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What the papers say – December 8

The front pages lead on “party clowns” and more from Downing Street.

Pa
Wednesday 08 December 2021 02:17 GMT
What the papers say – December 8 (PA)
What the papers say – December 8 (PA) (PA Archive)

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Rule-breaking, Omicron vaccine passports and other pandemic developments are splashed across the national papers.

The Daily Mail calls the situation a “sick joke”,  while those responsible are branded “No 10 party clowns” by Metro, which says staff called their celebration a “meeting” to avoid getting caught.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is quoted on the front of The Guardian calling for Boris Johnson to “come clean and apologise” over the claimed revelry.

The i also covers the story, while saying “It’s beginning to look a lot like last Christmas” as it compares the predicted 80,000 daily Omicron cases with the previous outbreak of the Delta variant.

Fears Omicron could overwhelm the NHS have prompted Mr Johnson to urge everyone to get their booster jabs “now”, according to the Daily Express, while The Times reports a rift has emerged in the Cabinet over a plan to stop the variant’s spread by introducing vaccine passports.

The Daily Telegraph says the Cabinet is also divided over other potential restrictions including a Christmas work-from-home-order.

Returning briefly to alleged misbehaviour in Westminster, with the Daily Mirror reporting Education Secretary Gavin Williamson broke Covid rules by holding a staff party just before Christmas last year.

The Daily Star claims Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab’s “brain is still missing” after a whistleblower said the ex-foreign secretary “did not fully understand the situation” as Afghanistan fell.

The US is putting pressure on Germany to allow blocking Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as part of possible sanctions if Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine, according to the Financial Times.

And The Sun says energy sector leaders “felt the heat” yesterday after they tried to blame the power cuts which followed Storm Arwen on the “wrong kind of wind”.

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