What the papers say – April 18

Many of Monday’s papers react to revelations the Prime Minister “instigated” a party at Downing Street as he is expected to receive a second fine from the Metropolitan Police.

“Johnson led the boozy party,” declares the Daily Mirror’s front page.

The Daily Telegraph says an office gathering to mark the exit of Lee Cain, the former Number 10 director of communications, was not a party until the PM arrived. The paper claims Boris Johnson delivered a speech at the event, poured drinks for people and drank himself.

The Times reports Mr Johnson is insisting he did not break coronavirus rules despite being fined, close allies have said, as he plans to brush aside the controversy with a “business as usual” agenda this week.

The i, which similarly carries the story, adds that Mr Johnson is facing a “triple threat over Partygate”.

Elsewhere, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express report the Archbishop of Canterbury has come under attack from MPs after using his Easter Sunday sermon to call the Government’s Rwanda plan “ungodly”.

The Guardian says women in the poorest areas of England are dying earlier than the average female in almost every comparable country in the world.

“Hundreds of millions of pounds in UK taxpayers’ money is being handed to companies that are continuing to operate in Russia”, The Independent reports. It adds that the Government has even signed multimillion-pound deals with these firms during the course of the war in Ukraine.

The war is causing a massive set-back for the global economy, according to the Financial Times.

The Sun, meanwhile, claims the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have hired Barack Obama’s former bodyguard.

And the Daily Star says actor Brian Blessed has hit out at “fame-hungry” MPs.