What the papers say – April 4

A planned programme to enable the safe return of mass gatherings and indoor events as lockdown restrictions ease in England leads the Sunday papers, along with a number of other pandemic developments.

The Sunday Mirror greets Britons’ “passport to freedom next week” as it reports there will be “Covid certificates” for sports and clubs but not for the pub.

Under the headline “Brighter days ahead!”, Boris Johnson promises Sunday Express readers the Covid vaccine passport plan will allow them “to return to the things they love as safely as possible”.

But the passports “designed to return life to normal in Britain might not be ready until the autumn”, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

The Mail on Sunday says the Prime Minister is preparing to “give the green light” to holidays abroad from May 17.

Previously unpublished Government figures in The Sunday Times show more than 200,000 pupils will move from primary school to secondary education this autumn without being able to read properly.

The Independent reports there have been calls for Conservative peer Baroness Helena Morrisey to be sacked from her Foreign Office job after she “denied the pandemic exists”.

Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer pledges to “take off the mask” and show Britons why he should lead the country in The Observer, which adds that he has ordered his party to prepare to fight an early General Election in May 2023.

Sunday People covers a “female troops abuse scandal” as it reports hundreds of alleged victims are demanding a “military #metoo”.

And the Daily Star Sunday says spoon-bender Uri Geller is setting the paper’s readers “their toughest task yet – to use their minds to mend the Royal Family”.