The Sunday front pages feature a wide variety of lead stories. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s “disastrous” mini-budget cost the government around £30bn, according to new analysis in the Observer. The estimate from the centre-left think tank the Resolution Foundation says this represents a doubling of the amount the Treasury will need to raise in increased taxes and spending cuts this week and would have been “far higher” without government U-turns, the paper reports.
Reporting on the plans to “rescue” the UK from its “ailing economy”, the Sunday Express says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will “revive Thatcherism” by following the “Iron Lady’s playbook of tax hikes and spending cuts”. The paper says the PM will warn “there is no alternative” to what it calls an “eye-watering” combination of higher taxes and lower government budgets, which will be announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt next week.
The Sunday Times leads with Ukraine’s liberation of Kherson from Russian occupation, carrying a striking photo of two beaming young women draped in their now-iconic blue and yellow national flag. Crowds of “euphoric residents” lined the streets of the city in the south of the country after eight months of “brutal repression”, with some traumatised people telling the paper about torture and their fear of reprisals.
Image source, Empics
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has written exclusively in the Sunday Telegraph calling for an end to what he calls “hotel Britain”, where asylum seekers are housed in “unsuitable” hotels to the cost of £5.6m a day. The minister has pledged a “10-point plan” to fix the migration system – including proposals to house people in what the paper calls “larger and less luxurious” accommodation, like disused student housing, cruise ships and underperforming holiday parks.
Charites are set to lose up to £500,000 this Christmas as people who normally raise money by putting on huge light shows cancel their plans over “soaring energy costs”, according to the Sunday People. One woman who raised £2,000 in the past, told the paper she simply can’t afford to do it again this year.
In a typically unconventional analysis of Matt Hancock’s time in the Australian jungle, the Daily Star’s Sunday edition has asked a Tarot reader to read the former health secretary’s future. Unfortunately for Mr Hancock, the analysis of his choice to go on I’m a Celebrity… doesn’t look good, with the cards suggesting he should reflect on his actions. “New adventure is of no value” is the apparent analysis offered by the “fool” card.
The Sunday Mirror leads with Mr Hancock’s local vicar in Suffolk issuing an “almighty pulpit rap” to the MP over his alleged £400,000 fee for appearing on reality TV. Noting in the headline that Hancock “hasn’t got a prayer”, the paper reports that the Rev Max Drinkwater told parishioners the former health secretary had “clearly neglected his constituents by going into the jungle”.
Many of the front pages consider what could be included in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement on Thursday.
“Energy bills to soar for millions” is the headline in the Sunday Times, reporting that Mr Hunt will cut support for households dealing with rising gas and electricity costs by up to £40bn.
According to the Mail on Sunday, the chancellor’s economic statement will also include plans to reduce the 45p income tax threshold, meaning the highest earners would start paying the top rate of tax at £125,000, rather than £150,000. But the paper says some Tory MPs fear that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is “over-correcting and jeopardising the Conservatives’ reputation as a low tax party”.
Mr Sunak will “invoke the spirit of Margaret Thatcher” by saying “there is no alternative” to tax hikes and spending cuts, reports the Sunday Express. But in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Hunt insists he will “put people ahead of ideology”.
Writing in the Sun on Sunday, the chancellor says that if the government “gets this right” it can “lay the foundations of a prosperous economy”.
But in the same paper, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves writes that “Britain’s potential is being wasted”. She sets out her economic vision, including what she calls a “proper” windfall tax on energy firms, scrapping tax loopholes and tackling “tax-dodging by big businesses”.
In the Sunday Telegraph, Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen pledges to “root out” government waste. He writes that it’s “outrageous that public money is being soaked up by the system when it could be put towards areas that really need it” and suggests selling under-used government buildings, cracking down on fraud and “harnessing innovation”.
The Observer says Mr Hunt is expected to make clear that he is “in large part having to repair damage” caused by Liz Truss. The paper reports on figures from the Resolution Foundation think tank, which estimate the former prime minister’s mini-budget in September cost the UK £30bn – roughly half of the fiscal hole in the government’s budget the Treasury says it needs to fill.
The front page of the Sunday Times features a photograph of two smiling women draped in Ukrainian flags as they celebrate Russia’s retreat from the city of Kherson. The paper says the withdrawal is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most embarrassing defeat since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, adding it “is arguably the biggest personal humiliation of his 22-year rule”.
In the Sunday Telegraph, immigration minister Robert Jenrick says he wants to end the policy of housing asylum seekers in hotels.
He writes that “human decency has to be accompanied by hard-headed common sense”, adding that “illegal immigrants are not entitled to luxury hotels”. Mr Jenrick says the “debate needs to shift from managing the symptoms of the problems to the cure” and insists the government is working to stop what he calls “economic migrants” from crossing the English Channel.
The Sun on Sunday reports that one in 20 nurses in England does around £7,000 worth of unpaid overtime every year. The research comes from a survey by NHS England – which also revealed staff worked at least 11 hours per week for free. Labour tells the paper that the health service “has become dependent on the goodwill of overworked staff”.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has warned in the Sunday Telegraph that the demand by striking nurses for a 17% pay rise will drive up inflation. He writes that he has “immense gratitude” for the work done by nurses, but believes their pay demands are “neither reasonable nor affordable”.
The Sunday Mirror reports that Matt Hancock has been criticised by his local vicar during a church sermon. It says the Reverend Max Drinkwater told parishioners in Haverhill in Suffolk that the former health secretary had neglected his constituents by appearing on the ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity…. Get Me Out Of Here.
