Newspaper headlines: Queen's message of empathy and 'crossbow horror'
By BBC News
Staff
- Published
Several of the Boxing Day papers lead on the Queen's Christmas message, which the Sunday Express describes as "deeply personal".
The Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday highlight the arrest of an intruder in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Both say he used a rope ladder to scale a fence, and was carrying a crossbow.
The Observer reports that Conservative MPs are hardening their attitudes against any further Covid restrictions in England.
It suggests Cabinet ministers vying to succeed Boris Johnson have been warned that they'll damage their chances unless they stridently oppose additional measures.
According to the Sunday Express, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, Sir Graham Brady, has emerged as his colleagues' favourite candidate to lead the party.
One MP tells the paper that when Mr Johnson goes his successor should represent a clean break, and come from outside the cabinet.
Another believes Sir Graham is "unsullied" by the Covid restrictions debate, and the recent Christmas party row.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Sir Graham says the best Christmas present of all would be if ministers queued up to oppose any new coronavirus restrictions.
He argues that the measures might have been acceptable in the early emergency phase of a new virus but not any more, adding that "now we must take back control over our own lives".
A warning from the government's scientific advisory body, Sage, that hospitals should prepare for a worse Covid wave than last winter is highlighted by the Independent website.
The experts say so far Omicron has largely spread among younger people who are less likely to get seriously ill. They warn that more people will go into hospital as the infection moves into older age groups.
The report says Boris Johnson may have to decide by Tuesday if he wants to recall Parliament to discuss any new restrictions.
The paper says a decision about more restrictions is "on a knife edge," after the latest figures showed rising hospital admissions.
A poll of nearly 25,000 people commissioned by the Sunday Times gives Labour an eight-point lead over the Tories.
The paper's figures suggest Labour would win a general election with a 26-seat majority.
The poll of constituencies, carried out in the first three weeks of this month, also suggests Mr Johnson would have lost his seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Another poll, for the Observer - a year after the UK left the EU's single market - suggests that one in six people in Britain believes Brexit has either gone badly, or worse than they expected.
Of those who voted to leave, 42% have a negative view of how it's turned out so far.
Finally, there's speculation about who'll be on the Queen's New Year's Honours list.
The Times says there'll be a knighthood for the chief medical officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, tennis star Emma Raducanu is to be made an MBE, and there'll be a damehood for the James Bond film producer Barbara Broccoli.