Newspaper headlines: 'Holiday madness' and 'PM trying to save his skin'

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

Boris Johnson faces mounting pressure from his MPs over lacklustre polls

The Telegraph says Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a growing mutiny after two more Conservative MPs said they wanted him to go - and a third quit as a ministerial aide.

The paper says at least 22 MPs have publicly submitted letters of no confidence in him, but that senior ministers believe the figure could be as high as 34 - 20 below the threshold required for a confidence vote.

The Guardian says Mr Johnson has faced a barrage of criticism over amendments to the ministerial code making clear that ministers would not always be expected to resign for breaching its rules.

The paper quotes the chairman of the Commons committee on standards, Labour's Chris Bryant, saying the government has adopted the motto: "If you break the rules, just re-write the rulebook."

The Mirror describes the prime minister's move as "shameless". In its editorial, the paper says the only lesson he appears to have learned after the Sue Gray report is that he is free to abuse power and bend the rules to his own advantage.

On its front page, the i highlights an opinion poll suggesting that the Conservatives could lose all but three of their 88 battleground seats if a general election were held tomorrow.

The poll of more than 17,000 people in England and Wales indicated the losses would include Boris Johnson's constituency in West London and the former "Red Wall" seats taken from Labour in 2019. The Times says the poll paints a bleak picture for Tory MPs considering whether to continue offering their support to the prime minister.

A report in the FT Weekend looks ahead to what is expected to be one of the largest ever marches organised by the loyalist Orange Order in Northern Ireland. More than 20,000 people - including 140 traditional marching bands - are to parade through Belfast today. The paper says tensions over post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland have led to fears of loyalist violence.

"Teachers should not pander to trans pupils", reads the main headline in The Times. In an interview, Attorney General Suella Braverman tells the paper that schools are under no legal obligation to do things like address trans children by a new pronoun or allow them to wear the school uniform of a different gender. She says teachers need to take "a much firmer line" and suggests that some schools are encouraging gender dysphoria by taking what she describes as an "unquestioning approach".

EPA

A source has told the Mail that the Queen wants the Jubilee to be "an occasion in which the country, including her own family, comes together"

The Telegraph has spoken to Ben Grant, the son of Conservative MP Helen Grant, who has joined a team of 15 foreign volunteers fighting Russian forces alongside the Ukrainian military. The paper has published a video said to show Mr Grant - a former Royal Marine - helping to rescue a fellow Briton who was seriously wounded after kneeling on a landmine.

The Express reports on what it calls "holiday hell" after families trying to get away for half term faced widespread disruption on roads and at airports. The paper says the delays have been caused by computer failures and staffing shortages, with one source claiming that an estimated 100,000 jobs are currently unfilled at airports around the country.

And the Mail reports that the Queen will welcome the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children to Windsor next week as the family gathers to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee. A source has told the paper that the monarch wants the event to be "an occasion in which the country, including her own family, comes together".