The two British citizens sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine are pictured on many front pages.
The Daily Mirror describes the verdicts as “barbaric” and a possible attempt to gain “political leverage.” The Metro dubs the men “Putin’s pawns”.
The Independent suggests Moscow could use them as a “bargaining chip” to demand Britain cut its weapons supply to Ukraine. The Daily Mail’s analysis concludes there’s “very little” Whitehall can do to save them “without dirtying their hands by negotiating with the Kremlin”.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the case had a low profile on Russian TV yesterday – raising hopes that the pair could still be exchanged in a prisoner swap for a close personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Getty ImagesElsewhere, the Guardian highlights a claim by the UK’s largest union that low paid care staff are calling in sick because they can’t afford petrol to get to work.
The head of Unison, Christina McAnea, suggests some of her members were likely to go on strike faced by real-term pay cuts and rising prices. The paper says the prime minister has urged petrol retailers to act responsibly – amid concerns a reduction in fuel duty hasn’t been passed on.
Writing in The Sun, the senior Conservative, Robert Halfon, calls on the chancellor to make a cut in duty of between ten and twenty pence, insisting “something must be done”.
The Times leads with a report that two other rail unions – ASLEF and the TSSA – are planning industrial action after the RMT announced its walkout later this month. Sources suggest union bosses are considering combining their strikes to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in July.
The i says that hospitality industry bodies have raised concerns about the safety impact on staff trying to get home. In its editorial, the Daily Mail takes aim at Labour accusing their shadow levelling up minister, Lisa Nandy, of backing the action.
But the Times says Sir Keir Starmer was forced to clarify the party didn’t support the strikes.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the former Brexit Minister, Lord Frost, warns Boris Johnson that unless he changes course, he risks being ousted by the autumn. David Frost calls for a reversal of recent tax rises.
The Economist in its lead story blames tax rises “heaped on businesses and workers” for “harming the economy.” The magazine calls for action to increase growth from solving the housing crisis in the south-east of England, increasing trade with the EU to harnessing the potential of the country’s universities and life science firms.
Getty ImagesThe Financial Times reports that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been accused of “squandering” eleven billion pounds of taxpayers money by paying too much interest on the government’s debt. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research says he failed to take out insurance against interest rate rises.
A Treasury spokesman said that there was a clear financing strategy to meet the government’s funding needs.
The Daily Express writes of the “curse of brain fog” and a study which suggests we forget more than a thousand things every year. The Sun suggests the most common things to slip our mind are why we went into a room and what we were going to say. The paper offers some memory tips – telling the reader to turn to page… “erm…”.
