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Newspaper headlines: Tina Turner ‘simply the best’ and ‘more rate rises ahead’
The Star is one of a number of Thursday’s papers to pay tribute to singer Tina Turner, who died on Tuesday aged 83. The headline reads: “Simply the best”, a reference to arguably her most famous lyrics.
The Sun has a similar headline and says Turner enjoyed an “astonishing career spanning six decades” and died at her home in Switzerland after a long illness.
The Mirror’s headline also focuses on the lyrics and says Turner sold 100 million records after rising to fame in the 1960s and quotes Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger calling her an “enormously talented performer”.
Ministers are on a “collision course” with the Covid-19 public inquiry, according to the Times. The paper says the Cabinet Office is considering a legal challenge after the chair of the inquiry requested access to what the paper says are “hundreds of potentially embarrassing” WhatsApp messages exchanged between former prime minister Boris Johnson and 40 other people central to Britain’s handling of the pandemic, including current prime minister Rishi Sunak. It says officials fear handing the messages over would set a precedent that all government communications should eventually be made public and harm future decision-making.
The Guardian says Mr Sunak is facing calls to scrap Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list after the former PM was referred to police over fresh allegations of lockdown-breaking events during the pandemic. The paper says the list is “nearing approval and could be published within weeks” but that Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and even some Conservatives think the prime minister should step in and stop the honours from going ahead.
A new interest rate rise is expected to tackle persistent inflation, according to the i. It comes after figures published on Wednesday showed inflation in April was at 8.7%, down since March but higher than expected. The paper says homeowners in particular will be affected by any hike, though adds that inflation is expected to drop to 5% by the end of the year.
The Financial Times reports that gilt yields have hit levels not seen since last year’s mini-Budget. The yield on gilts is the interest paid by the UK government on its debt, so a rise in the yield can be read as a fall in investor confidence in the country’s economy. The paper quotes one analyst describing the market reaction to the figures as “an amber flag, if not a red flag” and predicting rates will have to rise “aggressively” in response.
Around 3.7m of the 5.2m people on out-of-work benefits have an exemption from having to look for work, meaning taxpayers face “bankrolling their benefits indefinitely”, according to the Telegraph. The paper says it follows a rise in claims of mental ill-health and joint pain over lockdown and that the cost to the state now stands between £22.5bn and £26.5bn.
The Daily Express leads with the news that Jaguar Land Rover is set to choose the UK as the location for a new electric car battery plant. The paper says it comes after a “bidding war” with Spain and is being seen as “the most significant investment in the car industry since Nissan set up a factory in Sunderland in 1986”.
The officer who led a disastrous Scotland Yard investigation into false VIP sex abuse allegations is to face an investigation for gross misconduct, the Mail reports. Steve Rodhouse, a former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police who now serves as deputy head of the National Crime Agency, ran an operation that probed invented claims that MPs and generals abused and murdered children. The operation was largely based on claims made by Carl Beech, who was jailed in 2019 for making false allegations. The Mail says the development has “plunged Britain’s biggest police force into yet another crisis”.
And the Metro reports that an online influencer has pleaded guilty to waging a “terrifying stalking campaign” against England footballer Mason Mount. The paper says that model Orla Sloan, 22, changed her phone number 21 times so she could keep calling Mount after he asked her to stop texting him and blocked her number. Sloan also pleaded guilty to stalking Billy Gilmour and harassing Ben Chilwell, both teammates of Mount’s at Chelsea.
A number of papers report on figures to be released today that are expected to show net migration reached record levels last year.
The Daily Telegraph thinks the data will “expose the chasm between the government’s tough rhetoric and the reality of an immigration system running out of control”, while the Sun warns the increase is “unsustainable for our housing stock and public services”.
The Daily Mail says the Conservatives “really are in deep trouble” after 13 years of failing to fulfil pledges to curb migration. “If they can’t control our borders, what’s the point of them?” The paper asks. The Times urges Home Secretary Suella Braverman to “cease posturing, park her ambitions, and get on with building a migration system that works”.
The Times also reports that the Cabinet Office is considering a legal challenge after the Covid public inquiry requested access to hundreds of WhatsApp messages sent between Boris Johnson and other ministers during the pandemic. Officials are said to fear that handing over full, unredacted details will set a “dangerous precedent” that all internal government communications could end up being made public, harming future decision-making. The paper says the government also believes that disclosing the messages would breach the Human Rights Act and data protection laws. Those arguments fail to persuade the Daily Mirror, which insists that, if the inquiry can’t establish the facts, lessons can’t be learned.
The Guardian leads with calls for Rishi Sunak to delay or scrap Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list following fresh allegations that the former prime minister hosted lockdown-breaking events. Opposition parties say allies of Mr Johnson should not be rewarded while he remains under investigation. A spokesman for Mr Johnson has dismissed any claims of rule breaches as a “politically motivated stitch-up”. According to the paper, some Conservatives are “privately baffled” as to why Mr Sunak would be willing to go ahead with the list, as it’s expected to hand peerages to at least three MPs and trigger potentially difficult by-elections.
The Daily Telegraph reports that nearly four million people are being paid jobless benefits without having to look for work, following a surge in claims of poor mental health and joint pain during lockdown. The paper says the number has increased by half a million since the pandemic, when face-to-face health checks were replaced with remote assessments. Writing for the paper, former work and pensions secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith says the government must get people languishing on sickness benefit back to work, a move that he says would help improve their health and reduce dependency.
Images of singer Tina Turner, who died on Tuesday aged 83, feature on many of the front pages. Several headlines nod to one of her most well-known hits, saying: “Simply The Best”. The Daily Mirror hails her “unique” voice, “breathtaking” stage presence and “sublime” music, but adds that what really made her a legend “was her sheer strength of character”.
Alluding to another hit song, the Daily Express calls her “the hero we needed” and pays tribute to her ability to “inspire young performers to this day”. The Daily Mail says she was a “superstar” and “the undisputed queen of stadium rock who invented Girl Power before the Spice Girls were even born”.
