Newspaper headlines: PM 'takes fight to critics' amid election warning

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By BBC News
Staff
EPA

Liz Truss delivering a speech at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham on Wednesday

The speech delivered by Liz Truss to the Conservative Party conference is the focus for most front pages.

The Daily Express says Ms Truss "came out fighting", sweeping aside Tory party turmoil and vowing to get Britain through the "tempest" ahead.

"Defiant Liz takes fight to her critics" is the Daily Mail's verdict, declaring that after 12 stormy days, the PM has roused Tories by pledging to defeat the "enemies of growth".

"Truss delivers a new common enemy to fractured Tory party" is the Guardian's take, while the Financial Times thinks that her attack on what she called an "anti-growth coalition" is a clear bid to get her new premiership "on track".

"Movin on Up or is Liz Movin on out?" is the headline for the Metro as it reports that after a bruising week, a poll suggests Ms Truss is less popular than the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The Times quotes the former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries - a Truss supporter - as saying the prime minister has made some big mistakes and the government has lurched to the right, leaving the centre-ground to Labour.

The i's front page claims a cabinet rebellion is growing over benefits - with ministers pressing for them to be increased in line with inflation.

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In the Daily Telegraph, a cartoon depicts a party official on stage addressing Tory members: "Great News," he declares. "The Labour Party has offered to pay for our conference to go on for another three days".

The Telegraph's lead focuses on new analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies of the effect of leaving tax thresholds frozen. It reports that the "fiscal drag stealth raid" will mean the average household is more than £1,400 worse off... despite the tax cuts of the mini-budget. Overall, the paper calculates that the rise in income taxes, will total £21bn. A Treasury spokesman tells the Telegraph that the government is committed to high growth and low tax.

Writing in the Daily Express, Home Secretary Suella Braverman says she wants to see a return to old-fashioned common-sense policing - catching criminals rather than filling in forms. She welcomes an announcement from police chiefs yesterday that all burgled homes will be visited by an officer.

The Times reports that Ms Truss will urge European leaders to help "keep the lights on" this winter when she travels to the Czech Republic on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community. Writing in the paper, the prime minister says its vital for countries to support each other as they face a potential energy crisis.

And finally the "sedate" world of chess is buzzing with intrigue, according to the Daily Star.

Devoting its front page to a controversy which traditionalists may have thought would be more at home among the broadsheets, the paper displays a photo of Hans Niemann, astride a black horse chess piece under the headline "The Dark Knight". The 19-year-old American rising chess star, who has been accused in a report of cheating in more than 100 games, has previously denied doing so in any professional competition. What the paper really wants to know is: "How on earth did they check, mate?"