General election 2019 latest: Tories aiming to swerve Trump endorsement

Cold weather has arrived in the UK alongside Donald Trump, as the US president jets in for a three-day visit.

Leaders from countries worldwide are here for a Nato meeting and talks, but Boris Johnson’s team are reluctant to confirm a one-to-one meeting with Trump because of his unpopularity among voters.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is calling on Johnson to demand that the NHS is taken “off the table” in post-Brexit trade talks with the US. The prime minister has maintained that the health service would not be part of trade negotiations.

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In an other election campaign clash, Labour’s shadow housing secretary John Healey has criticised the Tories over a new report from Shelter that warns that at least 135,000 UK children will be homeless or living in temporary accommodation on Christmas Day.

Healey claims the crisis is “a direct result of decisions made by the Tories”. A government spokesperson said council were being given a total of £1.2bn in funding “to tackle all types of homelessness”.

Elsewhere, Nigel Farage has urged Leave supporters of all political persuasions to vote for Brexit Party candidates when polling day rolls around in less than two weeks’ time, the BBC reports.

“We’re saying to people, Labour or Conservative, if you think the candidate in your seat that can actually go to Westminster and fight for Leave is the Brexit Party, then tactically that’s who you have to vote for,” Farage said.

As the battle for votes continues, new analysis from Loughborough University has found that negative coverage of Labour’s election campaign has intensified, while coverage of the Conservatives remains positive overall.

Researchers assigned a value of +1 to stories that benefited a party and -1 to pieces that criticised it. Coverage of Labour reached below -75, while coverage of the Tories was +15 - and has been as high as +30 in recent weeks.