Newspaper headlines: 'Huge Shambles 2' and nuclear plant luck 'will run out'
- Published
A number of Friday's papers lead with the announcement that the HS2 high-speed rail project will be delayed by two years to cut costs. The i says inflation has added billions to the cost of the scheme and that the hold-ups will hit the sections of the line between Birmingham, Crewe, and Manchester. The paper calls it a "significant blow the government's levelling up commitments".
"Huge shambles 2", reads the headline in the Daily Mirror. The paper calls the delay a "betrayal of the north" and quotes a Labour spokesperson saying northern England is "yet again being asked to pay the price for staggering Conservative failure."
The Times says the full line may not be ready until 2041 or even later and that the announcement has called into question whether Euston will be the London terminus of the line. The paper also quotes John Foster of industry group the CBI questioning the rationale for the decision. "Delays to the project may create short-term savings, but they can ultimately lead to higher overall costs," he says.
At least 511 seriously ill patients died last year after ambulances took up to 15 hours to reach them, according to the Guardian. The paper says the figure is more than double the comparable number in 2021 and that NHS leaders and health experts have blamed years of underfunding as well as a lack of staff for the problem.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the chief inspector of Ofsted has warned the government there are currently "no limits" on what schoolchildren can be taught in sex and relationship classes. Speaking to the paper, Amanda Spielman said pupils are being told things that have "no basis in any reputable scientific biological explanation". It comes after the paper earlier reported claims that pupils in some secondary schools are being told there are 100 genders.
The Daily Express reports that the BBC is under pressure to make Gary Lineker apologise after he said the language in which the government announced a new asylum law was reminiscent of 1930s Germany. The paper quotes Home Secretary Suella Braverman accusing the Match of the Day host of "diminishing" the Holocaust and says BBC bosses are "struggling to work out" how to handle the controversy.
Lineker is playing the BBC for fools, according to the Daily Mail. The paper quotes Lineker saying on Thursday that the row was "ridiculously out of proportion" while a Tory MP called the situation a "farce".
The Metro quotes Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying that only luck has so far avoided disaster at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. It comes after backup systems at the plant, the largest in Europe, were forced to kick in to avoid a meltdown after a Russian missile knocked out its power supply for a sixth time. Addressing the agency's board of governors on Thursday, Grossi said: "This cannot go on."
Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are planning to offload their stakes in Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest private lender, in a sale worth $2.3bn, the Financial Times reports. The paper says the move is part of an attempt to shake off Western sanctions, but adds there is no guarantee it will succeed.
And Prince Harry is branded "Prince Charmless" on the front page of the Daily Star. The paper criticises the prince's decision to have his daughter Lilibet christened as a princess, saying it comes after he spent "three years moaning about life as a royal".