‘Storm of the century’ and ‘Farewell, Sybil Fawlty’
BBC
Satellite images of Hurricane Melissa feature on several front pages, showing swirling white clouds bearing down on Jamaica. “Hell at 185 miles-per-hour” is the headline in The Daily Mirror, referring to the speed of the winds unleashed by the devastating storm. One British man on the island tells the paper about a roaring sound coming from the sea and describes the walls of his hotel room vibrating. The i paper quotes a Jamaican man as saying: “The sea is coming over the wall and we’re in serious trouble”.
With less than a month to go before her Budget, the chancellor writes in the Guardian that she is “determined not to simply accept the forecasts” which paint a gloomy picture of the UK economy. But Rachel Reeves says her decisions “don’t come free and are not easy”, amid speculation she could break a Labour manifesto pledge not to raise income tax. The Sun, meanwhile, uses its front page to urge Reeves not to increase taxes on betting and the Daily Express leads with a plea that pensioners “must be given a fair deal”.
The Times features a warning from housebuilders that the government will miss its target to build one-and-a-half million homes by the end of the decade. Writing to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the firms blame sluggish demand and higher costs. The paper says the letter is a “further blow” to the chancellor, and puts her growth plans “in jeopardy”.
The Daily Mail leads with the investigation into a fatal stabbing in Uxbridge in west London. A local resident tells the paper that the suspect, an Afghan national, had been living as a lodger in the house of the man who was wounded in the attack. Witnesses recall the “absolute carnage”, with one describing seeing a man “waving a large knife around with a mad look in his eyes”.
What’s described as a government “crackdown on the four-day working week” is the lead story in the Daily Telegraph. It reports that Communities Secretary Steve Reed has written to the first council to adopt the approach, South Cambridgeshire, to express his “deep disappointment”. A government source says the scheme is wasting taxpayer money. But the paper acknowledges that ministers have no powers to force councils to change their working arrangements.
