Newspaper headlines: Migrant clampdown 'unworkable' and new 'tax clash'

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By BBC News
Staff
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The government's plans to clamp down on migrant crossings features in many of Monday's papers.

The Daily Mail makes clear it wants then to work, so people stop putting their lives in the hands of smugglers. But it says significant questions remain - asking where the migrants will be held, and whether legal wrangles risk making the proposals a "damp squib". The Daily Express believes the measures could even help the Conservatives win the next election, by putting clear distance between the government and Labour policy. But unnamed senior Tories tell the hIndependent website that Rishi Sunak will likely have to backtrack on his promise to "stop the boats" - because any new laws won't hit the statute book in time to take effect before polling day.

According to The Times, the Prime Minister is likely to face renewed pressure from some of his backbenchers to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights - which provides the legal authority for most deportation challenges. The paper says Mr Sunak is resisting that, and believes his plans are legally "watertight". The Guardian questions that, though, and says it's not yet clear how the new bill will get around the UK's obligations under the Convention.

The Daily Telegraph continues its series of Lockdown Files reports based on leaked WhatsApp messages from the former health secretary, Matt Hancock. In the latest texts to be released from October 2020, he calls the government's then Covid vaccine tsar, Dame Kate Bingham, "wacky" and "totally unreliable" after she gave an interview claiming that the immunisation of the entire population "was not going to happen". It's understood Dame Kate was following agreed policy at the time. Mr Hancock has repeatedly described the leaks as "a partial, biased account" to suit an "anti-lockdown agenda".

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The Daily Mirror leads on what it says is a crisis in NHS dentistry. It claims 11 million people in England are unable to access care and that some desperate patients have even resorted to "yanking out" their own teeth.

The Times reports that Boris Johnson has put his father forward for a knighthood in his resignation honours list. The paper says Stanley Johnson's nomination will be a "subject of scrutiny", after allegations from two women that he touched them inappropriately - which he denies. Its editorial suggests that "slipping a gong" to a family member is an unwise move for 'Johnson the younger' and is unlikely to convince his critics he's developed much moral integrity since leaving office.

Most of the front page of the Financial Times is given over to China's announcement that it's looking for economic growth of around 5 per cent this year - its lowest target for more than three decades. The FT says it signals the end of the "era of rip-roaring growth" for the country.

And The Sun says that some of music's biggest names will appear in a benefit concert at Wembley this summer for Ukraine. U2, The Killers, Pink and The Rolling Stones have all apparently been invited to the event in June. The gig is being modelled on Live Aid - which raised money for victims of the Ethiopian famine almost forty years ago. The paper calls the Ukraine version "Lviv Aid".