Newspaper headlines: 'Rotten Met' and 'trial of Boris Johnson begins'

BBC NewsStaff
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News imageUK Parliament/Jessica Taylor Boris Johnson in Parliament on 8 DecemberUK Parliament/Jessica Taylor

"Rotten Met has lost public faith", says the front page of the Times.

It highlights the conclusion of Baroness Casey - who conducted her review of the force following the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer - that Scotland Yard can "no longer be trusted to police itself".

The Daily Telegraph's headline is: "Met Police is racist, sexist and broken". It describes the report as "damning" - saying "the public are being let down".

The paper's leader column points out that over the years the force has been on the receiving end of a number of damning assessments. But it states that this review is arguably "more excoriating than anything that has gone before - not least because it seems that nothing has been learned".

The Daily Mail's headline on the story is: "Broken and rotten". It describes Baroness Casey's conclusions as "shattering" - stating that their publication represents the last chance to "drag the Met out of the gutter".

It believes that "if the problems are too vast, the Met must be broken up into more manageable units". And it has a hunch that "policing would be much better" if such a course of action was taken.

Under the headline "Last chance buffoon", the Daily Mirror looks ahead to the appearance tomorrow by Boris Johnson before MPs - who are investigating claims that he lied about lockdown parties at Downing Street.

The paper's opinion column suggests that even though Mr Johnson insists he did nothing wrong, he "will be quaking" - because he faces what it calls "the most humiliating fall from grace of any ex-PM in history".

The i - which also leads on the partygate inquiry - believes Mr Johnson is preparing to "mount a robust defence". It also predicts that he will make what it calls an "extraordinary political comeback" if he is eventually cleared.

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