‘Gift of the jab’ and ‘Rayner lobby row’

The Sunday Times says it has seen evidence indicating that the Duke of York stayed in contact with the paedophile financier, Jeffrey Epstein, for longer than he has admitted. It says emails sent in December 2015 suggest that Epstein told the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, that Prince Andrew was the source of information about a potential business opportunity in China. The paper says the correspondence “appears to challenge” the prince’s assertion that he last met or spoke to Epstein in December 2010. Prince Andrew did not respond to a request for comment but has previously strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The Sun on Sunday reports that the boyfriend of the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, has been working for a political lobbying group whose client received £280,000 from the government. “Can you imagine her outrage if a senior Tory cabinet member had behaved in the same way?” asks the paper’s editorial. A cabinet office spokesperson said Rayner had followed the established process for the declaration of perceived or actual ministerial interests.

The Sunday Telegraph leads on Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to maximise the extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea. The paper calls the policy her “greatest departure from net zero to date” and one that “will establish a clear dividing line” with Labour. It adds her speech on Tuesday will “draw comparison to Donald Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ moment”.

Concern about the black market for weight loss jabs makes the front page of The Observer. With the cost of Mounjaro in the UK rising by up to 170% from tomorrow, the medicines regulator, the MHRA, is warning of the “serious health consequences” of illegal alternatives. The Daily Star Sunday says that as “prices soar” even more people could turn to the NHS to try to secure Mounjaro for the basic prescription charge of £9.90.

The Sunday Express leads on “a shock new poll” that suggests almost two-thirds of adults would not fight for Britain if the country came under attack. The paper says perhaps the finding should come as “no surprise”, arguing that veterans “do not always receive the support they deserve”.

The Strictly Come Dancing judge, Shirley Ballas, has told The Sunday Mirror she will “never feel completely safe again” after being targeted by a stalker for seven years. Kyle Shaw, age 37, was given a suspended sentence in April. Ms Ballas says she is “looking around and watching all the time” and that “life shouldn’t have to be like that”.

“The craziest trigger warning yet” is how The Mail on Sunday describes a decision to alert Royal Opera House audiences to the curtain-up bell. An online listing for Puccini’s Tosca next month warns the bell is “loud and can be startling”. A spokesman for the venue says the information is on its accessibility page. But the Mail calls the warning “the final curtain for sanity”.