Several of Wednesday’s front pages lead with stories on the government’s benefits overhaul, announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall on Tuesday. “Worried sick” is the Mirror’s headline, as it says Number 10 has defended the changes amid “fear and uncertainty for the vulnerable”.
The government’s reforms will block young people from claiming out of work sickness benefits, the I paper reports. Generation Z has received a “benefits cut for anxiety and depression”, it adds.
The Metro focuses on opposition to cuts from within the Labour Party, which it says forced a “backdown” over plans to reduce the size of cash payments for recipients of the Personal Independence Payment (Pip).
More cuts are on the table next week, the Financial Times reports, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to announce a “further multibillion-pound public spending squeeze” in her Spring Statement. The paper also reports on Israel’s “extensive strikes” on Gaza.
Several other papers lead on US President Donald Trump’s Tuesday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pair “failed to halt the Ukraine war”, says the Sun, with Putin only agreeing not to attack energy plants for 30 days. Trump agreed to Putin’s request for a US-Russia hockey match, the paper reports, prompting its headline: “What the Puck?”
Ceasefire hopes for Ukraine are “on a knife edge” after the call, the Times reports. Putin’s demands have frustrated Kyiv, the paper adds, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia is “not ready to end this war”.
The Daily Express highlights Sir Keir Starmer’s response to the Trump-Putin call, with the UK prime minister calling for a “just and lasting peace for Ukraine”.
“Putin rejects Trump’s ceasefire” is the Telegraph’s headline, with the paper’s front page also carrying stories on GCSE exams being scaled back, and criticism of Nigel Farage from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
A teenager who killed three family members had also made plans to commit the “biggest gun massacre of the century”, the Daily Mail reports from his trial. Nicholas Prosper, 18, is due to be sentenced for the murders of his mother, brother and sister on Wednesday.
The Daily Star’s headline – “Trump’s taking a Liberty” – sits alongside a photoshopped image of the Statue of Liberty overlaid with the US president’s grimacing face. The paper reports that French people are asking America to send the sculpture back as Trump “doesn’t know what it stands for”. The monument was built in France and given to the US in the late 1800s.
