Kemi Badenoch has admitted the Conservatives “got it wrong” on immigration in her first “major speech” as party leader, the Daily Telegraph says. Speaking in Westminster, she accepted “responsibility” for the failure of the last government to bring down net migration and pledged to “rebuild trust” with voters, the paper adds. An image of Angela Rayner meeting Pope Francis in the Vatican is also shown on the front page, on the deputy prime minister’s first trip abroad since appointing a foreign affairs adviser to “boost her profile overseas”, the paper says.
Badenoch on Wednesday night signalled a “tough new Tory approach to immigration as she declared: Britain is not a hotel – it’s our home”, writes the Mail. She said it was time to stop being “squeamish” about the negative impacts of mass immigration and act to halt it, in her first major speech as Conservative Party leader, the paper adds.
The lead story in the Daily Mirror says associates of the late Mohamed Al Fayed are “being probed on claims they enabled his sex abuse”. Police say 90 women have now come forward with allegation and one says she was “just 13”, the paper adds.
The Guardian reports that police believe Al Fayed may have “raped and abused more than 111 women over nearly four decades and that his youngest victim was just 13 years old”. The paper says the scale of the criminality would make Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, one of Britain’s “most notorious sex offenders, and raises urgent questions about how he got away with his crimes”. The paper also shows an image of Lebanese people returning south after the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel came into effect on Wednesday.
Lord Cameron has revealed he has changed his mind and now supports a bill to legalise assisted dying, arguing that it will help bring about a “meaningful reduction in human suffering”, according to the Times. Writing in the paper, the former prime minister says that he previously opposed changing the law because he feared that “vulnerable people could be pressurised into hastening their own deaths”.
The chief inspector of probation has issued a “stark warning” that the decision to release thousands of prisoners early will lead to a “rise in serious reoffending”, the i newspaper says. Martin Jones tells the paper that it is “inevitable” that some of the 2,800 inmates released from jail will go on to commit “violent, sexual or domestic abuse offences”.
The lead story in the Financial Times says French sovereign bonds and stocks fell on Wednesday as concerns “intensified” that a dispute over a draft budget containing €60bn of cuts and tax rises might “bring down” Michel Barnier’s government. An image of Lebanese people returning to southern Beirut after the ceasefire is shown on the front page.
“Worried farmer” Olly Harrison has issued a “rallying call on behalf of the industry”, the Daily Express reports. He is urging the government not to “steal our children’s future” over what the paper calls an “inheritance tax threat”.
A search is under way for a National Lottery winner “who may not even know they have won a £177m fortune”, the Metro reports. The paper says one ticket scooped the jackpot in Tuesday’s EuroMillions draw.
ITV’s This Mornings show faces a “huge shake-up” under new leadership “after long-serving boss Martin Frizell quit”, The Sun says.
“Swathes of Britain” are on flood alert, The Daily Star says, after Storm Conall “dumped half a month’s rain on our heads” in just a day. “It’s a great day to be a duck,” is the headline.
