The Royal Family dominates the Boxing Day front pages, with pictures of them attending the Christmas Day church service at the Sandringham Estate along with reports of King Charles III’s Christmas message. Catherine, Princess of Wales, is pictured waving to crowds on the front page of the Times, while the main story focuses on Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ “mansion tax” which, it says, tens of thousands of homeowners will have to pay because of inaccurate assessments. According to the paper, properties could be overvalued by as much as £30,000, leading to homeowners being dragged over the £2m threshold.
The Guardian leads with its own research, which suggests that fewer than one in 60 public sector workers are sharing leave with their partners when they have a baby. Experts have criticised it as a “lost decade” of progress on parental rights. The King and Queen Camilla are pictured on the front as they attend church in Sandringham.
A teacher at a school in Oxfordshire says he was referred to the government’s counter-terrorism programme after showing videos of US President Donald Trump to his politics class, the Daily Telegraph reports. The teacher says he began a grievance procedure against Henley College and received a £2,000 payoff in a negotiated settlement after he was effectively forced to resign, according to the paper. The school was quoted as saying: “The Henley College does not comment on individual allegations or ongoing investigations.” Meanwhile, the paper chose to feature Princess Charlotte on its front page as she joined her family for the church service.
The King’s Christmas message leads the Daily Mirror, saying that he spoke of the “common values that unite us”. The paper notes that his words come as tensions rise both at home and abroad.
High Street shops will net £1bn less than last year on Boxing Day, reports the Daily Mail, citing figures from Barclays Bank. The paper says stretched household budgets will lead people to shun the sales on Friday “as consumer confidence collapses amid Rachel Reeves’ tax bombshells”. The Sandringham service is also featured on the front page, with the paper noting that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie joined the Royal Family in Norfolk while their father stayed in Windsor. The former prince was stripped of his titles after intense pressure over his links to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.
The appearance of Beatrice and Eugenie leads the Sun, which says the former’s “last-minute” decision to join her sister with the rest of the Royal Family in Norfolk “delighted well-wishers”. The paper says their “show of support” for the King comes almost a week after the US Department of Justice started releasing hundreds of thousands of documents related to the Epstein case, with Andrew appearing in some of the files. Being mentioned in the Epstein files does not indicate wrongdoing.
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A poll for the Independent suggests that more than a third of Labour supporters say the party would have a better chance of winning the next general election if Sir Keir Starmer were replaced. The paper says 19% of Labour supporters backed Andy Burnham, when asked who should replace the prime minister.
The i Paper is leading with analysis of this year’s polls by Sir John Curtice, who says Britain is entering “uncharted territory” as Labour faces a threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Green Party under Zack Polanski. The leading polling expert tells the paper that the vote of the two main parties is at a “record low”, meaning the UK’s political landscape has never before “looked so fragmented”.
The Daily Express is celebrating its Christmas appeal on its front page, saying its readers raised more than £100,000 for the children’s wheelchair charity Whizz Kidz. The money raised will help buy 20 personalised wheelchairs or other life-changing aids that will give children more freedom, according to the paper. Also featured on the front page is the Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte as they attended the Christmas Day church service.
And finally, the Daily Star decided to feature football royalty on its front page, leading with David Beckham’s “family fracas”. It says that Brooklyn Beckham stayed away while David, Victoria and the rest of the family celebrated Christmas by singing a Spice Girls hit.
“One’s in the sun” is how the Guardian captions a photograph of King Charles III and Queen Camilla arriving for the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham.
The Times says Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters “walked tall in a united front” at Sandringham. The paper describes their presence as a public show of support by the Royal Family, as their parents have been “frozen out” over their friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Times warns that thousands more homes than expected could become eligible to pay the “mansion tax” announced in November’s budget, because of the way property values will be calculated. It says a computer-based system – which will be quicker to implement – could over-value properties by as much as £30,000.
The Daily Mail says Barclays is predicting a £1bn Boxing Day sales slump compared with last year. The paper says analysts believe fewer people will be going out to the sales because the chancellor’s recent tax announcements “stretched household budgets” and caused “a collapse in consumer confidence”.
The Daily Telegraph says a teacher who showed videos – including one about Donald Trump’s inauguration – to his US politics A-level class was reported to Oxfordshire’s child safeguarding authority. The body concluded that he should be referred to the government’s counter-terrorism programme, Prevent. The paper says Henley College gave him a £2,000 pay-off to quit. In an official email, the college told the teacher that some of the videos had not been related to the syllabus – and one had made a student feel “quite uncomfortable”. The school was quoted as saying: “The Henley College does not comment on individual allegations or ongoing investigations.”
The Sun says some gangs are raking in £50,000 a time by sending drones into jails packed with contraband, such as phones or drugs. The Times warns that, according to the head of the Prison Governors Association, “any day now” a new generation of larger drones that can lift an average man could be used to help inmates escape.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bbc.com ’
