Newspaper headlines: Tories 'head off winter NHS crisis' and 'England agony' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 3 November 2019

image copyright All Sport/Getty Images image caption Many of the papers feature images of England's bloodied and beaten rugby side

"England's agony" declares a front-page headline in the Sunday Telegraph, above an image of members of the England rugby team, moments after their World Cup defeat in Japan.

"Crushed" is the verdict of the Sunday Times , while the Sunday Express says England simply found no answers to the Springboks' power play.

The Sunday People says the hammering left Eddie Jones - "the coach with an answer for everything" - with no explanation for the way in which his side were mauled by "the unstoppable power" of South Africa.

But the Observer says even the most despondent England fan could take comfort in the fact they were witnessing history.

For the Sun , captain Siya Kolisi's journey from poverty to sporting greatness marked a "seismic moment" for South Africa.

'Spending taps'

The Sunday Express devotes its front page to an interview with Boris Johnson , in which he promises to drive through his Brexit deal at full speed, if he wins the general election.

He tells the paper he'll get "Brexit wrapped up fast".

The Sun says the suggestion that Britain could be out of the EU - "before the Christmas turkey is cooked" - should be "music to the ears" of voters, sick of more than three years of political in-fighting.

However, the Sunday Times detects signs of Tory nervousness in the face of what it calls a recent Labour bounce in support.

It adds that the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party are set to reveal a Remain pact in up to 60 seats, in an effort to deny Mr Johnson a majority.

In a nod to the uncertainty surrounding the election, a Matt cartoon in the Telegraph shows an amateur psephologist holding forth in a pub.

"If the Not Sures refuse a Pact with the Don't Knows, it could split the Undivided Vote," is his prediction.

Tories turn on the spending taps ," runs a headline in the Mail on Sunday, in its coverage of the government's plans to end the benefits freeze from April.

The Sunday Times , says the spending commitment - to be accompanied by a rise in the state pension - is aimed squarely at blue-collar workers.

It reports that Mr Johnson's senior aide, Dominic Cummings, has told colleagues that "people are hurting", and if the Conservatives are to pick up seats in Leave areas in the north, they have to do more to help the working poor.

But the Mail on Sunday suggests the plans to ditch the last remnants of David Cameron's austerity drive could mean trouble ahead.

The paper reports that the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has privately expressed concern that the expensive set of manifesto policies could "drastically" reduce his room for manoeuvre to deliver tax cuts for traditional Tory voters.

'Great untapped properties'

The Sunday Mirror predicts that Labour's plans to insulate millions of homes across the country could create 450,000 construction jobs , as workers fit the loft insulation, solar power and double glazing needed.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the scheme aims to eradicate the vast majority of fuel poverty by the middle of the next decade.

Finally, the Sunday Times says the prospective sale of the Daily Telegraph has attracted unexpected interest from America.

The Telegraph is one of the "great untapped properties," the Times quotes Mr Bannon as saying.