UK Papers Focus on PM Andy Burnham's Spending Plans and Early Release Scheme

The papers continue to focus on Andy Burnham's start as prime minister. "Who is going to pay for Andy's largesse?" asks the Daily Mail on its front page. It says the Conservatives have questioned where the money will come from for what the paper calls his "left-wing spending spree".

According to the i Paper, senior economists have claimed that the new prime minister will need to "raise taxes or risk failing to deliver on a raft of his bolder policy pledges". The Times reports he's told his Cabinet to find savings in order to fund promises.

On the prime minister's decision not to increase the tax-free personal allowance, the Financial Times highlights analysis by the Resolution Foundation think tank that suggests uprating it by inflation next year would cost £3.7bn.

The Guardian says it's learned Burnham plans to accelerate the timetable for bringing in a national care service, which it says could cost more money before the next election.

The Daily Mirror uses its editorial to back No 10's £2 cap on bus fares in England. It calls the policy "exactly the kind of practical help a cost-of-living government should deliver". The Daily Mail highlights a calculation by The TaxPayers' Alliance that puts the cost of the policy at £240m.

Writing in the Daily Express, the Reform UK treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick calls the scrapping of VAT on electricity bills a "good start, but nowhere near enough". He notes it saves households the equivalent of a "second-class stamp a week".

Away from politics, the mother of PC Andrew Harper, Debbie Adlam, has told the Daily Telegraph that the prospect of two of her son's killers being released from prison halfway through their sentences as part of the government's early-release scheme makes her "feel sick". She warns if they're let out "there would be another outcry", and says the public is "very much behind keeping them in."