Expectations for Wednesday’s budget continue to lead many of the papers. The Times says Chancellor Jeremy Hunt still hopes to introduce a 2p cut in national insurance by finding £9bn worth of spending cuts and other tax rises. A Treasury source is quoted saying: “With little room for manoeuvre, we are having to look at everything to make this work.” The paper also says Mr Hunt does not plan to spread the tax cut across both national insurance and income tax, as he had reportedly been considering, because cutting national insurance is cheaper.
The i says Mr Hunt has “fuelled Tory jitters” by playing down expectations of significant tax cuts in the budget. The paper says senior figures in the party have warned the chancellor that it’s “now or never” to reduce taxes but that he has stressed the need to be “prudent”, given the state of the country’s finances.
“Can Hunt and PM pull rabbit out of hat?” reads the headline in the Daily Express. The paper says Mr Hunt has been “locked in talks” with Prime Minster Rishi Sunak over whether they can afford to introduce the 2p cut and that Tory MPs are “pushing for a big election sweetener”.
The Guardian reports on polling which found that tackling NHS waiting lists and fixing the UK’s other public services rank higher in the list of voters’ priorities than current levels of taxation. The paper also says analysis by anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests tax cuts would risks condemning Britain to a “lost decade” for living standards and leave working families £1,900 a year worse off.
The front pages of the Daily Mirror says schools, hospitals, the armed forces, councils, the police, prisons, the courts, and hospices are all in “crisis” and calls the situation the “price of Tory tax bribes”.
The Daily Telegraph reports on the accidental leak of British military intelligence by the head of the German air force, Ingo Gerhartz, who was heard in a call intercepted by Russia discussing the operations of a number of Nato countries in Ukraine. The paper says Mr Gerhartz, who made the call using off-the-shelf video phone technology, was heard describing the different methods used to deliver missiles to Ukraine and saying that British troops were “on the ground” in the country. It leads on Home Office data showing that police forces in England and Wales failed to solve a single burglary in 48% all neighbourhoods in the last three years. The Telegraph says the figures come despite a pledge by all 43 police chiefs in October 2022 that officers would attend the scene of every domestic break-in.
The Daily Mail says an undercover probe by its reporters has found that rogue fixers are charging unqualified migrants up to £20,000 for work permits to fill vacancies in the care sector. It says that “scant checks in the desperate bid to fill huge vacancies mean untrained and over-worked staff” are left caring for vulnerable residents.
A highly-addictive drug prescribed for anxiety 8.6 million times in one year has been linked to the “fastest rising death toll of any medication in Britain”, according to the Metro. The paper says a report has suggested that pregabalin, originally developed to manage convulsions caused by epilepsy, was linked to almost 3,400 deaths in the last five years.
The Financial Times reports on a decision by the Opec+ group of leading oil-producing states to extend the latest round of voluntary cuts to production, which had been due to expire at the end of March, for another three months. The paper says the move was led by Saudi Arabia and Russia and is part of an attempt to “boost prices that have remained subdued despite rising global political tensions”.
And the Daily Star reports that Don Gorske, the man who holds the world record for eating the most Big Macs, had extended his record after eating his 34,000th burger. It adds, though, that Gorske has cut back from eating nine burgers a day to two, branding him a “big lightweight”.
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