Editorial 31 July 2024.
Most of Wednesday’s front pages lead with tributes to the three young children who were stabbed to death in Monday’s attack in Southport. The three kids – aged 6, 7 and nine – names and pictures have been released.
Elsewhere, several papers cover the chancellor’s comments about coming tax rises on their front pages.
Olympic coverage bleeds onto the front page – whilst the back pages are dominated by Team GB.
‘Holiday club stabbing victims named’
The Daily Mail highlights a tribute to one of the girls from a relative which contrasts them with “the despicable human being who took their lives” at a dance class. The paper calls the three girls: Alice, Elsie and Bebe “faces of the innocent little Taylor Swift fans.”
The Sun calls them “The Lost Angels”. The paper says the attacker was thwarted by two teachers and a window cleaner, who it hails as the “heroes of knife hell.”
The Daily Express calls the girls Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7 and Alice Dasilva Aguair, 9 “angelic school girls” and asks “Why were they taken from us?”
The Daily Mirror says Southport is a “town in tears”. “Keep smiling and dancing” is the headline on the paper’s front. Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar died after the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday.
The Times reports that former neighbours of the alleged attacker described him as a “quiet boy” who rarely left the family home. It says he practised karate and was the son of a taxi driver.
The paper mentions false rumours spread on social media claiming he was a Muslim asylum seeker when he was in fact born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
The paper says the spreading of such misinformation led to hundreds of people gathering at a mosque in Southport on Tuesday evening. The police say the people were supporters of the EDL.
The Telegraph leads on those demonstrators and the violence that erupted between them and the police. The paper says rocks and bottles were thrown. Hours earlier a peaceful vigil took place just a few streets away.
An unnamed source tells the paper that “terror has not been entirely ruled out at this point.”
‘Traumatised and bullied staff’
Apart from the main story, various UK political stories are the secondary stories on the front pages.
The Guardian reports on allegations that Kemi Badenoch – the front-runner to be the next Conservative leader – had “traumatised” and bullied senior staff when she was in government. According to the paper, sources say that at least three officials were intimidated and felt they had no choice but to leave. The reports say morale was so low in the Department for Business and Trade last year that the concerns were addressed during an official meeting attended by about 70 staff.
A spokesperson for Badenoch says the claims are false.
The FT is one of several papers to cover Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ comments about coming tax rises. The paper reports her acknowledgement about her autumn budget on the News Agents podcast but declined to say exactly which taxes would be involved.
Reeves says the former chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, lied about the state of public finances. But he tells the FT her attack was “desperate” and her claims of a fiscal cover-up were “unravelling.”
The i says Reeves is eyeing up pensions as “she admits taxes will rise in Budget.”
The Times says Taxes will have to rise if the government is to balance the books by the middle of the next decade because spending cuts have gone about as far as they can, the International Monetary Fund has warned.