Newspaper headlines: 'Crackdown on asylum backlog' and 'strikers split'

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By BBC News
Staff

Ms Begum was 15 when she joined the self-styled Islamic State group in 2015

A number of papers lead with the government's plan to reduce the asylum backlog by scrapping interviews for some migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. The Daily Mail says the fast lane has been dubbed an amnesty in all but name - and warns it has been told by a senior source that the change would encourage other people from the five countries to come to the UK.

Conservative MP Marco Longhi tells the Daily Telegraph the scheme appears to be "completely wrong", and people who have entered the UK illegally should be removed and have their claims processed overseas.

But the Daily Express says the plan is a practical solution to a long-standing problem.

"Just take NO for an answer" is the Sun's message to Shamima Begum, after the former member of the Islamic State group lost a legal bid to restore her British citizenship. The paper says her lawyers boasted that the battle was "nowhere near over" and appeals are set to cost the taxpayer millions.

An editorial in the Times says the government hasn't yet given a convincing answer on why Shamima Begum must not return to the UK, or what threat she still poses that couldn't be countered by close monitoring. The paper acknowledges that keeping an eye on her would take up scarce security resources, but adds that punishing people by leaving them stateless in a desert is no answer to terrorism.

The Daily Telegraph highlights a warning from BT that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will send Britain in a "drastically anti-investment direction" if he forges ahead with an increase in corporation tax. The chief financial officer of the telecoms firm, Simon Lowth, fears the increase from 19% to 25% will reduce business investment and slow down economic growth.

The Times says it's seen a draft of an NHS plan to tackle staff shortages in the health service. The document warns that the NHS will be short of more than half a million workers without the biggest boost in training for a generation. It calls for a doubling of medical school places by the end of the decade, which would require half a dozen new medical schools.

According to the Guardian, pollutants known as "forever chemicals" - which build up in the body, may be toxic and do not break down in the environment - have been found at high levels across the UK and Europe. The paper says the chemicals - valued for their non-stick and detergent properties - have made their way into the soil water and sediments from consumer products, firefighting foams, waste and industrial processes. In the UK the highest level was detected in a discharge from a chemicals plant on the River Wyre near Blackpool.

And finally almost all papers feature images of the late musician, David Bowie, in some of his extraordinary costumes, which have now been gifted to the nation. The Daily Mirror says his personal archive is donating a collection of his handwritten lyrics, letters, sheet music, costumes, photography, music videos, album artwork and awards to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which will open The David Bowie Centre for the study of Performing Arts in 2025.