Newspaper headlines: Support for Conservatives 'collapses' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 13 May 2019

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As shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer tells the Guardian that up to 150 Labour MPs would reject any cross-party Brexit deal that fails to promise a referendum, the Times says Theresa May is under pressure from cabinet ministers to scrap the negotiations altogether.

It says those who previously supported the talks are losing faith.

According to the paper, Chancellor Philip Hammond is understood to have told colleagues that, while "amiable", the negotiations are being held on the "false premise" that a politically acceptable deal could ever be struck.

Instead - the paper adds - ministers want to try to find a compromise by allowing MPs to vote on different Brexit options.

Figures showing that the number of people in the UK dying from heart and circulatory diseases before the age of 75 is rising for the first time in 50 years are widely reported - and make the lead for the Daily Express.

It says the state can introduce health campaigns and "fat taxes", but responsibility for this wholly preventable epidemic must lie with individuals.

The Express suggests people must be prepared to make lifestyle changes and put into practice the advice we have been aware of all along, but chosen to ignore.

For its main story, the Daily Telegraph reports that compensation paid out for harm and deaths caused by NHS delays and errors has doubled in five years to £655m.

It says patients' groups are warning that lives are being lost because of a steep rise in waits for appointments, diagnosis and treatment.

The figures - from NHS Resolution, the health service litigation authority - follow a sharp rise in waiting times and cancellations of hospital appointments, the paper adds.

Dave Lewis writes in the paper that the "unsustainable" business rates system is pushing bricks-and-mortar retailers to breaking point.

He wants stores to get a 20% cut in business rates, to be paid for with a 2% levy on online retail sales.

The paper says many shops are hit with crippling bills on their properties while battling competition from online rivals who pay much less.

Finally, there's plenty of blue on the front and back pages - with pictures of Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City players celebrating their closely-fought Premier League title after pipping Liverpool by a single point.

The headlines in the Mail and the Express - "Title Addict" - take their cue from Guardiola's admission that winning the title - for the second consecutive year - is addictive.

The Sun says it will take something special to knock City off their perch.