Newspaper headlines: 'Midsummer's dream' and '118 days until freedom'

By BBC News
Staff

Published
image captionTuesday's front pages are dominated by the prime minister's plan to ease England's lockdown. "The wait escape" is how it is described in the Sun, which calls it a "go-slow end to lockdown", adding that a pint in a pub "must wait until May".
image captionThe i focuses on the "four steps to freedom" of Boris Johnson's roadmap for the country to leave lockdown - which starts with a mass return to school on 8 March.
image captionThe Metro highlights 21 June as the day "life goes back to normal" in England, saying the summer solstice has been "pencilled in" by the prime minister as the "end of all lockdowns".
image caption"Best days of our lives" is the headline in the Daily Mirror, which highlights five key dates for the lifting of lockdown.
image captionProposals for a major easing of lockdown before Easter were dropped after the government was warned by scientists that it could lead to an extra 55,000 deaths, according to the Telegraph. It claims a plan to open outdoor hospitality and non-essential shops in time for the Easter bank holiday weekend was subsequently delayed until 12 April.
image captionThe Guardian leads on the prime minister promising that spring and summer will be "incomparably better" than life in lockdown as he paved the way for nightclubs to reopen, sport fans to fill stadiums and staycations to return. It also reports his warning that lifting lockdown would "inevitably result in more cases, hospitalisations and deaths".
image captionThe Times carries a report on its front page that people could be asked to show a vaccine passport in order to attend a big event or go to work. It says the government is considering whether Covid-19 certificates "could play a role in reopening our economy" as part of the road map out of lockdown.
image captionChancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to extend emergency economic life-support measures until the summer, according to the Financial Times. It says his Budget on 3 March will include "measures to protect jobs and help businesses through weeks or even months of further disruption".
image caption"What are we waiting for?" asks the Daily Mail, which says the prime minister was facing a "clamour" to lift the lockdown faster. The paper claims hospitality bosses are warning that thousands of firms would be "condemned to death" by further months of enforced closure, while it says Tory MPs lined up to warn the PM to "move more quickly".
image captionBoris Johnson has put Britain on "the path to freedom" by declaring the end of lockdown is "really in sight", says the Daily Express. It quotes the prime minister as vowing that the country can move "cautiously but irreversibly towards reclaiming our freedoms".
image captionAnd the Daily Star features a mocked up picture of the prime minister as children's TV character Noddy. The paper says Boris Johnson "surprised the country... with a vaguely sensible road map out of lockdown".