Newspaper headlines: Fujitsu's public contracts and Vennells returns CBE

A number of papers lead with the news that former Post Office chief Paula Vennells has agreed to hand back her CBE

The face of Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief who is returning her CBE amid public anger over the Post Office scandal, appears on many of Wednesday's front pages.

The Daily Mail calls her "disgraced" and says campaigners believe she should now return the millions of pounds she received in bonuses and pension contributions. The Daily Express says Britain would have faced a scandal in the honours system had she not handed the award back, while the Sun questions why it took so long for the honour to be returned.

The Daily Mirror has spoken to Marion Holmes, whose husband Peter was blamed after £46,000 appeared to go missing from his Post Office and who died in 2015 before he could be exonerated. Ms Holmes tells the paper that the episode "destroyed" her husband.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the architect of Horizon, the faulty software that caused the scandal, has demanded immunity before agreeing to appear at the public inquiry. The paper says Gareth Jenkins's testimony has been delayed twice, and that his request for immunity has been refused twice. It also claims Mr Jenkins told forensic accountants as long ago as 2012 that the IT system could be accessed remotely by developers Fujitsu, despite one of the prosecution's key arguments being that it was tamper-proof. When approached by the Telegraph, Mr Jenkins said: "I don't have anything to say to you".

The Financial Times reports that, since 2019, when the Court of Appeal ruled that it's software had been at fault in the scandal, Fujitsu has been the joint or sole recipient of £4.9bn worth of government contracts, including £3.6bn during Rishi Sunak's time as chancellor or prime minister. A spokesperson for Mr Sunak tells the paper: "Once the full facts have been established by the inquiry we will make further judgements but it's important that we allow that process to take place."

The prime minister faces more problems over his Rwanda policy, according to the Times. It says dozens of Tory MPs are indicating that they will vote against the policy in its current form and that rebels are preparing to table amendments which would prevent European judges and human rights lawyers from blocking deportation flights. The Daily Express says the rebels have fired a warning shot and that Mr Sunak faces a showdown with them in a series of crunch votes next week.

The i reports that independent polling in Russia indicates that 40% of people in the country support withdrawing troops from Ukraine "without achieving the goals" of the war, while 33% support its continuation in its current form. The poll found almost half of Russians have reported a downturn in their financial circumstances.

The Guardian reports on the findings of a paper in the Royal Society Open Science journal that has identified seven distinct "clans" of sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean. Each has differences in the Morse code-like sequences of sound they use to communicate. The clans may meet, but they never interbreed. The research says they appear to use consensus - rather than top-down leadership - to make communal decisions. But it is a slow, messy process. Examples include taking up to 90 minutes to decide whether or not to make a 90 degree turn.

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