Newspaper headlines: ‘Labour U-turn on freebies’ and ‘Fayed was a monster’

Leading several of the papers on Saturday is the latest in the Labour donations saga. The Times reports the prime minister has “bowed to pressure from senior colleagues” and neither he nor his “top team” will accept donations for clothes going forward. It says Starmer’s allies “admitted… there was a perception issue” after accepting donations from a Labour donor.

The Daily Telegraph also leads on the donations, reporting Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she too accepted money for clothes from the widow of a Labour donor. The paper says the “backlash over gifts from donors threatens to overshadow the Labour Party conference this weekend”.

The Sun’s top story covers the rape allegations against late Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed. Reflecting comments from his accusers’ lawyers, it writes that Fayed “combined the worst of Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein”.

The Fayed story is also the lead story in the Daily Mirror, which similarly reports the lawyers’ comments and that Fayed was “branded a monster”.

A paparazzi photo of the prime minister’s chief of staff speaking to a senior staffer leads the Daily Mail, with the paper branding the conversation as “heated”. The image accompanies a report into the donations saga, as well as a report that Starmer’s popularity is in “freefall” after the row.

Politics also dominates the i’s Saturday edition, covering post-Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU. It says the “EU will demand easier access to the UK” for young people “in return for easing trade restrictions and creating a security pact”.

Leading the Financial Times is a report into public debt. It reports that “fiscal gloom intensified” after public debt “hit 100% of GDP for the first time since the 1960s”. It says this fuels expectations of “painful tax rises and spending cuts” in next month’s Budget.

The rollback of winter fuel payments leads the Daily Express. It says campaigners have warned that some older people will be “begging in the cold” as a result of the payments being axed for millions.

The Daily Star details the story of a brain surgeon who tells the paper he experienced heaven while in a coma and that it “smells a bit like a KFC restaurant”. Keir Starmer, who the paper features in relation to Friday’s revelation that he would no longer accept donations for clothing, has been photoshopped poking his head out of the Colonel’s bucket.