Alarm over Europe’s new wave and PM gets Covid jab

Many of the front pages picture Prime Minister Boris Johnson, shirt sleeve rolled up, receiving his first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

“Just the Jab,” declares the Daily Express. The Daily Mail says the “very proud PM” was part of a record day, during which more than 647,000 Britons were vaccinated. In all, the Mail says, half of all adults in England have had their first dose.

The Guardian reports on its front page that billionaire tax exiles, Saudi royals and the British National Party are what it calls “the unlikely recipients of furlough millions.” The paper says it cross-referenced government data with Companies House filings.

The shadow chancellor, Annelise Dodds, tells the Guardian “the mask is slipping with this chancellor… he’s wasting billions of pounds of public money.” A Treasury spokesperson said: “we’ve been clear the scheme should be used in the spirit in which it was intended.”

Ministers are concerned about the firm’s owners, GFG Alliance, after its main lender, Greensill Capital, went into administration. The paper explains that sensitivity over Liberty is high because many of its sites are in marginal constituencies, such as Hartlepool, where a by-election is due to be held in May.

Many papers report on plans for a new regiment of special operations soldiers, which the Daily Express headlines: “Drone Ranger… tech will help elite new unit.” Armed troops are pictured training in Dorset, next to a drone and a robot-controlled vehicle.

And both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph report that Oscar nominees have been told that they must turn up in person for the ceremony in the US next month.

British actors, Olivia Colman, Sacha Baren Cohen and Sir Anthony Hopkins have been invited to join what has been being described as an “intimate in-person event at Union station in LA.”

They have been warned that Zoom has been ruled out. The Daily Telegraph suggests the organisers want to “reinject some glamour.”