Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Trump, railways, Ted Baker, WPP, Interserve

Theresa May will seek to emulate Margaret Thatcher by travelling to Brussels to demand a better Brexit deal in a last-ditch attempt to save her government from collapse. Ministers and aides have convinced the prime minister that she needs “a handbag moment” with EU bosses if she is to have any chance of persuading her own MPs to support her. - The Sunday Times

The vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal is “100 per cent” going ahead on Tuesday as planned, the Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has said. Reports that Mrs May is contemplating delaying the vote until after a trip to Brussels this week are wide of the mark, Mr Barclay said, adding that there was still time to change the minds of MPs who say they will vote against the deal. - Sunday Telegraph

New court filings show Donald Trump was “at the center of a massive fraud” against the American people, the incoming chair of the House judiciary committee said on Sunday. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat set to take over the panel in January, said Trump would have committed impeachable offenses if it is proven that he ordered his lawyer to make illegal payments to women to keep quiet about alleged sexual encounters. - Observer

Senior Cabinet ministers have held talks with Labour MPs over holding a second Brexit referendum as the PM is braced for a bloody defeat on her deal. Theresa May's de facto deputy David Lidington and the Justice Secretary David Gauke have been holding the secret discussions with opposition MPs. - Mail on Sunday

Labour is calling for Interserve to be temporarily halted from bidding for new government contracts amid fears over its finances. The cleaning and building company is believed to be heading for a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders as it creaks under a debt pile totalling £614m as of June. The debt swap could wipe out shareholders. - Sunday Times

Urgent talks are underway to avert a mass walkout on the railways in a growing row over pensions. Tensions have risen over the Pensions Regulator’s demands that train companies and workers plug yawning deficits in their final-salary schemes. - The Sunday Times

Shareholder support for Ted Baker’s boss is wavering in light of Ray Kelvin abruptly announcing he was taking a leave of absence from the company following fresh “serious allegations”. One top five shareholder, who previously supported Mr Kelvin and had wanted him to stay, said he could no longer back the retail boss without knowing the full extent of the “sinister” allegations. - Sunday Telegraph

Northern, whose rail services have been plagued by delays and cancellations, has warned passengers in the north of England they are not likely to see an improvement until May. The train operator, which will put its fares up by 3.2% in the new year, made the admission after the latest performance statistics showed that just 40% of its services were on time, with many passengers unable to board trains that arrived with too few carriages. - Observer

The war of words between bosses at advertising giant WPP and its former chief executive, Sir Martin Sorrell, reached fever pitch last night ahead of a key strategy update. Johnny Hornby, the head of WPP-backed The & Partnership, urged Sorrell to stop ‘talking down’ the company and its new chief executive Mark Read, adding: ‘It’s disrespectful to them and makes him look small.’ - Mail on Sunday

Financial markets are signalling the American economy could plunge into recession within a year, top investors have warned, fuelling anxiety that the decade-long bull run in share prices is coming to an end. A closely watched measure of the bond markets that has predicted every downturn for the past four decades - and delivered few false alarms - played a key role in last week’s stock market turmoil. Shares tumbled around the world amid rising trade tensions between America and China. - The Sunday Times

Amazon plans to open a futuristic checkout-free store near Oxford Circus in London, The Sunday Telegraph has learned, in a sign its efforts to bring the “Amazon Go” concept to the UK are accelerating. Industry sources said the push to open the store in the West End, Europe’s busiest shopping area, was being orchestrated by Amazon’s US team, and not out of the UK.

A deep cabinet split has opened up over whether Theresa May should back a second referendum in a final attempt to end the political deadlock over Brexit, as senior Conservatives predicted on Saturday night that her blueprint for leaving the EU was heading for a crushing House of Commons defeat. - Observer

Profits at Luke Johnson’s artisan bakery were nearly wiped out last year, delivering another blow to the embattled entrepreneur as he fights to fix the mess at his Patisserie Valerie chain. The parent company of Gail’s Bakery, chaired by Johnson, saw profits tumble to just £142,000 in the year to February 2018, down from £2 million the year before. - Mail on Sunday

Detectives who led the investigation into the attempted assassination of a former Russian spy in Salisbury have uncovered new evidence that links the Kremlin to at least two other suspected murders on British soil. Officers from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command (SO15), which investigated the poisoning of MI6 double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, have obtained new information that suggests others may have been targeted by Russian killers. - The Sunday Times

A body has been found by detectives searching for British backpacker Grace Millane near Auckland in New Zealand. The 22-year-old from Wickford in Essex had not been seen since last Saturday. - Sunday Telegraph

British Gas owner Centrica is planning to put motion trackers in the homes of elderly, ill and disabled people as part of a service aimed at easing the concerns of millions of unpaid carers. The company has already built a connected home business selling smart thermostats and other devices to more than a million households. - Observer

A jet carrying hundreds of passengers almost overshot the runway at Gatwick after taking off from the wrong spot. There was just 600 metres of runway remaining when the Dreamliner flight to Buenos Aires thrust toward the skies at 155 mph in March. The Norwegian Boeing 787-9 was almost half a kilometre past the starting point when it took off at the London airport with 270 people on board. - Mail on Sunday