'Sara was failed' and 10,000 civil service jobs 'to be axed'

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is asking banks to support the defence sector, the Times reports

A photo of Sara Sharif, whose father and stepmother were convicted of her murder on Wednesday, appears on many of the front pages.

The Daily Mirror says that her "smile hid a life of torture", while the Daily Mail says she was "let down by everyone supposed to protect her".

The Times says Sara was "plunged into a life of misery and violence" from the moment she was born. It details 15 occasions on which opportunities to intervene were missed by social workers, the police and the family courts.

The Metro notes Sara's father's impassive reaction as the guilty verdicts were read out in court, with the headline reading: "Not even a tear for Sara." The i says the government is considering a ban on smacking and a register of home-schooled children in order to improve safeguarding, while the Daily Express calls for an inquiry to look at what is going wrong with child protection in the UK.

The Daily Telegraph accuses Housing Secretary Angela Rayner of seeking to "bulldoze" the Home Counties, as she prepares to unveil what it calls "the biggest overhaul of planning rules in a generation". The paper says the move is unlikely to make housing more affordable unless immigration is brought down. Writing about the plans in the Sun, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says he wants to take on the "blockers, the nimbys and the naysayers to build the houses and communities we desperately need",

The Guardian reports that ministers are planning to cut more than 10,000 civil service jobs as departments try to meet spending limits set by the government. Sources have told the paper that there is an acceptance that the headcount - which significantly expanded in recent years because of Brexit and the pandemic - has made government unwieldy. A Whitehall source is quoted saying: "The civil service has grown because the Tories threw money at it and asked it to do more things while criticising it at the same time. You cannot blame the civil service for this. It's about political direction and that's what's been lacking."

Banks and investors will be asked by ministers to increase their support for Britain's defence sector, the Times reports. The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will tell financial executives they should not give in to "vocal campaign groups" calling for boycotts of defence firms. The paper says small companies are struggling to access basic services because they work in defence.

Lord Spencer, the former treasurer of the Conservative Party, tells the Financial Times that chief executives of leading firms should be paid the same as top Premier League footballers, and that if they were if would help the British economy. "We don't mind paying top-rated footballers extraordinary amounts of money," the peer says, adding that "if the head of BP or HSBC earns £20m pounds a year - materially less than their peer group in America - everyone jumps up and down saying this is an outrage".

Sixty-seven years after passing his grade seven piano exam, Ray Eveleigh - an 88-year-old retired reverend who lives in the east Yorkshire village of Kilham - has passed his grade eight. He is quoted in the Guardian saying: "You can spend hours and hours feeling very frustrated because you're not making progress. But I would say it's the most worthwhile task in life, to make music and do it well."

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