'No 10 shake-up' and Labour's 'asylum crackdown'

Chancellor Rachel Reeves smiles as she leaves No 11 Downing Street holding a red folder. Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

The chancellor was reportedly heavily involved in the discussions with Sir Keir over who would be No 10's new recruits

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Sir Keir Starmer's decision to create two new senior roles at No 10 - his chief secretary and chief economic adviser - is on several front pages.

The Guardian says he is trying to "wrest back control of economic policy", external from the Treasury, ahead of what the paper says is likely to be a tumultuous autumn for the government.

"Smiling through the pain", external is the Daily Telegraph's headline above a picture of the Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The paper says the changes undermine her authority, although her allies dismissed any suggestion that she'd lost out in a power grab.

In its editorial, the Telegraph argues that Sir Keir has humiliated and demoted the chancellor. It says his actions strongly suggest he's lost confidence in her and asks why he won't sack her.

The Times comments that the prime minister's shake-up is confirmation that his first year in office has been a failure, external. The paper says the government and the economy need determined leadership and that demands a total change of mentality, not merely of personnel.

According to the Financial Times, the prime minister is trying to get a grip on his government, external and arrest a slide in Labour's poll ratings.

The i says it's been told by Labour insiders that Sir Keir is attempting to seize control over a make-or-break Budget this autumn, external. A government source said there had been frustration in Downing Street with the Chancellor's performance, and a feeling that Reeves "made mistakes and Keir got blamed".

In an interview for the Daily Express, the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, accuses Sir Keir of lying about immigration and tells him he'll get rid of him, external, as he says he did with David Cameron and Theresa May.

Farage also says he's been insulted by not being invited to the state banquet - to be hosted by King Charles III at Windsor Castle for US President Donald Trump, during his upcoming state visit to the UK.

The Daily Mirror highlights a call by medical experts for electronic cigarettes to be banned, external. It says doctors and scientists at Europe's biggest heart conference said vaping may be causing irreversible harm to children's brains and hearts. The Mirror points out that other experts argue that vapes help smokers quit.

The Times reports that half of stroke patients could now fully recover, external thanks to an artificial intelligence tool that helps the NHS diagnose them up to one hour faster than traditional methods. The software has been used to interpret the brain scans of more than 60,000 stroke patients since it was introduced last summer, and it helps doctors to make faster decisions about treatment.

Another study, highlighted by the Daily Mail, suggests that living on a noisy road dramatically increases the risk of stroke, external. The researchers looked at the impact of traffic and air pollution on more than 26,000 men aged between 65 and 74. There was no significant link between the risk of stroke and exposure to pollutants.

And finally under the headline "Strictly fat jabs alert", external, the Sun claims that five celebrities taking part in the new series of Strictly Come Dancing are on weight loss injections, sparking fears that they will fail to last the distance on the gruelling contest. The paper says they risk lacking the calories to perform, because the drugs suppress appetite.

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