'Starmer sabotages Burnham' and 'Best of buddies'

7 hours ago

The headline on the front page of the Daily Telegraph reads: "Starmer sabotages Burnham on Brexit". — "Starmer sabotages Burnham on Brexit" is the Daily Telegraph's lead story. It writes that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer "has raised the prospect of rejoining the EU" while Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham "seeks to keep Leave voters on side", despite his "previous desire to reverse the 2016 referendum". Sir Keir has been seeking closer ties with the bloc but has stuck to Labour's election manifesto pledges to "stay outside the EU", with "no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement".

"Starmer's defiant message: I won't walk away" reads the headline on the front page of the Daily Mirror. — "I won't walk away" is how the Daily Mirror quotes Sir Keir in its headline, describing his message to Labour colleagues as "defiant". It reports the prime minister "rejects call to set out departure timetable", despite pressure from some Labour MPs and senior ministers. The front page also embeds a photograph showing Alan Titchmarsh, David Beckham and King Charles III at the Chelsea Flower Show, with the caption "best of buddies".

The headline on the front page of the Financial Times reads: "Burnham tries to ease markets while vowing to reverse sell-off". — The Financial Times leads with Burnham's pledge to "reassure markets he will not rip up the UK's fiscal rules", despite his economic plans to "reverse privatisation and austerity". It writes that his remarks "attempted to reassure investors that he would not embark on irresponsible borrowing policies" ahead of the by-election in Makerfield, where he's hoping to be selected as a candidate to replace outgoing MP Josh Simons.

"Slippery Burnham's two u-turns in one day" reads the headline on the front page of the Daily Mail. — Reporting on Burnham's remarks about the fiscal rules and Brexit, the Daily Mail declares Burnham made "two u-turns in one day". It details the latest episode under a red banner that reads "Labour's civil war".

"Burnham 'far ahead of Starmer' in Labour vote," reads the headline on the front page of the Times. — The Times leads with polling conducted by YouGov suggesting that Burnham would win "59 per cent of the membership vote against 37 per cent who would back the prime minister" in a "head-to-head leadership contest". Meanwhile, it writes that Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has floated lifting the age of criminal responsibility "from ten to as high as 14" in England and Wales. The government is also eyeing Scotland's law "where children cannot be charged with criminal offences before they turn 12", the paper reports.

"Burnham: Labour must change to regain trust," reads the headline on the front page of the Guardian. — Burnham says "Labour must change to regain trust", the Guardian reports in its headline story. In his remarks "he would make his fight" about "national issues where Labour was failing, in a direct challenge to the prime minister".

"Britons want to keep pension triple lock," reads the headline on the front page of the Daily Express. — "Britons want to keep pension triple lock," the Daily Express says, citing a survey that suggested "66% back the financial guarantee" where the state pension rises in line with either inflation, wage increases or 2.5%, whichever is the highest.

The headline on the front page of the i Newspaper reads: "HS2 will cost more than Nasa's Artemis Moon mission". — "UK's stripped back high-speed link set to become the most expensive rail line in the world," the i Paper reports. It says Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander plans to release a review on Tuesday finding that HS2 delays and higher costs are set to "reach around £100bn - more than Nasa's £79bn projected cost for its Artemis mission to land astronauts on the Moon".

"See-hole surgery!" is the Metro's headline on the front page. — The Metro leads with a UK surgery breakthrough where a "grandad's brain reached via eye socket" to "fix a brain aneurysm". Normally, such surgery would require "drilling a hole in the skull", but it writes that the novel procedure did not touch the brain, thereby greatly reducing the risk of death.

"Jezza's heart op" reads the Daily Star's headline on its front page. — Under the headline "Jezza's heart op", the Daily Star leads with former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson speaking "for the first time about his health scare in the new Clarkson's Farm trailer, saying his heart wasn't getting any blood".

"I was fleeced by Katie's conman," reads the headline on the front page of the Sun. — "Katie Price's new husband Lee Andrews took £1,000 from a Sun journalist for an apparent investment – and has disappeared with the money" is the Sun's top story.

The promise by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to "change" Labour and regain trust with voters is the Guardian's lead. The paper quotes him as saying that his campaign for the Makerfield seat would involve action to "make the basics of life more affordable". The Daily Mail says his claim that he would stick to the chancellor's existing borrowing limits, or her fiscal rules, amounts to a U-turn because it would require him to raise taxes instead, to pay for what the paper calls his "high-spending" agenda.

The Daily Telegraph says the prime minister has "sabotaged" Burnham's prospects of winning the Makerfield by-election for Labour by raising the prospect of Britain rejoining the EU. It says Sir Keir's comments, that a debate on Brexit "may happen years down the line", threatens to undermine the Greater Manchester mayor in a constituency where the majority of people voted to leave.

The Times claims that a poll of Labour members suggests that Burnham would "decisively beat" Sir Keir in a head-to-head leadership contest. The paper says a YouGov survey also found Burnham would also win against the former Health Secretary Wes Streeting by a large margin if the two went up against each other to challenge Sir Keir. The poll of more than 700 Labour members was conducted at the end of last week.

The Telegraph carries a warning from the head of the International Energy Agency that the world's oil stockpiles are "depleting very fast" because shipments continue to be blocked by the Iran war. It quotes the agency's executive, Fatih Birol, as saying that, at current levels of depletion, there are only several weeks of stored supplies left.

The new cost estimates for the HS2 rail line which will be revealed later are the focus for the i Paper. It says they're likely to reach around £100bn, a figure it estimates is £21bn more than the projected cost for Nasa's Artemis mission to land astronauts on the Moon.

A number of the papers carry photos of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, accompanied by Sir David Beckham, enjoying the first day of the Chelsea Flower show. The Express has a picture of the King taking in the fragrance of the rose named after the footballer. "Your rose is not to be sniffed at, Sir David", is the caption.