Newspaper headlines: Energy prices 'agony' and plans to cut council tax for poorest

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By BBC News
Staff
PA Media

The front pages are dominated by rising energy prices. It's "D-day" proclaims the Daily Mirror and the Sun headlines with "Black Thursday", while the Daily Mail warns "energy bills to soar by £650," adding "the heat is on Rishi".

The chancellor's plan to soften the blow is the main focus of the Financial Times, which predicts Rishi Sunak will work "in tandem" with the Bank of England. It says he will lend money to power companies to be passed directly to consumers, while the bank will announce a rise in interest rates to hold down inflation.

The Times predicts a council tax rebate is on the cards - with more than 15 million households in bands A to C standing to benefit.

Boris Johnson may have survived the "Pork Pie Plot", but now he faces a "Cream Tea Coup", writes the Daily Mail. That's because two MPs from Devon were among a trio who on Wednesday demanded the PM quit over Partygate.

The Guardian says several of Boris Johnson's supporters are convinced there's a renewed and co-ordinated effort to oust him.

According to the Times, members of the One Nation group of Tory MPs have accused the prime minister of behaving like a "pound-shop Donald Trump" - after he refused to withdraw a claim that Sir Keir Starmer, as director of public prosecutions, had failed to take action against Jimmy Savile.

Mr Johnson tells the Sun that he has no plans to quit and that he has an eight-year blueprint to fix Britain. He also reveals he wants a city in the north of England to stage the Olympics.

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The main editorial in the Times praises the government's levelling up plans as having "noble aims and practical goals", but says there's an "absence of new money". The paper adds that Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove in effect admitted that he had "lost a battle with Rishi Sunak for resources".

The i's policy editor Jane Merrick agrees, arguing that "transformative goals need transformative money to achieve them".

The Mirror's defence editor Chris Hughes - who's in Chernobyl in Ukraine - reports that Russian troops could blast their way through the nuclear disaster site to strike Kyiv. He says 8,000 extra Ukrainian border guards have been sent to the radiation exclusion zone because of fears Moscow could send its tanks this way to encircle the capital.

Many papers picture the Duchess of Cambridge being lifted into the air for a lineout at Twickenham , after she was appointed patron of the Rugby Football League and Rugby Football Union. It's a field day for the headline writers - "Her Royal HIGH ness!" says The Mail, while the Sun proclaims: "Kate's first in line to the thrown".

The Times is among many papers to have the tale of the postmen who scoffed a delivery of brownies left uncollected with a no return address in a London depot - only to discover they were hash brownies containing cannabis. Royal Mail is said to be investigating claims the workers had to be picked up one by one because they were too high for their normal duties. "Postman Pot!" is The Mail's headline on the story.