Newspaper headlines: Tories' free hospital parking and Labour's 'pension trap' payouts By BBC News

Staff Published duration 24 November 2019

image copyright Jonathan Hordle/ITV image caption The Conservatives and Labour have made major spending pledges in the general election campaign

In the words of the Sunday Times, the launch of the Conservative manifesto will set up "a dramatic economic showdown" with Labour over tax and spending.

According to the Mail on Sunday , the Conservatives' "triple tax lock" pledge is a direct pitch to the Tory heartlands - where the paper says many people are "appalled" by Labour's plan to raise tax for those earning £80,000 or more.

The Sunday Telegraph says the manifesto will promise to introduce free hospital car parking for disabled drivers and gravely-ill patients - and suggests maintenance grants for trainee nurses could also be reinstated.

But the Observer predicts Boris Johnson will put off taking a decision on reforming social care, given what the paper calls a "botched" Tory policy on the issue was blamed for the party's poor performance in 2017.

Conservative sources tell the Independent their pledges are "cost-neutral" and meet fiscal rules not to borrow to pay for day-to-day spending.

But the website says Mr Johnson's "lavish" promises will "tie the hands" of Conservative chancellors - cutting the Treasury off from significant sources of funding.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Hamish McRae accuses politicians in this "depressing" election campaign of "financial illiteracy".

You would have hoped the Tories would be more realistic, he writes - "but no, they too seem eager to behave as though the past decade [of reducing the deficit] has been a bad dream".

The Sunday Times claims Labour's manifesto launch hasn't delivered the bounce for the party that Jeremy Corbyn enjoyed after he published his plans at the last general election.

But in an interview with the Observer , shadow chancellor John McDonnell says Labour's campaign is going well.

"I do believe in miracles," the former trainee Catholic priest tells the paper: "But we don't need a miracle."

image copyright Reuters

On its front page, the Sunday Times reports that the Queen has cancelled a party she'd planned for Prince Andrew and his charities to mark his 60th birthday next year.

The paper understands the Queen is "privately supportive of her son".

But it adds that she's "deeply frustrated" the controversy surrounding the prince's friendship with the sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, is overshadowing the rest of the Royal Family's work.

The Observer says Prince Charles is expected to hold "crisis talks" with his brother when he returns to the UK after a royal tour this week.

The Sunday Times has news of an epiphany, experienced by the man who it calls "Britain's biggest petrolhead".

image copyright Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

The paper reports that Jeremy Clarkson, a past critic of environmentalists, became convinced of global warming after witnessing how a river in South East Asia had dried up.