Several of Wednesday’s front pages, including the Daily Mail, feature photos of the Princess of Wales and tennis icon Roger Federer, who sat together in Centre Court’s royal box on a rainy second day at Wimbledon. The Mail leads with reports the Metropolitan Police Service is investigating a further alleged breach of Covid regulations, this time involving Tory backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin. Sir Bernard is one of seven MPs who co-authored last month’s highly critical report accusing former Prime Minster Boris Johnson of misleading Parliament over separate events in Downing Street during the pandemic.
There may be further misery for mortgage holders this year, according to the i newspaper, which says the Bank of England is forecast to raise its base rate four more times in 2023 to tackle stubbornly high inflation. The paper also highlights accusations banks have been exploiting savers by failing to pass on higher rates.
But relief for household budgets may be on its way in the form of reduced shopping bills, according to the Daily Express. The paper writes that supermarkets are waging a war to drive prices down after signs food inflation is falling. Sainsbury’s is one of the big names which has revealed it is lowering prices on its most popular products, the paper says.
Away from the cost-of-living crisis, Metro pays tribute to the NHS, which is marking its 75th anniversary on Wednesday. The paper features comments from Aneira “Nye” Thomas – the first baby born in the health service on 5 July 1948. The ex-nurse, who is named after the institution’s founder and former Health Secretary Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, says it is a national treasure, the paper reports.
The government is drawing up plans to drop the UK’s flagship £11.6bn climate and nature funding pledge, according to the Guardian’s front page exclusive. The paper says the prime minister is being accused of betraying populations vulnerable to global heating. Completing the front page is a photo of a fist-pumping Sir Andy Murray, who beat Ryan Peniston in straight sets in the all-British Wimbledon first round match on Tuesday.
Another tennis great makes the front page of the Sun. The paper leads with claims from the estranged wife of Boris Becker that the three-times Wimbledon champion kept prize horses in his bedroom to hide them from debt collectors. Mr Becker served eight months of a two-and-a-half-year sentence for hiding £2.5m of assets and loans in a bankruptcy fraud case.
At least 2,000 police officers across England and Wales face losing their jobs under government plans to overhaul the misconduct system, the Times reports. The paper says ministers will make it easier to dismiss failing or disgraced officers after police chiefs including the Met’s Sir Mark Rowley said the present system was “bizarre and overregulated” and hampered their ability to clean up the ranks.
The Daily Mirror features an exclusive interview with former Breakfast presenter, and current Mirror columnist, Fiona Phillips, who reveals for the first time she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The 62-year-old is trialling a new drug which may slow or reverse the condition. The paper’s front page features two photos of Phillips, including one from her GMTV days.
The Daily Telegraph leads with reports US President Joe Biden is tipping European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to be Nato’s next secretary-general. It comes after UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was rejected for the role by the White House, the paper says.
The Bank of England is looking at contentious plans to force more international banks to set up subsidiaries in the UK, the Financial Times has been told. The paper says the move could reduce the thresholds requiring foreign banks with corporate business in the UK to set up subsidiaries that have their own capital and liquidity.
And the Daily Star carries a historian’s claims that classic comedies such as ‘Allo ‘Allo and Dad’s Army may have inadvertently contributed towards the Brexit vote, including by highlighting differences between Britain and its European neighbours.
A number of Wednesday’s papers consider the future of the NHS, 75 years after its creation.
Writing in The Times, the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, rejects calls for radical reform, and argues the NHS can prosper without a drastic change. One of his predecessors, Sajid Javid, has warned that British patients are left sicker than those in other countries as a direct result of the structure of the NHS and called for a Royal Commission to consider fundamental changes. But Barclay says improving technology and medical advancements will enable the NHS to respond to the challenges it faces. He says it needs evolution, rather than a “big bang”.
An editorial in the Daily Mirror accuses the Conservatives of “imposing the tightest financial strait-jacket in the NHS’s history”. The paper says the health service needs “love and money, not shock therapy”.
The Daily Mail paints a completely different picture. It says the NHS and its model of taxpayer-funded provision is failing, and investing extra billions of pounds into it won’t transform the system, because of what it calls its “intrinsic inefficiencies and epic wastefulness”. The paper says the political class must stop treating the NHS as a sacred cow and consider a serious shake-up of the way it’s structured and financed.
Similarly the Financial Times calls for a “no taboo review” to examine how the UK’s health system is organised and funded, and what it might learn from overseas models. The Sun also says we should copy others “with far superior patient outcomes”.
King Charles met patients and staff at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to celebrate 75 years of the NHS
Several papers including the Daily Telegraph report that the US government is pushing for the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to become the next secretary general of Nato. It says Washington has rejected the UK Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, for the role.
The Sun describes Von der Leyen as a hapless former doctor with a long career of “failing upwards” and says she is the hot favourite despite Wallace’s vastly greater nous and experience. “May God help us all if she is entrusted to mastermind the defence of the free world,” says the paper.
Both the Telegraph and the Times say at least 2,000 police officers in England and Wales face losing their jobs over the next year under the government’s plans to introduce tough disciplinary rules. The Telegraph says the home secretary will give chief constables greater powers and freedom to remove officers for misconduct, or abusive behaviour. The Times says the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, has described the present system as “bizarre and overregulated” and hampering his ability to clean up the ranks.
On its front page, the I newspaper highlights predictions that the Bank of England will raise its main interest rate four more times this year. That could take the base rate to 6% from 5% today. The Daily Express is more optimistic about the cost of living. It declares that cheaper food is on the way because it says supermarkets are waging a war to drive prices down.
