The joint funeral of footballers Diogo Jota and André Silva are dominating Sunday’s front pages. The Sunday Telegraph covers the story with its main image, showing Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson – Liverpool teammates of Jota – leading mourners in Portugal. Jota, 28, was laid to rest alongside his brother, Silva, 25, after they died in a car crash on Thursday. Leading the front page is the Conservatives’ attempt to draw a “clear dividing line” with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Reform’s Nigel Farage on welfare. “Axe sickness benefits for foreigners, Tories urge,” the paper declares, reporting that the party has called on the Labour government to restrict personal independence payments (Pips) and sickness top-ups to Universal Credit to UK citizens only.
“You’ll never walk alone,” says the Sunday Mirror, in reference to Liverpool FC’s anthem. It reports that Liverpool players gathered on Saturday along with hundreds of locals and supporters for the funeral of Jota, which was held at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church. Also featured on the front page is Spice Girls member Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B, who got married to hairstylist Rory McPhee on Saturday.
Van Dijk and Robertson are also pictured on the front page of the Sun on Sunday, with the players holding the brothers’ shirt numbers on wreaths at the funeral. Leading the paper is a tribute from Portugal’s manager Roberto Martinez, who said: “Their spirit will be with us forever.”
“Farewell quiet hero,” says the Sunday People, with van Dijk and Robertson featuring again on the front page at the funeral. Mel B’s “joy at wedding” is also pictured, with the 50-year-old singer tying the knot at St Paul’s Cathedral after a three-year engagement with McPhee, 37.
The Daily Star also bids “farewell to Anfield Ace”, with Van Dijk and Robertson again splashed across the front page at Jota’s funeral – alongside a headline that references Led Zeppelin’s hit Whole Lotta Love.
The main image on the front of the Sunday Times features Renee Smajstria, an eight-year-old girl who was among 32 people killed in flash flooding in Texas. Fourteen children were among those who died in the disaster on Friday, with a frantic search under way for survivors. Officials in Kerr County have said 27 children are still missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river. In its top story, the paper reports that “plans to shelve the two-child benefit cap are ‘dead’ after Labour’s £5bn retreat on welfare, according to Downing Street sources”.
“Rayner to put ‘banter police’ in your office,” declares the Mail on Sunday, with its exclusive revealing that “under new laws drawn up by the deputy prime minister, firms will be pressured into bankrolling ‘diversity officers’, whose jobs would include protecting staff from the content of overheard conversations.”
The Observer takes a look at the Salt Path – and how the film and Raynor Winn’s bestselling memoir were “spun from lies, deceit and desperation”. The book tells the story of Winn’s journey with her husband Moth walking the route from Somerset to Dorset, after being evicted from their farm and her husband receiving a devastating health diagnosis.
