The build-up to next week’s budget continues to lead many of the papers. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed plans to change how the government defines its assets in a way that will allow it to borrow around £20bn more per year to fund investment, the Financial Times reports. Writing in the paper, Reeves says the change will ensure Britain avoids “the falls in public sector investment that were planned under the last government”.
The Daily Telegraph says former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned that Reeves’ plans, and any increase in government borrowing, could mean interest rates stay higher for longer. Hunt replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor after the September 2022 mini-budget sparked turmoil in the financial markets. The paper says “traders are still reeling” from the episode and quotes Hunt saying: “The markets are watching.”
The same comments lead the Mail, which quotes Hunt saying Reeves risks “punishing families with mortgages” if her changes push up interest rates.
The Times carries another warning to Reeves, this time from Labour grandee and former work and pensions secretary Lord Blunkett. In a letter to the paper, Lord Blunkett expresses concern about reports the chancellor plans to impose national insurance on employers’ pension contributions. He says the move could lead to employers reducing their pension contributions and damage living standards in retirement.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has opened the door to providing non-financial reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade, the Guardian reports. It comes amid pressure from some Caribbean countries for reparations to be among the issues discussed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which opens in Samoa on Friday. Earlier on Thursday, a Downing Street spokesman said it “does not recognise” reports the UK could consider forms of ‘reparatory justice’ that would stop short of financial payments.
Cases of shoplifting are now at their highest level since records for England and Wales began, and cost stores £1.8bn a year, the Metro reports. The paper says there were 469,788 offences in the year to June, up 29% on the year before. Industry figures tell the paper thieves are becoming “bolder, more aggressive and are more frequently armed with weapons”.
Mental health therapists previously banned for misconduct – including having sex with their patients and being drunk in sessions – cannot be stopped from seeing clients because regulation of the industry is voluntary, according to the i. The paper says that, in one instance, a psychotherapist previously found to pose an “extreme danger to the public” if not barred is still practising.
The Sun reports that one of the UK’s nuclear submarines ran so low on food during a six-month patrol that its sailors were ordered to share rations. Medics feared a “serious loss of life” from fatigue and concentration lapses caused by hunger, the paper says.
And the Daily Mirror calls on its readers to help eight-year-old Florrie Bark, one of the winners of its Pride of Britain award, raise £1m for her children’s cancer charity. The paper says the money will be used to improve access to education for children with the disease, and carries the headline: “Help make Florrie’s dream come true.”
