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Newspaper headlines: UK 'steps up' with plans to 'jab the globe'

By BBC News
Staff

Published
image captionThe Sunday Express says now is the time that Britain "steps up to lead the world". That's after the G7 group of advanced economies reached what the paper calls a "groundbreaking" deal in London to make multinational companies pay more tax, and as the prime minister is set to "push forward plans to vaccinate the globe" by the end of next year. It features a picture of actress Olivia Colman as the Queen in the Crown, calling the TV series the "secret" to the "G7 success".
image captionThe Sunday Mirror says the Labour Party wants the money created by the "Big Tech tax income" to be put into the UK's hospitals and schools. The paper singles out Facebook, Amazon and Google as examples of the companies that "will be forced to cough up their fair share", including their logos below a smiling Chancellor Rishi Sunak on its front page.
image captionThe Observer has a more environmental take on the G7 summit that will start in Cornwall on Friday. The paper says climate change progress "could be scuppered by developing nations if they are not given equitable access to vaccines". It reports that the wealthiest nations have enough supplies to inoculate their populations "more than twice over".
image captionPlans are being drawn up to roll-out Covid vaccines for children from August, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Whitehall insiders tell the paper they expect the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to recommend the jab for younger teenagers. Health Secretary Matt Hancock writes in the paper that "a huge proportion of the latest cases are in children".
image captionThe Mail on Sunday says it has seen a "strongly worded letter" from Home Secretary Priti Patel to social media giants, which it says calls on them to "remove posts that 'glamorise' illegal Channel crossings". The paper says there is "growing anger in government that tech companies are allowing people smugglers to use their platforms to advertise their criminal services".
image captionThe Sunday Times reports that there are plans for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to spend more time in Scotland "to bolster the Union". The proposals would see them treat Balmoral, the Queen's Scottish estate, as a "regular home". A source close to the royal household tells the paper: "They think the politicians have been losing Scotland for them."
image captionThe Sunday People has a picture of Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old who vanished while on holiday in Portugal in 2007, on its front page. The paper reports that police have a "new clue" surrounding her disappearance.
image captionThe Star on Sunday says actor John Barrowman will no longer star in a pantomime. It follows allegations that he repeatedly exposed himself while filming Doctor Who. Mr Barrowman has previously apologised for his behaviour.

The Sunday Mirror's front page reflects a demand from Labour to give the proceeds of the chancellor's new global tech tax to "the NHS and schools". It says firms could be forced to "cough up" almost £8bn annually, but that this would have been almost £15bn under US President Joe Biden's original proposals. Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, it reports, has accused Rishi Sunak of "watering down" Mr Biden's initial plan for a 21% minimum global tax rate.

The Mirror's editorial says any "tax bonus" must go to whom it calls the "most deserving", arguing that nurses - and children who've recently lost out on schooling - will be "cock-a-hoop" if they get a share of the cash.

"The G7 tax deal is an unworkable mess", warns a column on the Spectator website. It's identified a potential loophole, relating to minimum profit margins, which it says could lead to "a field day" for accountants.

image copyrightPA Media
image captionThe G7 attendees posed for photos at Lancaster House in London

An editorial in the Sunday Telegraph warns the UK might have left what it calls "a European cartel", only to join a global one. It believes the new regime will involve "yet more accounting shenanigans", as well as restrictions on national autonomy.

Writing in the Washington Post, Mr Biden says that the first foreign trip of his presidency - to this week's G7 Summit in Cornwall - will be about "rallying the world's democracies". He says his first meeting will be with Boris Johnson, and will "affirm the special relationship between our nations". Mr Biden claims the US is "back in the chair" - with a plan to "end the pandemic everywhere", meet the demands of "an accelerating climate crisis", and confront what he calls the "harmful activities of the governments of China and Russia".

The Sun on Sunday has mocked up a photo of a grinning Mr Johnson with his arms around Mr Biden's shoulders, in what its headline says will be "the Bo-JOE show". It says the prime minister will be seeking to enlist the president's support in getting the whole world jabbed by the end of 2022.

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The Sunday Telegraph reports that the head of the vaccines taskforce, Kate Bingham, will be rewarded with a damehood after her unpaid work gained the UK access to hundreds of millions of doses of six different Covid vaccines. The venture capitalist spoke of feeling "classic imposter syndrome" in the role, the paper says, as she'd previously developed drugs for cancer and auto-immune diseases but not for vaccines. It was her 22-year-old daughter, it adds, who persuaded her she was "the right woman for the job".

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, reports that Lady Dido Harding, the former boss of what it calls the "troubled" test-and-trace system, is considering a bid to succeed Sir Simon Stevens as the head of NHS England. Her application would be "controversial", it notes, after the government's independent scientific advisory group, Sage, concluded last year that the Test and Trace programme had had a "minimal impact" on virus transmission, despite a £37bn budget.

The Sun on Sunday's front page also reports that the former Strictly Come Dancing judge, Arlene Phillips, will be made a dame in the Queen's birthday honours next week after dedicating her life to dance and charity. A friend tells the paper the 78-year-old's "nifty footwork and personality" got "the nation off their sofas and on to the dance floor".