Newspaper headlines: Brexit could be reversed - Farage By BBC News

Staff Published duration 14 January 2018

image copyright Reuters

Earlier this week, Nigel Farage suggested he was coming round to the idea of a second referendum on Brexit.

Now the former UKIP leader has told the Observer that the vote to leave the European Union could be overturned because Remainers are "making all the running" in the argument about Britain's future relationship with the EU.

Mr Farage says he is becoming increasingly worried that the Leave camp has stopped fighting its corner, meaning that a well-funded and organised Remain operation is free to influence the debate without serious challenge.

A different picture appears in the Sunday Express.

It quotes pro-Brexit economist Sir Patrick Minford - a Treasury adviser under Margaret Thatcher - as forecasting that a "no deal" departure would cost the EU £500bn , while benefiting the UK to the tune of £650bn.

As a result, says the Express, the British negotiators are "bullish" about the second phase of negotiations with Brussels; and the EU is set to "cave in" on its demand for key financial powers to be moved away from the City of London.

Danger level

The Mail on Sunday speaks of a new row between Washington and London , caused by security advice issued by the US State Department.

It classes the UK as at Level 2 of danger for its citizens - meaning that they should "exercise increased caution" because of the threat of terrorism.

The Mail notes that other countries classed at Level 2 include some of those the subject of a crude insult from the president this week, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Algeria.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that NHS England and the Royal College of GPs have warned family doctors that more than three million people at high risk of getting flu this winter have yet to be vaccinated - despite the outbreak being the most virulent since the swine flu of 2009.

According to the paper, 85 people have died - and health chiefs are worried that pregnant women and young adults with asthma are in particular danger if they have not had the jab.

Royal target

Both the Sunday Express and the Daily Star on Sunday carry claims from a New Zealand website that a disturbed teenager fired a rifle shot at the Queen during her visit to the country in 1981.

It's said that the shot missed the Queen as she passed by in an open-top Rolls Royce in Dunedin. The website claims the New Zealand government kept the incident quiet to avoid a diplomatic row.

However, Scotland Yard tells the Express it cannot confirm the story.

image copyright PA

The Sunday Times suggests that the January detox - when Britons stop drinking and start dieting - could last all year , under new government guidelines.

Public Health England is said to have told fast-food chains and the makers of supermarket ready meals to "calorie cap" their foods, reducing lunches and dinners to 600 calories and breakfast to 400.

At the same time, the paper says, research led by academics at Oxford University has found that Britons need to cut back on their consumption of alcohol: because drinking even one pint of beer or one glass of wine a day poisons the brain and increases the risk of dementia.