Newspaper headlines: 'Labour Brexit betrayal' and 'NHS waits cover up' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 9 December 2019

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Boris Johnson's plans for the final three days of general election campaigning feature prominently on the front page of a number of newspapers.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Mr Johnson will visit every region of England and Wales in the final 72 hours before voters head to the polls. The paper says that he deploy what is described as his "trump card" of Brexit "relentlessly" in an attempt to win Labour-held marginals.

The Sun quotes a Conservative source as saying the campaign's previously cautious approach will change in the coming days, with the PM tasked with harnessing energy from voters on walkabouts.

The Financial Times claims to have seen a leaked document which casts doubt on whether Boris Johnson's Brexit plan can be implemented in time.

The dossier, from the Department for Exiting the European Union, reportedly claims that setting up a new customs arrangement in time for December 2020 presents a major challenge. It cites infrastructure and staffing as particular areas of concern.

NHS 'desperation'

The Guardian reports that while the prime minister will "criss-cross" the country , the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will return to his core message of the NHS as the campaign nears its climax.

The paper says that Mr Corbyn's pledge that the health service risks being sold off to the US in a post-Brexit trade deal has "hit home" with voters, with activists saying it is cited on the doorstep.

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The i and the Daily Mirror have front page stories about the state of the NHS. "Desperate" is how the Mirror describes a four-year-old's treatment at Leeds General Infirmary.

In an article which the paper claims is an exclusive , the boy's mother Sarah Williment explains her son was treated for suspected pneumonia on the floor because the hospital had run out of beds.

The i carries quotes from the head of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine who raises concerns about how A&E waiting times are recorded.

Dr Katherine Henderson says thousands more people may be waiting more than 12 hours because NHS England only starts a patient's clock at the point they are admitted for treatment. She goes on to say that this method does patients a "disservice" and "hides the true scale of the problem of corridor care".

Elsewhere, the Chinese government has ordered all its offices and public bodies to remove foreign computer equipment and software within three years, according to a report in the Financial Times

In what is described by the paper as a "blow to HP, Dell and Microsoft", the policy is part of Beijing's attempts increase reliance on "home-made" technologies.

Beijing wants the change to happen within three years - but analysts in the paper warn that the policy will involve swapping between twenty and thirty million pieces of hardware.

Wizard plan

The Times reports that applicants to the University of Oxford may be better placed knowing more about Hogwarts than Hamlet.

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