Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
Thursday’s front pages have a variety of stories. The Nigel Farage bank debacle leads several of the papers as does the recently released figures showing inflation has dropped “further than expected.”
Elsewhere, several papers leave space for England’s Lionesses as the 2023 Women’s World Cup kicks off on Thursday.
‘Emergency law change’
The Times leads with the fallout from Nigel Farage having his back account at Coutts closed. He suggests it was due to his political views. “Ministers are considering making free speech protections a condition of permits” following the row, the paper writes. There is also a report about inflation falling in the UK.
The Daily Mail says Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is “planning an emergency law change” over the row and banks found to “not protect the free speech of their customers could even lose their licence”.
The Daily Telegraph continues its coverage of the Farage story. The paper says NatWest CEO Dame Alison Rose is “under pressure” following the decisions by Coutts – a subsidiary of NatWest – to cut ties with Farage. The Financial Times reports on PM Rishi Sunak’s pledge to crack down on banks denying services to customers over “lawful free speech”.
UK inflation falls
But the FT’s lead story is on inflation falling “further than expected” after figures released yesterday showed it dropped to a 15-month low of 7.9% in June. James Smith, of the Resolution Foundation think-tank, tells the paper the UK is now “less of an outlier in the battle to tame inflation”.
The Daily Express also leads on the newly released figures. The paper reports “prices must drop now inflation has fallen” and quotes Chancellor Hunt as saying falling figures are the “first fruits” of the “difficult decisions” he and the PM have had to make to control the cost of living crisis.
The i newspaper reports the Bank of England will now “make a smaller 0.25% increase” to the UK’s base rate in August. But citing sources, the paper warns the figures are “still not falling fast enough for Sunak to hit his pledge” of halving inflation this year.
The Daily Mirror leads with the mother of a teen who was murdered with a sword bought online. The mother takes to the paper to urge the government to take action on knife crime.
