Kemi Badenoch has admitted the Conservatives “got it wrong” on immigration in her first “major speech” as party leader, the Daily Telegraph says. Speaking in Westminster, she accepted “responsibility” for the failure of the last government to bring down net migration and pledged to “rebuild trust” with voters, the paper adds. An image of Angela Rayner meeting Pope Francis in the Vatican is also shown on the front page, on the deputy prime minister’s first trip abroad since appointing a foreign affairs adviser to “boost her profile overseas”, the paper says.
Badenoch on Wednesday night signalled a “tough new Tory approach to immigration as she declared: Britain is not a hotel – it’s our home”, writes the Mail. She said it was time to stop being “squeamish” about the negative impacts of mass immigration and act to halt it, in her first major speech as Conservative Party leader, the paper adds.
The lead story in the Daily Mirror says associates of the late Mohamed Al Fayed are “being probed on claims they enabled his sex abuse”. Police say 90 women have now come forward with allegation and one says she was “just 13”, the paper adds.
The Guardian reports that police believe Al Fayed may have “raped and abused more than 111 women over nearly four decades and that his youngest victim was just 13 years old”. The paper says the scale of the criminality would make Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, one of Britain’s “most notorious sex offenders, and raises urgent questions about how he got away with his crimes”. The paper also shows an image of Lebanese people returning south after the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel came into effect on Wednesday.
Lord Cameron has revealed he has changed his mind and now supports a bill to legalise assisted dying, arguing that it will help bring about a “meaningful reduction in human suffering”, according to the Times. Writing in the paper, the former prime minister says that he previously opposed changing the law because he feared that “vulnerable people could be pressurised into hastening their own deaths”.
The chief inspector of probation has issued a “stark warning” that the decision to release thousands of prisoners early will lead to a “rise in serious reoffending”, the i newspaper says. Martin Jones tells the paper that it is “inevitable” that some of the 2,800 inmates released from jail will go on to commit “violent, sexual or domestic abuse offences”.
The lead story in the Financial Times says French sovereign bonds and stocks fell on Wednesday as concerns “intensified” that a dispute over a draft budget containing €60bn of cuts and tax rises might “bring down” Michel Barnier’s government. An image of Lebanese people returning to southern Beirut after the ceasefire is shown on the front page.
“Worried farmer” Olly Harrison has issued a “rallying call on behalf of the industry”, the Daily Express reports. He is urging the government not to “steal our children’s future” over what the paper calls an “inheritance tax threat”.
A search is under way for a National Lottery winner “who may not even know they have won a £177m fortune”, the Metro reports. The paper says one ticket scooped the jackpot in Tuesday’s EuroMillions draw.
ITV’s This Mornings show faces a “huge shake-up” under new leadership “after long-serving boss Martin Frizell quit”, The Sun says.
“Swathes of Britain” are on flood alert, The Daily Star says, after Storm Conall “dumped half a month’s rain on our heads” in just a day. “It’s a great day to be a duck,” is the headline.
Most of the papers reflect on the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah which came into effect in Lebanon in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“Beirut cheers,” says the Times. “Relief,” says the Mirror. The Sun features a photograph of smiling people inside cars travelling back to their homes in southern Lebanon. The Express carries a picture of a long line of traffic filing past a destroyed building in Beirut. The headline is “heading home in the ruins”.
The i newspaper and the Financial Times call the truce “fragile”, as does the Guardian. But it also says the ceasefire is the “most significant development” in the effort to calm regional tensions which have rocked the Middle East since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.
The Times reports that Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius appears to be “on the brink of collapse”. The newly elected prime minister of Mauritius has reservations about the arrangement, which was negotiated by his predecessor. Under the agreement, the UK would relinquish sovereignty over the archipelago, but maintain a 99-year lease over the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a joint British-American airbase. The Daily Telegraph says there is also growing concern that the US President-elect Donald Trump could oppose the deal.
According to the Sun, the head of MI6, Sir Richard Moore, is “in the mix” to be the next UK ambassador to the US. The paper also says “the tide is turning” against another name linked to the role – Lord Mandelson. Sir Keir Starmer is understood to want to make a more traditional appointment. The government has declined to comment.
Ahead of Friday’s Commons vote on whether to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, the Mirror carries an appeal from Dame Esther Rantzen for all MPs to attend the debate. The broadcaster, who is terminally ill and has been calling for a change in the law, says it is a “vital” issue so it’s “only right” that as many MPs as possible listen to the arguments for and against and make up their own minds.
The Times covers a report which says female doctors will soon outnumber their male counterparts in the UK for the first time. The General Medical Council says last year 49% of licensed doctors were women. The GMC says it is likely the workforce will “become majority-female soon”, as women account for 60% of new medical students in the UK.
And the Telegraph says bringing wine to a dinner party may no longer be considered “good guest etiquette”. According to this year’s Waitrose Food and Drink report guests are swapping boozy gifts for premium versions of pantry staples, such as olive oil, honey and vinegar. Experts say the benefit is the host will have some leftover when everyone else goes home, while wine “either disappears in 10 minutes or collects dust”.
