The government’s plans to drop unfair dismissal safeguards for new employees on the first day of a new job leads many of Friday’s papers. “Day-one dismissal protection axed” is the lead in the Financial Times, as Labour “caved to pressure from businesses to soften its workers’ rights legislation”.
The Daily Telegraph also leads with Labour “abandoning plans to allow employees to sue for unfair dismissal on day one of their employment”. The paper says it is the “second manifesto breach in as many days”, following the Budget’s “threshold freeze on income tax”.
“Labour U-turn on worker rights” is the i paper’s take on the government’s plan to wind back proposals for day-one dismissal protections. The move is “criticised by Labour MPs but welcomed by business”, according to the paper.
The unfair dismissal threshold will extend to six months, the Guardian reports, under a compromise deal accepted by the TUC. It writes the TUC accepts the arrangement, with general secretary Paul Nowak saying other parts of the workers’ rights bill, such as “day-one sick pay”, are an “absolute priority”.
The Times reports that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces a “revolt from Labour MPs” after scrapping day-one protections, saying the policy was “championed” by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
New ONS migration figures showing a drop in UK arrivals is the Metro lead story. “Only 204,000 more people are living in the UK” reads the headline, noting “asylum arrivals rising” while “fewer coming here to study and work”. The paper quotes Sir Keir who “hails migration fall” as he faces “pressure from Reform UK on migrant arrivals.
Britain faces a “brain drain”, the Daily Mail says, citing migration data revealing “an exodus of young Britons while asylum seekers now make up nearly half of net migration”.
Sir Keir’s defence of the Budget leads the Independent. “Keir Starmer forced to deny he misled public over record £26bn tax rises,” is the paper’s top line, as he denies Labour broke its manifesto pledge “not to hike tax on working people”, citing criticism from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Terry Smith, Rachel Reeves’s uncle, tells the Sun: “Britain’s being fleeced by my niece”, compounding other critics who describe the Budget “as a bonanza for benefit claimants”. Reeves’s 73-year-old uncle joins a “long line of detractors”, the paper writes.
Meanwhile, the Daily Express leads with calls from terminally-ill campaigners pushing for the Lords to end delays to passing an assisted dying law. They say peers’ amendments opposing the original bill are “stealing precious time and choice”, the paper writes.
A potential fresh lead in the Jill Dando murder is reported on by the Daily Mirror. The Crimewatch host was shot dead on her doorstop in 1999 and the paper says investigators are probing “a newly unearthed picture” of what the paper claims is “a Serbian assassin”.
“Jack (Osbourne) plots huge comeback”, reads the headline on the Daily Star’s front page, saying the I’m a Celebrity… Get me out of here! contestant has been “secretly filming a paranormal series in a bid to be a huge TV host”.
