The Times reports that poorer households will be offered targeted support to protect them from large rises in their energy bills because of the conflict in the Middle East. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the paper that the Treasury is drawing up “different options”.
The i Weekend says one of the ideas attracting the most favour in Westminster is a freeze on fuel duty. According to the Guardian, there will be help for the estimated 1.7 million people in the UK reliant on heating oil – which is not covered by Ofgem’s price cap.
“Wall St fears ever rising oil price”, is Financial Times Weekend’s lead. The paper says the cost of a barrel will “ratchet sharply higher” if the war in Iran and the protracted shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz “choke off exports for months”. The Daily Telegraph says oil prices settled to $100 a barrel yesterday, but analysts fear costs could surge to $150, overtaking the price peak of the 2008 financial crisis.
A report in the Sun says the warship sent to Cyprus to defend British forces from drones spent “three days bobbing about in the Channel”. HMS Dragon only left UK waters yesterday, after setting sail from Portsmouth on Tuesday. The Sun’s editorial is scathing: “A standard pedalo travelling at two miles per hour could have completed the same journey by now.” A Ministry of Defence spokesperson says it is not uncommon for ships to continue final maintenance and preparation while on deployment.
“Andy, Mandy and the Paedophile”, is the Daily Mirror’s headline accompanying a picture of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein sat together. The picture was unearthed by ITV News from the Epstein files on Friday. “Wearing crisp white bathrobes and their hair still damp”, the Daily Mail says, “Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Peter Mandelson sit on either side of their perverted ringmaster”. Both men have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
