Newspaper headlines: EU 'dismisses' backstop alternatives and Thomas Cook 'on brink' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 21 September 2019

The plight of Thomas Cook features prominently in the day's papers, with the Daily Express calling the travel firm's plea for a state bailout a "desperate bid" to avoid collapse and the loss of 9,000 British jobs.

It reports that the pilots' union Balpa has accused RBS of undermining a possible rescue deal. Balpa says it is "appalling" that a taxpayer-funded bank has behaved in such a way, demanding £200m.

The Times reports the government is poised to reject the request for emergency funding, amid concern at the travel company's longer-term viability.

The Sun claims hundreds of call centre staff have been secretly hired to bring home thousands of stranded travellers if the firm goes bust.

According to the i weekend , it would mean Britain's largest peacetime repatriation at a cost of up to £600m.

image copyright Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph leads on the leaked EU memo which it says dismissed Boris Johnson's alternatives to the Irish backstop - and "appeared to jeopardise" a Brexit deal. Officials were cited as calling the proposals a "backward step".

But even if a Brexit agreement could be reached with the EU, Labour would block it, according to the Daily Mirror . In an interview with the paper the shadow chancellor John McDonnell says any deal is likely to fall short of Labour demands, so the party will try to force an election.

His cabinet colleague Emily Thornberry tells the Guardian that Labour should back a Tory Brexit deal in exchange for the promise of a referendum.

The Labour Party's attempt to scrap the deputy leader post held by Tom Watson came too late for most of the first editions.

Huffpost UK says the move by the Momentum founder Jon Lansman has "dramatically reignited" Labour's civil war.

image copyright PA Media image caption Sandy Cortmann was 22 the last time he parachuted over Arnhem

The Daily Telegraph is among the papers picturing a 97-year-old veteran who is joining a mass parachute jump over Arnhem in the Netherlands to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden.

Sandy Cortmann, who was 22 when he went into battle in 1944, tells the paper he was "absolutely terrified". He was taken prisoner by the Germans after what was then the largest airborne operation in history.

The Daily Mail leads with highly critical comments about the BBC, made by John Humphrys in a new book.

The paper highlights his claims of "institutional liberal bias" and a "Kremlin-style" corporation that is out of touch.

In what the Mail calls "an explosive memoir", the 76-year-old says he is "now free of the 'BBC Thought Police'" which he says are in hock to the "politically correct brigade".

Humphrys, who left the Today programme two days ago, does also say that the BBC is a "tremendous and irreplaceable force for good".

'Death bots'

Computer experts are close to developing a way of speaking to loved ones from beyond the grave, according to the Times.

The so-called "death bots" work in a similar way to Amazon's Alexa, using voice recordings made by clients before they die.

Voice files can be accessed by smart speakers or phones - and apparently hundreds of people have joined a waiting list for the Californian company "Here After".