Newspaper headlines: Poison clothes alert and 'spitting storm' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 12 March 2018

image copyright EPA

The attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter, in Salisbury, remains on several of the front pages - more than a week after they were poisoned.

The Daily Telegraph reports on a backlash from people living in the city , about why it took the authorities seven days to issue a warning about possible contamination.

One resident, who was in the Mill pub around the same time as Sergei and Yulia Skripal, tells the paper he's not reassured, as he doesn't know all the facts.

In the Guardian, another local says the Army should have been brought in earlier - and another tells the paper that the official response appears to have been a bit slow.

In its editorial, the Daily Express says there's a growing sense that, with the exception of the police, the authorities have been extremely slow to act

The Times reports that the MI6 officer who had extensive dealings with Sergei Skripal is reported to have had close links to other exiled Russians

It claims Mr Skripal met one of his former MI6 handlers every month at a restaurant in Salisbury. It adds that the pair were said to have spoken in both English and Russian, during their discussions at the Côte Brasserie - raising questions about whether Mr Skripal was involved in active intelligence work.

The Daily Mail leads on the reports of what it describes as a " child-grooming scandal " in the town of Telford. It claims up to 1,000 children could have fallen victim to brutal sex gangs over a period of 40 years. The paper says the scale of the abuse means it could be the worst Britain has ever seen.

The Daily Mirror - which first covered the story in its Sunday edition - says two whistleblowers were punished , for trying to expose allegations of abuse. It claims that three young girls were murdered, and two others died, in tragedies linked to the scandal.

Centenarian boost

The Sun quotes government projections which suggest that 10 million British people alive today - that's one in six of us - will live to the age of 100 . It compares that number to the 15,000 centenarians in the UK at the moment.

The paper warns that what it calls the "ageing population explosion" could collapse the NHS and bankrupt the Treasury - but welcomes government plans for investment in research to find out how you can grow old healthily.

Shrinking tax bills

The paper says the companies' effective tax rates - the proportion of profits they expect to pay - have fallen by 9% since 2008.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail reports that the coffee chain, Caffè Nero, has not paid any Corporation Tax for the past 10 years - despite making sales of around £2bn between 2007 and 2017. The paper suggests the firm managed to avoid the payments because its parent company made a loss.

image copyright Getty Images image caption A picture of a scone with jam on top of cream has caused controversy

Finally, the Sun is one of a number of papers to report how a National Trust property in Cornwall sparked outrage in the county - by posting a picture on Facebook of a cream tea.

To the horror of many, the image featured a scone with jam on top of the cream. The traditional Cornish method is - of course - jam first, then cream on top.