Newspaper headlines: PM demands migrant fix, and Covid Plan B not needed yet

The Times says Prime Minister Boris Johnson has demanded a fix to the migrant situation.

With record numbers of people crossing the English Channel, the paper says a new minister has been drafted in to help.

An unnamed source tells the Times that Mr Johnson is "exasperated" with the situation and is concerned "that after two years there are still no viable solutions".

According to the Daily Telegraph, Home Secretary Priti Patel is poised to toughen up immigration restrictions and adopt what it calls a Greek-style clampdown on migrants.

It says people caught crossing the Channel will be placed in reception centres and could lose the right to claim asylum if they breach strict rules.

The paper says Ms Patel has been impressed with the way the Greeks have digitised the asylum process, while also regularly checking up on the movements of migrants and using curfews to prevent absconding.

The Financial Times is one of a number of papers to report that the former Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, has pulled out of the race to be the new boss of the media regulator, Ofcom.

The FT says there are fears in Conservative circles that his appointment would have inflamed the ongoing sleaze row in Westminster.

In a letter to the Times, Mr Dacre attacked Whitehall officials and claimed that anyone with "an independent mind, unassociated with the liberal left" will have "more chance of winning the lottery than getting the job".

Many of the papers report on the new coronavirus restrictions and impending vaccine mandate in Austria.

But the i weekend says scientists here believe there is no need for the so called Plan B in the UK just yet.

It says advisers hope to prevent a "repeat of last winter's deadliest Covid wave" with under-40s likely to be invited for boosters.

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The Guardian reports on the bumper sales being enjoyed by the creator of the calendar, the Benches of Redditch.

Kevin Beresford tells the paper how he is grappling with hundreds of orders for his calendar, which as the title suggests, features a different bench in the Midlands town for each month of the year.

Mr Beresford, who also sells calendars such as Car Parks of Britain and the Wonderful World of Jack Grealish's Calves, says his favourite bench appears in May; it is a circular seat around a tree. "Benches don't come better than this," he says.