“Billions ‘wasted’ on hotels for migrants” is the Daily Mail’s top story in what it calls a “new asylum fiasco”. A “bombshell” report by MPs criticises the Home Office’s handling of the immigration system, describing it as a “manifest failure”. The paper also marks singer Katy Perry and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s romance, captioning a photo of the pair “it’s official!”
The Telegraph also writes that “billions” have been wasted in “migrant hotel chaos” following an investigation by the Home Affairs committee. Home Office “failings allowed firms to reap ‘excessive profits’ from taxpayers”, it says, citing the committee’s report. The paper also carries a splash of Perry and Trudeau hand in hand, with the caption “Trudeau, madly, deeply”.
The Times also headlines on the “billions lost” on “hotel deals for migrants”. The Home Office has “squandered” the money “due to incompetence”, it quotes the report, noting that “a series of failures by the department” saw contracts with hotels “increase from £4.5bn to £15.3bn”. In global economic news, the “prospect of an all-out trade war between the world’s largest economies has receded” according to paper, after the US said a “framework” for a deal between the US and China has been agreed.
The Guardian takes a different tack to many of today’s front pages, instead detailing warnings to Chancellor Rachel Reeves that the NHS needs an “extra £3bn to avoid rationing care”. Its bosses say patients “will wait longer for treatment” without an “emergency injection” of funding, the paper reports. A photo of the “Epping sex offender” being led through Finsbury Park by two officers takes up much of the front page after his arrest on Sunday. Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from prison after being sentenced for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel.
Metro has “Worried Wes” across its front page, carrying comments from the health secretary who says there is a “growing sense of despair within the governemnt”, and “warned colleagues” that time to “win back the public’s trust was running out”.
US officials “expect China to delay introducing sweeping export controls on rare earths”, the Financial Times reports. This follows a weekend of negotiations in Kuala Lumpur which “raised hopes” Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would agree to extend a trade truce, it adds. The FT also writes up the arrests of two suspects in the Louvre heist, including one at Charles de Gaulle airport, after “four burglars made off with eight pieces of royal jewellery”.
For the Daily Express, its headline reads “tax rises will result in higher food prices”. Supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose were among those “imploring” Chancellor Rachel Reeves to exempt shops from a new business surtax, it writes. A promise from Justice Secretary David Lammy that “migrant sex attacker will be deported ‘this week'”, also features on the paper’s front.
Union sources say they are “open to compromise on plans to give workers ‘day one’ protections against being sacked”, writes The i Paper. The government is “in talks” about probation periods with unions and businesses, the paper understands, with No 10 arguing that “day one” rights will “provide financial security for those without it”, it adds.
The Independent shares a “special dispatch” from a “secret location” in Ukraine, titled “on the frontline with Zelensky’s killer drone unit”. One of its reporters has been watching a team deploy typhoon drones “to hunt down and pick off enemy soldiers in a deadly nighttime attack” from a hidden underground bunker south of Zaporizhzhia.
The Sun reports that Prince Andrew is “demanding both Wills & Harry’s ex-homes” to leave Royal Lodge. The paper writes that Andrew has told the King “he needs one for him… and one for Fergie”.
The Daily Mirror carries a story about a mum who was “killed by a black market weight loss jab she bought for £20”. Karen McGonigal’s daughters have shared a warning to others about the “beauty salon injection”.
It will be “trick pour treat” come 31 October, writes the Daily Star, adding that the weather forecast is “hellish for Halloween”. A “400-mile-wide storm” will sweep in with rain and “freezing temperatures”, it adds.
The Times quotes the chair of the select committee, Dame Karen Bradley, who has called on ministers to remedy the situation. The Home Office told the paper it had slashed asylum costs by almost a billion pounds.
The Sun says Prince Andrew has agreed to leave his 30-room mansion, Royal Lodge, but wants two homes in return – one for him and one for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. The paper’s headline reads “Two pads Andy“. The Prince’s relationship with the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, has led to calls for him to be removed from the property. He strongly denies any wrongdoing.
The Guardian leads on NHS bosses calling for an emergency injection of £3bn. Its report says that without the money, hospitals have warned they will have to start rationing care. The paper notes the NHS is already due to receive the majority of the £211bn health budget for England this year.
The FT also says companies managing expense claims in the US and UK have reported a sharp rise in fake receipts generated using artificial intelligence. One firm told the paper it had flagged more than a million dollars of fraudulent invoices in three months. The report notes that the technology is able to falsify anything from signatures, to wrinkles in the paper.
BBC
