Paper headlines: Corbyn's bid 'to oust Johnson' over Brexit By BBC News

Staff Published duration 15 August 2019

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Jeremy Corbyn's plan for stopping a no-deal Brexit dominates many of the front pages. The Guardian says the Labour leader's letter "throws down the gauntlet" to opposition leaders and Tory rebels, urging them to come together to push Boris Johnson out.

The paper says it's clear from Mr Corbyn's proposal that Labour's frontbench think he's the only MP who could lead a caretaker government - instead of a backbench candidate such as the veteran Conservative, Ken Clarke, or Labour's Yvette Cooper.

For the Independent, it's a "dramatic bid" to secure a Commons alliance that's designed to break the deadlock and stop the UK crashing out of the EU.

"Corbyn's No 10 coup" is the headline in the Daily Mail. The paper pours scorn on the plan - describing it as "the act of a desperate man".

"Fraud victims failed by police" is the main headline in the Times. An undercover investigation by the paper into the police telephone hotline "Action Fraud" reveals staff routinely mislead callers into thinking their cases will be investigated - and mock victims as "morons".

The national service is overseen by City of London Police, but the day-to-day running of the call-centre was outsourced to a private American company four years ago.

A Times reporter, employed at its office near Glasgow, reports call handlers are given just two weeks of training, and regularly take calls from victims while scrolling through their mobiles and even napping.

In a statement, the company said it had begun an investigation and four members of staff had been suspended.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's summer holiday provides the lead for the Sun. The paper says the couple "sparked anger" by taking a private jet - for the second time in two weeks.

Describing Harry and Meghan as "their royal hypocrites", the Sun points out their trip to Ibiza came days after Prince Harry made a speech about the "terrifying" effects of climate change.

The Daily Mail agrees - taking a scheduled flight, the paper says, would have emitted six times less CO2 per person.

image copyright PA Media image caption Greta Thunberg begins her journey to the US

The 16-year-old climate activist, Greta Thunberg, is pictured on a number of front pages - waving goodbye from the deck of a carbon-neutral yacht as she set sail from Plymouth for the 4,000 mile journey to New York.

The Financial Times says the figurehead of the climate change movement in Europe will be sailing into "choppy waters" - as she's likely to face more critics on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Guardian agrees the two-week crossing in hurricane season is unlikely to be her toughest challenge.

And under the headline "Bananageddon", the Times reports on a devastating fungus that has taken hold in Colombia.

Panama Disease - which has been slowly spreading around the world's banana farms since the 1990s - has been confirmed for the first time in the Americas and has the potential to wipe out the entire crop.

An expert in the disease tells the paper genetic modification provides the only hope of a solution.