‘Tory ‘ICE’ force would deport 150,000 a year’ and ‘Tony of Arabia’

The Sunday Times claims that a Chinese spying case collapsed last month, days after Sir Keir Starmer’s national security advisor told senior officials that Beijing would not be deemed an “enemy” of Britain at the trial. The paper says the disclosure appears to explain why the director of public prosecutions blamed an “evidential failure” for the decision to discontinue the case. A Cabinet Office spokesman said the decision to drop charges was made by the Crown Prosecution Service “entirely independently of government”.

As the Conservative party conference begins in Manchester, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to deport 150,000 illegal migrants a year is highlighted by The Sunday Express. In an interview with the paper, the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, warns that the days of “pussy-footing” are over and pledges to continue removals “until every single illegal migrant is deported”. The Express welcomes what it calls the “bold” plans and urges the government to study them in detail.

Several papers assess Kemi Badenoch’s position as she prepares for her first Tory conference as leader including The Sunday Telegraph, which claims to have been told by several members of the shadow cabinet that she has six months to save her job before MPs look elsewhere to find someone who can beat Reform UK.

The Observer agrees that “time is running out” for Ms Badenoch, noting that many Conservative members “believe only a new leader can save them from extinction” while The Sun on Sunday says it is “vital” that she outlines a bold vision at what it calls the “make-or-break” conference, after struggling to convince her party she is not leading it into oblivion.

The Mail on Sunday and The Sun on Sunday both criticise the former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, after her taxpayer-funded bodyguards were pictured helping her partner to move belongings between their homes. “Rayner is taking us for a ride”, says the Mail’s headline. A spokesman for Ms Rayner said the close-protection team had acted to minimise risk to her security. The government says security arrangements for MPs are a matter for the parliamentary authorities.