Today’s news summary – Paper Talk 

Paper Talk: Suella Braverman’s ‘Poisonous’ speech 

Wednesday’s front pages cover a variety of stories. Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s speech in the US made several front pages. 

Suella Braverman ‘poisonous’ 

Braverman’s speech, to a think tank in Washington DC, saw her call for changes to international rules on refugees and said that uncontrolled migration was an “existential threat” to the West’s way of life. 

The Times calls it “one of the most hardline” on the subject by a British home secretary. The Guardian reports that her comments prompted the UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, to issue “a highly unusual statement” defending the 1951 refugee convention.

“Poisonous” says the Mirror, whilst the Sun offers up a different assessment of the speech, praising the home secretary was telling some “home truths.” 

‘Class wars’ 

The Daily Mail says “Labour’s class war begins on day one,” and reports the party plans to put an immediate 20% VAT charge on private school fees if they win the next general election. 

The i newspaper says the money raised would be spent partly on 6,500 new teachers for the state sector. 

The Daily Telegraph reports that harm caused to children during Covid lockdowns was preventable. The group Children’s Rights Organisations said social distancing and the closure of schools and playgrounds have had “long-lasting and era-defining impacts”. The group – which was established to give written evidence to the Covid inquiry – argues that such harm could have been avoided if children’s rights had been taken properly into account by ministers.

The Daily Express leads on HS2. The paper says three bosses on the project have picked up salaries totalling £1.3m. More than 40 others on the project earn at least £150,000. 

The Sun leads on a story about a BA pilot who was sacked for snorting cocaine before attempting to fly a plane back to the UK. The paper says the airline cancelled the flight when a stewardess raised the alarm. 

Lib Dem party conference

The Mail’s political sketchwriter Quentin Letts offers his assessment of Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey’s speech at his party’s conference. As with ageing supermarket ham,” he writes, “it took a while to realise how badly off this speech was”. The Daily Telegraph says Sir Ed offered voters a “bland alternative”.

The Daily Telegraph says Sir Ed offered voters a “bland alternative”. The Times’s Matt Chorley notes that Sir Ed came on stage to Abba’s Take a Chance on Me, which he describes as a “risky move”. The last time a political leader arrived to the strains of the Swedish group, he says, it was Theresa May moving awkwardly to Dancing Queen, and she was forced to resign seven months later.