Nikki Haley sweeps New Hampshire midnight vote to kick off primary: Live

Everything Trump has said has been a lie, Nikki Haley claims

Voting is underway in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination Donald Trump seeks to cement his dominant lead over rival Nikki Haley, the contest now a two-horse race after Florida governor Ron DeSantis dropped out.

Ms Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Mr Trump’s own ambassador to the United Nations, is in need of a big performance in the Granite State if she is to mount a serious challenge to the ex-president’s canter to the nomination.

While the difference between them is expected to be much narrower than it was in last week’s Iowa Caucus, Mr Trump takes a commanding polling lead over his opponent into the primary, with a CNN poll over the weekend giving him an 11-point lead and a Washington Post survey putting it at closer to 18.

However, Ms Haley has begun the day on the right foot by picking up all six votes in the small town of Dixville Notch, the first community to cast its votes.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden will not appear on Democratic ballot papers following a feud with organisers, but a write-in campaign is expected to ensure his presence his felt.

Here’s the candidate cheering her six-vote victory earlier.

Although insignificant in itself, she will be hoping it sets the pattern for later.

Trump, of course, will be scowling disdainfully over his breakfast Big Mac as he anticipates burying her alive in a landslide and then warmly accepting her endorsement.

Democratic voters in New Hampshire hoping to support President Joe Biden in the state’s primary today may be surprised to find his name missing from their ballot papers.

Instead, they will see only those of his challengers –