Newspaper headlines: Johnson faces 'punishment' and his 'stitch-up'

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

Former prime minister Boris Johnson dominates Saturday's papers.

The Times says the former Prime Minister is now fighting for his political career, after an interim Commons report suggested four ways he may have misled MPs over Partygate. According to the paper, senior "parliamentary sources" believe the findings are so strong Mr Johnson could be suspended from the Commons for more than a month - meaning he might have to face a by-election. The Guardian suggests that the interim report paints a compelling picture of what the paper calls 'an attempted cover-up by Number 10', over Partygate.

The i's view is that any hopes of a comeback for Mr Johnson are in "peril" because of the allegations. It outlines how even Mr Johnson's staff struggled to defend the line that Covid rules hadn't been broken.

The "great gaping hole" in Boris's Partygate defence is how the Independent headlines its coverage. This is a reference to a quote about Mr Johnson's account of Partygate from his own communications advisor at the time, Jack Doyle.

The Mirror's front page headline is "Parties - he knew", alongside a picture of the former Prime Minister at a drinks event. It says the report makes clear that the breaches in social distancing rules at government lockdown gatherings would have been "obvious" to Mr Johnson.

But the Daily Mail highlights Mr Johnson's claim that there is no evidence to support allegations he misled MPs. Inside, it describes the investigating Commons Committee as a "kangaroo court" of "Boris-hating pygmies" - and suggests they've found barely a water pistol let alone a smoking gun to point at the former prime minister. The same view is taken by the Daily Express, which says Mr Johnson insisted that the interim report vindicated him.

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There is no mention of the story at all on the front page of the Telegraph, which instead has more details from the cache of WhatsApp messages leaked to it concerning Matt Hancock. It details how the former health secretary tried to enlist the help of the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, to outflank Rishi Sunak, who was then Chancellor, as they argued over Covid restrictions.

The FT Weekend leads on a story that UK officials are blaming the Financial Conduct Authority for a decision by the Cambridge-based chip designer, Arm, to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, rather than London's. The paper says what it describes as "onerous" FCA rules lay behind the move by the firm's Japanese owners.

The FT also has an arresting picture of soldiers marching in Beijing before the start of tomorrow's National People's Congress, which will rubber stamp Communist Party decisions and set an economic growth target for the year . It says more than 80 of the 5,000 delegates are billionaires.

And on its front page The Sun says the Loose Women Presenter, Sophie Morgan, could become Strictly Come Dancing's first wheelchair-using contestant. It quotes a "source" as saying the 38-year-old - who was paralysed from the chest down after a car crash at 18 - would be "amazing" on the show.