cleverly apologised for cases of Islamophobia in his party, saying he was "sorry" when Tory members and candidates "do or say things that are wrong".

It came after the Muslim Council of Britain accused the Tory party of having a "blind spot for this type of racism" and of not doing enough to tackle it.

Back to Boris Johnson and his questions. He's asked about the future of the BBC licence fee and surprises those listening saying he believes the whole idea of funding the BBC through a licence fee should be looked at.

"It is effectively a tax," he says.

The BBC's top political team are quick to notice the remarks...

BBC News Channel

Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell earlier raised questions about Boris Johnson's trustworthiness, following comments made by the leader of the DUP, Arlene Foster, who said Mr Johnson "broke [his] word" after promising there would be no checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland after Brexit.

Mr McDonnell is asked, are you calling Boris Johnson a liar?

"It's not just me, it's everybody else as well," he replies.

Pressed over whether he is calling Mr Johnson a liar, he says: "Of course I am. I don't believe Boris Johnson has any moral compass whatsoever.

"Arlene Foster has proved it. He lied to the DUP. He went to their conference and told them there'll be no border down the Irish Sea, no checks.

"We now know whilst he was doing that the government were actually preparing options to enable that to happen."

On Sunday, Mr Johnson insisted there will not be any checks for goods travelling from Northern Ireland to Great Britain under his Brexit deal.

BBC Northern Ireland's John Campbell picks that whole issue apart.

Boris Johnson continues his speech and Q&A - he'll no doubt be asked about that ITV video if reporters can manage it.

Meanwhile, more reaction comes in to it from Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary.

"Refusing to even look at an image of a child suffering because of Conservative cuts to the NHS is a new low for Boris Johnson. It’s clear he could not care less," Mr Ashworth says.

"Don’t give this disgrace of a man five more years of driving our NHS into the ground. Sick toddlers like Jack deserve so much better."

ITV reporter Joe Pike tried to show Mr Johnson an image of a sick child on a hospital floor, but the Tory leader put the phone in his pocket instead.

He did eventually take it back out and look at the photo, which he described as "terrible".