Newspaper headlines: David Blunkett warns of Labour election defeat By BBC News

Staff Published duration 9 November 2019

Many papers print photographs showing the scale of flooding that has affected parts of the Midlands and northern England in recent days.

"Roads turned to rivers" is the headline in the i weekend, above a picture of dozens of houses surrounded by water on all sides.

The Daily Star and the Sun print almost identical images of a family being rescued from their home on a boat - with a young baby being bottle fed on the journey

The Sun says the floods have been among the most devastating to hit Britain in decades, following what the Star calls "biblical" downpours.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Lord David Blunkett has issued a warning over Labour's election chances

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the former Labour cabinet minister Lord Blunkett describes his "despair" at "anti-Semitism" and "thuggery" in the party

The former home secretary tells the paper Labour is "plagued by intolerance and division", which he says make its chances of winning a majority in the election "extraordinarily slim."

He suggests the best it can hope for is another hung Parliament and urges moderates to "stay and fight".

The Daily Express reports on a YouGov poll of around 11,000 people, which suggests support for Jeremy Corbyn is collapsing in Labour heartlands

In what it calls a "devastating new blow for Corbyn", the survey indicates the Tories are ahead in every English region except London and the north-east.

The website Huffpost claims the Labour Party is considering appointing two "co-leaders" to succeed Mr Corbyn.

Under the plan, which it says is backed by senior party figures, one leader would be from a Remain-backing city, while the other would be from a town that supports Leave. The aim would be to unite the party and the country.

Meanwhile, the Guardian has obtained figures that show the number of NHS patients having surgery in private hospitals has trebled since the Conservatives came to power

The data indicates just over 200,000 people in England had such operations between 2009 and 2010 - rising to more than 600,000 last year.

The paper says the figures have prompted accusations that firms are "cashing in on a health service being privatised by stealth".

image copyright Getty Images

The Daily Mail has an unambiguous message for the leader of the Brexit Party - "Stand down Nigel!" orders its front page headline.

The paper says a host of Nigel Farage's own election candidates and backers are urging him to withdraw the party from seats the Tories are trying to win.

Mr Farage has been warned that splitting the Leave vote could jeopardise Brexit, by handing power to Mr Corbyn.

The paper lists the emails of dozens of Brexit Party candidates and asks its readers to send them "a polite letter" asking them to stand down.

The paper says Aaron Banks has "parted company" with Mr Farage and has started working with the Tories to help deliver Boris Johnson's EU withdrawal agreement.

Google 'scammers'

The Times says it has discovered that Google is making tens of millions of pounds from "unscrupulous companies", promoting high-risk and potentially fraudulent investment schemes.

The paper says the search engine is paid "huge fees" by "scammers" who offer "eye watering savings rates" for cash ISAs.

The Times investigation found many of the firms falsely claimed to be regulated by the city watchdog and lied about the level of protection given to savings.