Reeves 'to wage war on waste' and 'Nine-jobs Nigel'
BBC
·6-min read
There is a vast mix of stories across the front pages of the Sunday papers. The Sunday Telegraph leads on the news that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is "launching a war on waste" by seeking the advice of private experts to find savings across government. This comes, the paper reports, "amid growing disquiet" from the party over the economy as well as mounting economic pressure ahead of the Spending Review. Pictured on the front page is the scene from Los Angeles, where, the Telegraph says, "firefighters can only watch and hope" as water is dropped from the air on fires that have ravaged the city. [BBC]
The Sunday Times also shares the image of a helicopter dropping water on the Los Angeles fires. The paper's lead story is calls for Treasury Secretary Tulip Siddiq to resign amid "revelations" about her family's finances. Siddiq, who is responsible for tackling corruption in UK financial markets, was named in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh. A separate investigation by the Sunday Times alleges she lived at properties in London with links to her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister of Bangladesh last year. It reports that Siddiq has referred herself to the prime minister's standards adviser and insists she has done nothing wrong. [BBC]
A senior Labour minister warns Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg that new laws to tackle hate speech and online safety "are not up for negotiation", The Observer reports. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle tells the paper that recent laws would "never be diluted to help the government woo big tech companies to the UK in its defining pursuit for growth". [BBC]
"Nine-jobs Nigel" is the Sunday Mirror's headline as it reports on the eight other jobs Reform UK leader Nigel Farage holds on top of being an MP. The "side-hustles" have earned Farage "£571,585 in less than six months", it says, and quotes him as saying: "I work more hours a week than most people could even contemplate." The paper calculates that being MP for Clacton in Essex is Farage's "worst-paid job". [BBC]
The Mail on Sunday leads with a report that former Vote Leave chief Dominic Cummings "is helping orchestrate Elon Musk's vitriolic attacks on British politicians". According to unnamed government sources, Cummings is "communicating with Musk on WhatsApp", the paper says. The online version of the story adds that neither Cummings nor Musk have responded to its requests for comment. [BBC]
A "game-changing new treatment" using artificial intelligence in IVF treatments leads the Sunday Express. It says that AI can identify the "strongest sperm and the best quality eggs" therefore "maximising chances of success". It quotes the first woman to fall pregnant with the help of AI as saying it is "like a miracle". [BBC]
The lead story in The Sun on Sunday details pop star Max George undergoing emergency surgery to install a pacemaker. "I felt like I was dying. That first night in hospital I wrote a will," the Wanted star tells the paper. [BBC]
The Sunday People leads with a story that England football star Wayne Rooney is now coaching children. In the digital version of the story it reports that the former England striker has taken up a post running holiday coaching sessions at a Dubai luxury hotel during the February school half-term break. [BBC]
"Multi-tasking turns you into a halfwit," the Daily Star Sunday declares. Citing the usual Star "boffins", it says the brain cannot cope with juggling lots of different activities at once - good news for the men of Britain who haven't quite mastered the skill. [BBC]
Writing in the paper, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones says that officials will work with the private sector to find ways of clamping down on unnecessary expenditure.
He says that panels of external experts are being set up across every department, to bring what he calls a "fresh perspective on whether every penny spent is necessary or not".
Reeves has spent the past couple of days in China [Reuters]
The paper says the move by the Whittington Hospital to advertise the post last week is a sign of the deepening capacity crisis facing the health service. It notes reports that a number of hospital trusts are now installing power sockets and oxygen lines in corridor walls in anticipation of large numbers of patients waiting on trolleys. NHS England says it will report the number of people being treated in corridors in its next weekly update on the winter crisis.
According to the Mail on Sunday, former No 10 advisor Dominic Cummings, is helping to orchestrate Elon Musk's attacks on British politicians, including the prime minister. Mr Musk has called for Sir Keir Starmer to be removed from office, while criticising his record on grooming gangs. Mr Cummings is said to be communicating with the tech billionaire on WhatsApp. The paper says neither has responded to a request for comment.
'Nine-jobs Nigel' is the headline in the Sunday Mirror, which reports that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has eight part-time jobs as well as being an MP. That role, according to the paper, is his worst-paid job - at more than £91,000 a year. His other work, which the report calls "side-hustles", is said to earn him £571,000. Farage said the figures were "nonsense" and he worked more hours every week than most people could contemplate.
The Times says Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is looking at ways of funding the BBC through general taxation and abolishing the licence fee - possibly at the end of 2027. Nandy is said to be already considering making the corporation a mutual organisation - one that is owned by the public. It would be funded by taxes but the public would be involved in decisions about its strategic direction. Labour has said that the process of reviewing the BBC's royal charter, which sets out its role and how it should be governed, will start this year.
Nandy is said to be considering a tax-funded system for the BBC [Reuters]
And the Sunday Express reports that artificial intelligence has been used to help women become pregnant through IVF. The AI matches the strongest sperm with the best quality eggs to maximise the chance of success. The first woman to conceive using AI throughout the IVF process, after she'd had years of failed attempts, has said the new technology is "like a miracle".
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