Newspaper headlines: 'Tax rises for all' and 'last chance' to save NHS

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By BBC News
Staff
SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images

An agreement with France to try to curb the number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats will be signed this morning is the lead story in the Times,

The paper says the government hopes to reach "a further and more substantial deal" next year. According to the Times, the Home Office believes the people smugglers' business model would be destroyed if France managed to intercept about 75% of boats trying to cross.

In an editorial, the Sun argues that the trafficking of migrants will not stop until we "get real" on rewriting what it calls "loophole-ridden human rights legislation" and the Modern Slavery Act.

Some of the front pages highlight Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's warning that the UK could face another financial meltdown without tax rises and spending cuts, set to be announced on Thursday.

The Financial Times reports the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that without fiscal tightening government borrowing could be £70bn higher than expected in five years' time. The paper says the deterioration estimated by the government's independent forecaster is much greater than that calculated by think tanks like the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The Daily Telegraph's editorial warns Mr Sunak and Mr Hunt that, as they seek to correct the mistakes made by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, they are in danger of overcompensating and strangling the economy - just as it is about to enter a potentially deep recession. The paper says it's hard to see how Mr Hunt's plan, from what we know of it, won't damage business confidence and hit consumer spending.

According to the i, the government's energy price guarantee - which caps the cost of gas and electricity for all households - will be scrapped from April and a new scheme will be announced to help the most vulnerable. It reports that for everyone else annual bills will rise by hundreds of pounds.

Under the headline "Last Chance to Save Our NHS", the Daily Mirror says the union Unite is warning the chancellor that the health service could collapse if he fails to inject cash into it. The union's general secretary, Sharon Graham, tells the paper that services are at breaking point while workers are struggling to make ends meet.

Analysis of NHS data by the Guardian has found that last month an average of one in seven beds in acute hospitals in England was occupied by a patient who was medically fit to be discharged, but could not be because of a chronic lack of social care. It says the situation was particularly serious in two trusts - North Bristol and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh - where one-third of patients were well enough to leave.

And the Daily Express says former minister for trade policy Connor Burns is to be exonerated over a claim that he touched a man's thigh in a hotel bar. Liz Truss sacked him when the allegation emerged, but an inquiry has found that he had no case to answer, because no complaint was made.