02 September 2021

What the papers say – September 2

02 September 2021

Further political fallout from the Taliban’s ascent to power and booster jabs are splashed across the national papers.

The Guardian reports the Foreign Office was warned less than a month before the fall of Kabul that the Taliban could return rapidly to power, with The Independent saying Dominic Raab has been accused of being “asleep at the wheel” on Afghanistan.

The covers the “extraordinary Whitehall feud” between the Foreign Secretary and his defence counterpart Ben Wallace, who is quoted as saying he argued in July “the game is up” and the UK needed to accelerate its evacuation plans.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror and The Times report up to half a million ill and clinically vulnerable Britons will be offered a third Covid-19 vaccine shot after experts warned their first two doses are unlikely to have worked.

The move means millions more will be “forced to wait for boosters”, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Former Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying Israel’s vaccination drive to reduce rates of severe Covid-19 illness shows the UK needs to “get on with booster jabs, not just for the clinically vulnerable but for everyone”.

Campaigners have warned Health Secretary Sajid Javid that making millions of over-60s pay for prescriptions is “a tax on the sick”, according to the Daily Express.

The Financial Times covers “secret contingency plans” for the UK to move its Trident nuclear submarine bases from Scotland to the US or France in the event of Scottish independence.

Piers Morgan has been cleared over comments he made about the Duchess of Sussex which cost him his job on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, with Metro quoting TV watchdog Ofcom as saying restricting the presenter’s views would be a “chilling” attack on freedom of expression.

And the Daily Star says the result means “gobby Piers” will be “even more insufferable”.

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