Newspaper headlines: World Cup 'hero' tributes and 'bong for Brexit' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 22 December 2019

The death of the England World Cup winner, Martin Peters, aged 76, is the main story for the Daily Star Sunday and the Sunday People.

The Sunday Telegraph carries a photo of him holding the trophy after the final in 1966, in which he scored England's second goal. It recalls that on the evening of that Wembley triumph, Martin Peters celebrated with a cup of tea with his wife , Kathleen.

For The Sun, he was "the perfect role model".

image copyright PA Media image caption England midfielder Martin Peters, who died aged 76, scored in the 1966 World Cup final

The Mail on Sunday alleges that the parliamentary authorities have referred the former Labour minister, Geoffrey Robinson, to police over his expenses claims.

The paper says Mr Robinson faces questions about a tax-payer funded salary which was paid to a friend for working 30 hours a week in his constituency office until she was 89.

The Mail's sources estimate that Brenda Price, who died last month aged 90, was paid about £30,000 a year. She's said to have needed round-the-clock nursing care since early last year.

According to the Mail, Mr Robinson, who stood down at the election, has declined to comment on the allegations. The BBC has attempted to contact him but he has not responded.

'Extremely mean'

The Observer highlights accusations that the Home Office is ignoring more than 1,400 offers from councils to house unaccompanied child refugees.

The charity Safe Passage says the offers of placements have been made under a scheme which relies on central government funding.

The Home Office disputes the figures, and tells the Observer that it has a proud record of helping vulnerable children.

But the numbers of arrivals are said to be "pitifully low to nonexistent" and the Labour peer, Lord Dubs, condemns the government's approach as "extremely mean and lacking in humanitarian instincts".

A story in the Sunday Times casts doubt on the account Rebecca Long-Bailey - widely tipped as one of the favourites to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader - has given of her childhood

The shadow business secretary has described growing up watching her father worry about losing his job at at Salford docks. The Times points out that the docks closed when Ms Long Bailey was two years old.

Her spokesperson responds by telling the paper that, like many others in the north, she had seen first hand the devastation created by Margaret Thatcher's "brutal economic regime".

image copyright Getty Images image caption Rebecca Long-Bailey is among the candidates vying to succeed Jeremy Corbyn

The main story for the Sunday Telegraph is a promise by the new Commons Speaker not to block any request for Big Ben to ring to mark Britain's departure from the EU next month.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle tells the paper that the bell in Parliament's Elizabeth Tower should chime on 31 January, if that's what MPs want. Big Ben has been silenced to protect construction workers' hearing during building work on the tower.

Cry for help

The Sunday Times says Donald Trump has invited Boris Johnson to visit the White House in the New Year as part of a "Brexit victory lap".

The timing of the trip hasn't been fixed, it reports, because Downing Street is keen to avoid the prime minister being dragged into the impeachment debacle.

According to the Sunday Times , a six-year-old girl from south London has found a cry for help from prisoners in China, written inside a box of charity Christmas cards from Tesco.

The message says foreign nationals are being forced to work at a jail in Shanghai, and urges the finder to contact the journalist Peter Humphrey, who was released from the prison in 2015.

Mr Humphrey says ex-prisoners have told him that foreign inmates are forced to pack cards and gift tags for Tesco. In a statement, the company says it has investigated the allegation and found no evidence that its supplier had used prison labour.

Writing in the Observer , Labour MP David Lammy suggests that he'll decide over Christmas whether to run to become the party's first black leader.

Mr Lammy blames the election defeat on what he calls Jeremy Corbyn's "perceived worldview, failure of competence, and mind-boggling decision to abdicate leadership" on the issue of Brexit.

He urges Labour to take on Boris Johnson by offering what he calls "civic nationalism" - national pride based on shared values rather than ethnicity.

Display of unity

Finally, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Sunday Telegraph and at the Mail on Sunday , which give pride of place on their front pages to a photograph of Prince George mixing a Christmas pudding at Buckingham Palace.

His father, grandfather, and great-grandmother are looking on, all smiles.

The Times says it's a display of unity and harmony for which the Queen will be grateful after a turbulent year for the House of Windsor.