Newspaper headlines: Tanks for Ukraine, and new Partygate fines

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

Boris Johnson met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv earlier this month

The Daily Mail highlights yesterday's suggestion by Boris Johnson that the UK could send tanks to Poland to replace those Warsaw is supplying Ukraine.

The paper describes the move as a major escalation of Britain's support for Kyiv, and says it comes after the prime minister warned there was a realistic possibility that Moscow could defeat its neighbour.

The FT Weekend says Mr Johnson's statement was the first admission by a major western leader that Russia could win the war "and marks a significant shift in his own rhetoric from just weeks ago".

The front page of the Daily Telegraph claims France and Germany have armed Russia with military hardware worth £230m - despite an EU embargo on arms shipments to Moscow, introduced after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Germany is said to have used a loophole in the embargo to sell equipment the Kremlin guaranteed would be used solely by civilians, while France apparently used a backdoor technicality to allow exporters to fulfil contracts agreed before 2014.

The Telegraph's leader column condemns what it calls the shame of Paris and Berlin, arguing that having armed Putin "it would be a moral outrage if Europe now failed to do the same for Kyiv".

The Guardian suggests Mr Johnson is facing "deepening peril" over the Partygate scandal after a source claimed police had issued at least one fine for a second event attended by the prime minister.

The paper says senior Conservatives are warning that Mr Johnson could face a leadership contest within weeks if the Tories suffer significant losses at the local elections next month.

The former Brexit minister, Steve Baker, has told the Daily Telegraph why he urged the prime minister to realise "the gig's up" in the Commons this week.

He says his constituents in High Wycombe are still furious about government rule-breaking and he fears the government will "reap the whirlwind" on polling day.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid is preparing to launch an urgent inquiry into gender treatment for children, according to the Times.

He is said to believe that vulnerable youngsters are wrongly being given gender hormone treatment by the NHS, and is planning an overhaul of how health service staff deal with under-18s who question their gender identity.

The paper says Mr Javid is also understood to have likened political sensitivities over gender dysphoria to people's fears of being accused of racism in Rotherham, when Asian men were involved in child sexual exploitation in the town.

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The latest developments in the hunt for Madeleine McCann are highlighted by the Daily Mirror.

It says the chief suspect in the case, Christian Brueckner, has been questioned by Portuguese police for the first time, as he serves a prison sentence in Germany for rape.

And lastly, The Sun says the Manchester United captain, Harry Maguire, is staying with a team-mate after receiving a bomb threat at his house.

The England defender was reportedly told three devices would be detonated if he failed to quit his club within 72 hours.

The paper says police searched the footballer's home but didn't find anything suspicious ,and he is now set to get new CCTV and 24-hour security guards.