The Papers: ‘Post Office fury intensifies’ and ‘£500m boat gangs’ huge profit’

Image source, Conservative Party

Image caption, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visiting the East Midlands on Saturday

“Post Office fury intensifies,” declares the headline on the front of the Sunday Times. It says there is growing pressure on the government for “all sub-postmasters” wrongly convicted during the Horizon IT scandal “to be cleared”. The paper says there is particular criticism of the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey. He was the coalition government’s postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012. The Sunday Times says he “failed to heed warnings” about the Horizon system from Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster who has led the long-running campaign for justice. A spokesman for Sir Ed tells the paper he raised Mr Bates’ concerns and says he “bitterly regrets that the Post Office was not honest with him”.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that Rishi Sunak has made his most explicit commitment yet to further tax cuts in the run-up to the general election. In an interview with the paper, he pledges to curb benefits and government spending to fund tax reductions. The paper suggests his intervention hints at a “looming income tax cut” in the March Budget and says that “tax is becoming the primary battle ground between the Conservatives and Labour”.

According to the Observer, the first findings from the independent Covid inquiry will be published “before the summer” and it says this could prove an “election date headache” for the prime minister. The paper claims the report will be “explosive” and will show how austerity and Brexit hit pandemic planning.

The Sunday Express reports that criminal gangs have “raked in nearly half a billion pounds” getting people across the Channel in small boats. It says more than 114,000 people have made the crossing since 2018, paying an average of £4,000 each. The figures are based on Labour analysis but the paper says “the true amount earned” by the gangs could be even higher.

Several of the front pages focus on the Duke of York, who is among people named in unsealed legal papers relating to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. The Mail on Sunday says it has been revealed that lawyers for Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, were ordered to search all her electronic devices for “any mention of the Prince, other acquaintances of Epstein and a string of sordid words”. The paper says it is not known what the search uncovered.

The Sunday Mirror says Prince Andrew is resisting an attempt by the king to kick him out of what it calls his “plush royal pad”. A source tells the paper that the prince, who lives in the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor, “is going nowhere. He has a cast-iron lease”. The Duke of York has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The Sun on Sunday reports that the TV presenter Kate Garraway and her husband Derek Draper made a “desperate” 12-hour flight from Mexico to the UK “in a bid to save his life” after he had a cardiac arrest in early December. The paper says he initially responded well to specialist treatment at a Mexican clinic for long-lasting symptoms from Covid. The broadcaster announced her husband’s death on Friday at the age of 56.