Newspaper headlines: Emergency law and Streatham attacker's background By BBC News

Staff Published duration 4 February

image copyright Reuters image caption Police investigations continue into Sunday's terror attack in Streatham

The government's emergency legislation to end the early release of terror offenders from prison is the lead for most papers.

There is also much interest in Sudesh Amman, the man whose knife attack in Streatham prompted the new measures.

It says the 20-year-old was one of only 10 convicted terrorists thought to pose such a threat that they were kept under round-the-clock surveillance.

Scotland Yard and MI5 were convinced he would carry out a murderous attack after he was released from jail, the paper says.

The Times reports that Amman had told fellow inmates he wanted to murder an MP and had made reference to the attack on Jo Cox.

A former prisoner who spent time with him tells the paper he was a volatile and outspoken extremist who once mocked up an Islamic State-style execution with his cellmate.

"The guy was definitely insane and he never hid his intentions, so it's crazy how he even got out of jail," he says.

There are many childhood pictures of Amman messing around with a vacuum cleaner and pulling faces for the camera - just like any normal youngster, the Daily Mirror says

His mother, reports the Daily Express, said he was a "polite, kind, lovely boy".

He had even asked her to cook a mutton biryani for him a few days before he carried out his attack, the Sun reports.

But, the Guardian asks , how did a "nice kid" become a knife-wielding terrorist?

According to the Daily Mail, it had been Amman's twisted ambition to "die as a martyr", as he once wrote under the heading Goals In Life, in a notebook found by police. Former classmates talked of a "weird" loner who was obsessed with knives, constantly smoked marijuana and even claimed that he was carrying around grenades.

For the Guardian , the danger in the government's emergency terror laws is that the measures fail to address underlying issues, including - the ongoing effects of the disastrous probation service part-privatisation and chronic resource problems in courts and prisons.

In the Mail's view , the measures must go hand in hand with tackling radicalisation behind bars. Terrifyingly, it says, many people leave prison more of a risk than when they entered.

The Times warns that tougher measures would not have prevented attacks like the one on Sunday. Instead, they just put off the moment when unreformed terrorists re-enter society, more committed than ever to commit a violent act.

In the Sun's view , it is long overdue that the lives of innocent people are prioritised over the rights of murderous fanatics.

The Express agrees, saying any restrictions on freedom should affect perpetrators, not the public.

But the Telegraph reports that lawyers expect any challenge to be overturned in the courts.

image copyright Getty Images

The paper says shutting out certain publications damages the bedrock of a free media, which exists to help hold the government to account.

The Mirror - another excluded newspaper - describes the move as tin-pot tyranny.

Downing Street must never be allowed to dictate what you read, hear and see, it says, or democracy is undermined.

Finally, the Financial Times reports that the EU's final words to the UK as it departed the bloc were "thank you, goodbye, and good riddance".

image copyright PA Media image caption The UK flag is taken down outside the European Parliament in Brussels on 31 January

According to the paper, they were spoken by the Croatian ambassador in Brussels, chairing a meeting of EU diplomats with the UK present for the last time as a member state.