Sources in Whitehall and among the intelligence service have told the I they believe there is a “strong possibility” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may give the green light for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel is expected to retaliate against Tehran, following this week’s missile barrage. Three former heads of Western intelligence agencies have told the paper they think the crisis may spur Iran to develop its own nuclear bomb.
“Reeves vows to invest, invest, invest” headlines the Financial Times, as the chancellor prepares to boost borrowing to fun a multi-million pound capital programme in this month’s budget, the paper reports. Rachel Reeves is seeking to calm “potentially jittery” markets and has indicated higher taxes will go some way to filling the £22bn “hole” she has identified in the public finances, it says. The front also carries a photo of a man running for cover in a suburb of Beirut “during an Israeli air raid”. A court ruling against Fifa could disrupt the system of player sales between European football clubs, the paper also reports.
As Labour carries out a “once-in-a-generation” overhaul of workers’ rights, more than seven million people will have access to sick pay, maternity pay and unfair dismissal protection from day one in the job, the Times says. Probation periods will also be shortened to a maximum of six months, but managers will still be able to sack “unsatisfactory workers”, the paper declares. Dominating the front page is a “portrait of determination”: a picture of cancer sufferer Liz Hatton, 17, who was hugged by Catherine, Princess of Wales, this week. Liz has fulfilled an ambition to take photos for the Times , the paper says.
“Showbiz bombshell!” Nick Knowles has left Strictly Come Dancing following a second knee injury, the Mirror reports.
Argentina is plotting a “fresh grab for the Falklands”, according to the Daily Mail, following the UK’s decision to hand sovereignty of Diego Garcia over to Mauritius.
The Express calls Labour’s axing of the pensioners’ winter fuel payment “disgraceful” and says more than one in four of people affected are over 80.
Swedish-British television presenter Ulrika Jonsson has told the Sun about struggling with alcohol. She has been sober for four months but previously suffered “terrifying blackouts” while drinking alone.
With a nod to Star Trek, the Daily Star says Hurricane Kirk is heading to Britain and may bring “havoc”.
The Times says that ministers are planning what they’ll call a “once in a generation” overhaul of workers’ rights. The plans reportedly include the right to sick pay, maternity pay and protection against unfair dismissal from a person’s first day in a job. But the paper says the government has “offered concessions on key aspects of the reforms”, including abandoning the “right to switch off”, which would have stopped companies from contacting employees outside their working hours.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has given an interview to The Financial Times Weekend, which it says “sets the tone” for her Budget later this month. She pledges to “invest, invest, invest”, but insists she will install “guardrails” around extra borrowing. The paper says Ms Reeves also suggests that increasing taxes will help to fill a £22bn “hole” in public finances she has identified, pledging that “there won’t be a return to austerity”.
“Hands off our Falklands” is the headline in The Daily Mail. It reports that Argentina has been “emboldened” by what the paper calls the UK’s “humiliating handover” of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and has “vowed to make a fresh grab” for the Falklands.
In The Daily Express, the Argentine foreign minister is quoted as saying her government will “recover full sovereignty” of what it calls Las Malvinas. But Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman has insisted the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands “is not up for debate”.
Photos of Conservative leadership contender James Cleverly and his wife at Wimbledon are published in The Daily Mirror. It says the couple accepted tickets for the men’s singles final last year, but the then foreign secretary declared that his wife had not been there. A spokesman for Cleverly says there was a mistake in the declaration and he has contacted the government to rectify it.
And The Sun speaks to a British expat who flew nearly 700 miles from Spain to the UK, just to satisfy an immense craving for Nando’s. Mark Rofe didn’t even leave Heathrow Airport upon his arrival. He tells the paper he simply stopped at the restaurant’s branch in the South Terminal before boarding another flight back to Barcelona – taking a chicken wrap with him.
