The Guardian leads with the sacking of senior Conservative minister Conor Burns following an allegation of “serious misconduct” at this week’s party conference. The trade minister is the sixth Tory MP to have the whip withdrawn or to have stepped down in the last 18 months, the paper outlines.
Conor Burns’s sacking by Liz Truss also leads The Daily Telegraph. In what the paper calls a “new Tory sleaze row”, the story features promises by the MP to clear his name and his criticism of the “rush to judgment” after the claim emerged.
The energy crisis and concerns over potential three-hour blackouts this winter makes the front page of the Daily Star. Following this worst-case scenario warning from the National Grid, the paper reports that candle sales in the past week have soared as people prepare for the potential blackouts.
Meanwhile, the i reports claims Liz Truss and Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg are in a “deepening row” and have “fraught disagreements” over how to prevent energy blackouts. Mr Rees-Mogg is said to be unhappy over the prime minister’s refusals to launch a government advice campaign on how people can save energy.
The Financial Times also focuses its main story on energy. It reports that the UK government is moving forward with plans to cap revenues that renewable electricity generators are making from wholesale power prices, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The paper also promotes an interview with Elon Musk on its front page amid his ongoing attempt to buy Twitter.
Covid-19 is the subject of the leading story in the Daily Mirror. The paper says millions of older people have still not received their booster vaccines as fears mount of a “deadly autumn wave”.
The Daily Mail says a new “soups and shakes diet” that could potentially reverse type 2 diabetes is set to be offered by the NHS in England. It reports that the national roll-out of the plan, which could begin as early as next year, could see 500 patients reverse their condition every week.
Another row has reportedly broken out in Downing Street over comments from the home secretary on delivering Brexit pledges by reducing immigration, according to the Daily Express. The paper details how Suella Braverman wants to use powers gained from leaving the EU to reduce net migration, which is at odds with plans by the prime minister to boost the economy by making it easier for foreign workers to move to the UK.
The Times also leads with a story on Prime Minister Liz Truss, who the paper says is drawing up plans to overhaul the subsidised childcare system. Currently, grants that allow parents of three and four-year olds in England to claim 15 hours a week of free care are paid directly to nurseries. But under the proposals, which are said to be at an early stage, parents would be given the money directly to spend on childcare as they see fit.
The Sun reports an investigation by the General Medical Council over alleged sexual misconduct by a cosmetic doctor who appears on ITV’s This Morning programme. The medic, has been approached for comment by the paper. He has restrictions on his practice while the probe is under way, a GMC spokesman told the Sun.
“Tory minister sacked in fresh sleaze scandal” is the headline on the Independent online, as it reports that Conor Burns was dismissed as a trade minister on Friday.
According to The Daily Telegraph, he is alleged to have acted inappropriately towards a younger man at a hotel in Birmingham on Tuesday night, while the Conservative Party conference was taking place in the city.
The Guardian says that Mr Burns is the eighth Tory MP to have had the whip withdrawn within the past 18 months, but government sources say Liz Truss was quick to take action against him, in contrast to what the paper calls Boris Johnson’s “reluctance” to suspend colleagues. Conor Burns says he will cooperate with the inquiry into the allegations and looks forward to clearing his name.
The i Weekend says that the prime minister is “locked in a cabinet battle” with the business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, after Ms Truss rejected plans to launch a public information campaign offering advice on how to save energy this winter. The paper says that the prime minister vetoed the proposals “on the grounds they would amount to a nanny state”.
In its leader column, the Sun says the prime minister “should think again”, saying that if there are power cuts across the UK, “she will sorely wish she had tried everything to avert them”.
According to the Daily Express, a “cabinet rift” has also opened up between Liz Truss and the home secretary.
It reports that Suella Braverman “wants to drive down net migration” from the current 239,000 to the “tens of thousands”. But the paper says this puts her “on a collision course” with the prime minister, who “is understood to be planning to let in an extra 20,000 unskilled foreign workers each year” in a bid to grow the economy.
The Times reports that the government is planning to overhaul the subsidised childcare system in England. Parents of three and four-year-olds can currently claim at least 15 hours of free care per week, but the money is paid directly to nurseries. Under the reported proposals, grants could be handed to families instead.
“Booster jab crisis” is the headline on The Daily Mirror. It says just one-in-five over-50s in England has had a Covid-19 jab as part of the autumn booster programme. It reports that cases of the virus are now highest in the over-70s, and says there are fears of a deadly “twindemic” of flu and coronavirus infections this winter.
In an interview with The FT Weekend, the billionaire Elon Musk says he is not trying to buy Twitter for financial reasons. He tells the paper that “it’s important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas”, adding that the social media platform “should be as trusted and transparent as possible”.
The Daily Mail says that the NHS in England will prescribe a diet of soup and shakes to people with type 2 diabetes, after the condition was reversed in nearly half of people in a clinical trial. Experts tell the paper that the programme could see 500 patients beat type 2 diabetes every week.
And the Liverpool Echo says that it’s a “huge moment” for the city as it’s chosen to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, on behalf of Ukraine. It says that Liverpool’s mayor believes the city will “do Ukraine proud”.
