Newspaper headlines: 'UK heads into recession' and 'big tax cuts'

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By BBC News
Staff

Many of the the front pages are looking ahead to the government's mini-budget today.

"The biggest tax cuts for thirty years" is the headline in the Daily Mail, which says the plans aim to "drive down taxation, tackle high energy bills and curb inflation".

According to the Guardian, among the 30 measures will be "new investment zones and an acceleration of infrastructure projects".

The Financial Times says the cap on bankers' bonuses will also be scrapped. While the Independent says environmental protections will be "torn up in huge swathes of the UK".

The Daily Telegraph reports Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will also announce two "rabbits out of the hat", although it gives no more details. The Daily Mail speculates one could be a "1p cut in the basic rate of income tax next year".

"Tax cut bonanza in bid to stop the economic rot" says the front page of the Times. Sources have told the paper the chancellor's tax cuts could cost £50 billion. It described the plans as a "gamble".

But the Sun declares the changes will "boost the economy and make people better off within six weeks". The Daily Mirror's verdict is that it will be "a good day for the rich in the UK".

In the Financial Times, Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has criticised Prime Minister Liz Truss's economic plans, writing that her approach "is discredited and inadequate, and will not unleash the investment she claims". She says that "what the government is proposing is just another zigzag on a path of policy failure".

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The Guardian says some Conservative MPs are "furious" at ministers for lifting a ban on fracking in England. It adds the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is considering designating fracking sites as "nationally significant infrastructure projects", which would allow them to "bypass normal planning requirements".

The Sun features an interview with one of the five British men who were released this week, after being captured by Russian-backed troops while fighting in Ukraine. John Harding describes prison guards strapping a carrier bag over his head, cuffing his hands behind his back, then punching, kicking and jumping on him for half an hour, breaking most of his ribs.

But he says he was greeted by an unexpected sight when boarding the jet home - former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The paper says the Russian billionaire "played a key role" in the release of the men.

The Guardian reports Labour is considering abolishing the House of Lords. The paper has seen a leaked review by the former prime minister, Gordon Brown, which recommends replacing it with an upper house of nations and regions. It also suggests "handing sweeping powers to local regions and devolved nations". A Labour spokesperson tells the paper that "the commission has yet to take a view on all these issues".