Editorial 19 April 2024. 

Friday’s newspaper leads feature various stories, but almost all of them are domestic political news. A number of the headlines lead on plans from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to challenge what he describes as Britain’s “sick note culture.” Elsewhere, the EU’s olive branch to UK students, Thames Water nationalisation plans and the Tory MP cash scandal make the front pages.

Several UK papers, and most of the Scottish front pages, of course, lead on news that former Scottish First Minister, Nicola Strugeon’s husband has been charged with stealing from the SNP. 

Most of the papers offer up a snippet of their review of the latest Taylor Swift album on their front pages. So far, it’s all glowing reviews for Taylor’s – The Tortured Poets Department. 

‘Sick note Britain crackdown’ 

A number of the right-leaning, Conservative-supporting newspapers lead on the news that the PM will unveil an overhaul of the welfare system. 

The Daily Express says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will use a speech on Friday to demand a witch to a “can do” attitude to encourage the long-term jobless back to work and declare that everyday “life worries” should not be accepted as a medical reason for being unable to work.

The Daily Telegraph says a record 2.8 million people of a working age in Britain are economically inactive because of long-term sickness, up from around 2.1 million before the pandemic. It adds that, of those, 53% reported having depression, bad nerves, or anxiety. The paper says politicians have been wrestling with how to get people back to work amid concern that the trend is hampering economic growth.

The Times says the power GPs have to issue sick notes might be taken away from them. The paper reports that the prime minister is expected to say doctors are too readily writing people off as unfit for work and that he will not “sit back and accept” the rise in claims for mental health issue. It adds that sickness benefits for people of working age cost £49 billion last year, a figure that is projected to rise by £20 billion before the end of this decade.

The Sun says the plans are “music to its ears”, whilst the Daily Mail calls it a blitz on sick note Britain. 

The Guardian says Sunak will claim GPs are signing people off work “by default”. 

The Daily Mirror calls the plans “a sick joke”. The paper says the NHS backlog is the cause of many absences from work. 

‘Thames Water re-nationalised’

The Guardian’s lead reports Thames Water could be re-nationalised with most of the £15.6bn it owes added to the public debt. The paper says the government is working on contingency planning. Under the plans, some lenders to Thames Water’s core operating company could lose up to 40% of their money, it adds. 

The FT claims the government has told port authorities it will not “turn on” checks which are due to be carried out on EU imports of animal and plant products this month because of the risk of “significant disruption”.

The i newspaper’s lead is on an EU ‘olive brand’ to the UK. The paper says under-30s could be set to benefit from an EU plan to relax visa rules that would allow them to work and study within the bloc for up to four years. The paper says the offer r is “likely to be seen as a peace offering to a future Labour government”.

The Mirror’s lead reports on the aide who reported Tory MP Mark Menzies to his party’s chief whip over his alleged misuse of campaign funds.Katie Fieldhouse, 78, tells the paper: “I put my faith in the party to deal with him. I cannot accept his behaviour.” Mr Menzies lost his party’s whip after the allegations, which he told the Times he “strongly” disputes, were revealed by the Times this week.