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Headlines: Labour ‘changes gender plans’ and ‘betting investigations expand’

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Image description, The ongoing fallout from the Conservative Party’s election betting allegations has been front-page news, with The Guardian reporting that Rishi Sunak has been urged to drop the candidates under investigation as the Gambling Commission expands its investigation into the allegations. The newspaper says senior Tories have called for the candidates and other officeholders to be suspended pending the result, and have urged the prime minister to “get a grip on the slow trickle of revelations”.

Image description, But Mr Sunak is resisting calls to suspend the candidates and party officials in question, according to the i’s lead story, which says that “a number of party officials, as well as dozens of staff, friends and family members” are being investigated. The i also reports that despite persistent speculation that a Cabinet minister is being investigated, Home Secretary James Cleverly said that “to my knowledge” this is not the case.
Image description, The Times reports in an article that Labour plans to make it easier for people to legally change their gender by removing the requirement that they must first live as their preferred gender for two years. The newspaper says it has heard Labour wants to change the rules to remove “humiliation” for transgender people and require less paperwork – such as utility bills or passports – to prove gender reassignment.
Image description, On a similar topic, the Daily Telegraph reports that Labour plans to repeal policies that ban children from being taught more than two genders in school. Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said, according to the newspaper, that the Conservative policies introduced this year will be reviewed when Labour forms the next government.
Image description, Rishi Sunak will tell voters have just 10 days to save Britain from “disaster” under a Labour “supermajority”, the Daily Mail reports. The prime minister will urge disaffected Tory supporters not to give Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “unchecked” power after the July 4 election, the newspaper says.
Image description, Mr Sunak’s claims also feature prominently in the Daily Express, which reports he will accuse Sir Keir of seeking to reverse Brexit. The Prime Minister’s comments come on the eighth anniversary of the “historic vote to leave” and Mr Sunak will accuse Labour of seeking to rejoin the European Union through the “back door”.
Image description, A Financial Times poll of the same 16,000 voters between January and early June shows that the Conservatives have lost almost a third of their voters in four months. Looking more closely at the results, the newspaper finds that 8% of voters have switched to Reform UK, 6% now plan to vote Labour, 7% consider themselves undecided and 9% say they are now less likely to vote.
Image description, The Daily Mirror reports an exclusive interview with Iceland boss Richard Walker, who told the paper the Prime Minister had “taken a dig at him” for speaking about the rising use of food banks. The paper says the supermarket boss claims the criticism that he was “telling the truth” came during Sunak’s tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Walker also told the Mirror Sunak was just angry because he had to “face questions” about the rising use of food banks.
Image description, According to Metro, the first heatwave of the summer could be upon us this week, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). The newspaper reports that the Met Office has issued a yellow heat warning due to the increased risk of death for vulnerable people across England – unless you live in the north-east. The rising temperatures could put more strain on the NHS, Metro says, adding that the most severe warnings have been issued for the East Midlands, the south-east and the east of England.
Image description, According to the Daily Star, Harry Kane has attacked Gary Lineker “with both fists” for criticising the team’s performance so far at the European Championships. The newspaper quoted the England captain as saying: “Remember what it’s like to wear that shirt… we haven’t won anything for years and these ex-players were involved in it.”

The controversy surrounding allegations that senior conservative politicians bet on the election date continues to make headlines.

Four Conservative candidates or officials, as well as a police officer assigned to protect the prime minister, are being investigated by the Gambling Commission for allegedly placing bets on election day. According to The Guardian, leading Conservatives are among those urging Sunak to suspend the suspected Tories until the investigation is complete.

Farage is quoted as saying it is “better” to negotiate with President Vladimir Putin even if the talks go nowhere. The Times suggests that these comments are “likely to provoke even more disapproval” after Farage was widely criticised last week for claiming that the West had “provoked” Russia into invading Ukraine by expanding the European Union and NATO.

According to the Daily Mail, the penultimate week of the election campaign is approaching and Sunak will warn voters that they have only ten days left to save Britain from what he calls the “disaster” of a Labour supermajority.

The newspaper’s editorial echoes this sentiment, arguing that a “wild imbalance” in the next legislative session would “neutralize effective opposition” and harm both democracy and the public interest.

Under the headline “Excluded by Sunak for telling the truth”, the Daily Mirror claims to have gained insight into what it calls “the real Rishi” through an interview with the Icelandic boss.

Richard Walker tells the newspaper he was harshly attacked by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer in March 2022 for comments he made about increased use of food banks. Mr Sunak appeared angry that the remarks led to questions being asked of him in Parliament on the day of his spring statement. A Tory source says Mr Walker’s account of the meeting was “completely fabricated”.

The Daily Telegraph published comments from Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who had previously stated that guidelines on teaching students about sex and gender would be reviewed by a Labour government.

The paper suggests this could lead to a lifting of the ban on teaching children that there are more than two genders. According to the Telegraph, the Conservatives have warned that Labour is “playing politics” with children’s lives by allowing controversial gender ideology into the classroom.

Kane told a press conference that the nation had not won anything “for a long, long time” and pointed out that many television pundits and former players had “played a part in this” failure.

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