Newspaper headlines: 'Voters abandon Tories' as PM defends strategy

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

Liz Truss has given her first newspaper interview as prime minister to the Sunday Telegraph, telling it that only her plan to transform Britain into a low-tax, high-growth economy will reverse what she calls the "current trajectory of managed decline".

She dismisses suggestions she will sack the chancellor after his mini-Budget was followed by a big drop in the value of sterling, insisting he is doing an "excellent job".

She also says she will ease regulations for 40,000 firms by changing the definition of a small business from one with up to 250 employees, to up to 500.

Writing in the Sunday Express, the prime minister acknowledges that the past week was "disruptive", but argues that "breaking with business as usual was never going to be easy".

The front page of the Observer highlights a survey that suggests three-quarters of voters believe that Ms Truss has "lost control" of the economy.

Writing in the paper, the Conservative peer Lord Barwell claims the prime minister has thrown away the Tories' reputation for sound management of the public finances in her first month in office and warns it will take "years" to undo the damage.

With the headline "You've lost their truss, Liz", the Sunday People claims that Conservative rebel MPs are trying to amass 70 letters of no confidence in Ms Truss, as they believe that number would convince senior backbenchers to change the party's leadership rules and topple her as PM.

The home secretary has told the Sun on Sunday that the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats is "out of control".

The paper says Suella Braverman will reform the Modern Slavery Act to make it "easier to boot out" migrants and foreign criminals after she warned that the "really low bar" to be considered a victim of modern slavery was "gumming up" the deportation system.

Ms Braverman also says some police forces "pander to political correctness" after being "captured" by woke groups and she wants them to "get back to basics" by investigating "forgotten" crimes such as burglary and vandalism.

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One of the British men who was freed in a prisoner exchange last month after being held hostage by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine has spoken to the Sunday Mirror.

Dylan Healy recalls how he was tortured with electric prongs, waterboarded and subjected to a mock execution by his captors.

He says his lowest moment came just before his release - "cuffed, gagged and bagged" inside a vehicle - as he struggled to breathe and feared he was being driven to his death.

The paper pictures Mr Healy meeting the daughters of his fellow British hostage, Paul Urey, who died in captivity in July.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that Latin nonsense could be used to label tens of thousands of new bacteria species as scientists cannot keep up with the rate of discovery.

It says there is a backlog of 50,000 names, prompting researchers in Norwich to suggest using Latin-sounding names that have no meaning, generated automatically by an Artificial Intelligence-powered computer system.