The defection of Tory MP Dan Poulter to Labour features on a number of Sunday’s front pages. In an interview with the Observer, Mr Poulter, who is also a part-time mental health doctor, says the experience of working more than 20 night shifts in A&E over the last year has been “truly life-changing” and that he feels the Conservative government has been “failing on the thing I care about most, which is the NHS and its patients”. The paper adds that Mr Poulter has said he will not seek re-election, but that he hopes to find a role advising Labour on mental health policy.
A group of Conservative rebels are on the “warpath” after the defection and have devised a plan – titled “100 days to save Britain” – to oust Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and unite around Penny Mordaunt, according to the Sunday Telegraph. With her in place, the paper says, there would be a “wave” of policy announcements, including a budget that would prioritise tax cuts, before a general election was called. It also notes Mr Poulter’s defection comes just days before the local elections and that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed him to the party, saying it was “time to end the Conservative chaos”.
The Sunday Times reports that Conservative MPs were warned the government would drop plans for tax cuts ahead of the election if they supported calls for immediate compensation for victims of the contaminated blood scandal. The paper says the warning was delivered by Tory whips after Labour tabled an amendment to create an independent body to oversee financial recompense. It is believed the cost of compensation for the scandal, which saw more than 30,000 people infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products, will run into the billions.
Sir Keir has told the Daily Express that Labour would keep the triple lock – which ensures pensions rise in line with inflation, average wages, or by 2.5%, whichever is highest – for at least five years if it wins the next election. The paper describes the announcement as an “opening salvo” ahead of the election and calls it “the clearest sign yet that the two main parties will be locked in a fierce battle for the support of older voters”.
The Daily Mail’s front page features an image of an etched boulder in Hyde Park’s Holocaust Memorial Garden that has been covered up with blue tarpaulin, a step the paper says was taken to “protect it from pro-Palestine protesters”. The headline reads: “Police are so cowed by the antisemitic mob, they even cover up the Holocaust”.
People smugglers are hiding migrants in bunkers built by the Nazis in France during World War Two ahead of attempted crossings over the English Channel, the Daily Mirror reports. The paper says it saw dozens of Kurds herded into the bunkers and calls the practice “despicable”.
The Sun carries an interview with Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas amid a “terrifying” cancer scare. Ballas tells the paper she has had three biopsies after checks found lumpy tissue in her breast and is quoted saying: “I feel very emotional. Every time the phone rings I think, ‘Oh, maybe they are my results'”.
And the Daily Star reports that British astronaut Tim Peake has said he believes there must be millions of aliens in the universe. Peake, who spent six months on board the International Space Station in 2015 and 2016, is quoted saying: “I’m a firm believer”.
