Sunday newspaper round-up: General election, South Western Rail, Dr Martens

Mark Carney has been appointed as UN special envoy for climate action and finance as he prepares to step down as governor of the Bank of England in January.

Carney replaces billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the part-time pro bono climate action role after the former New York mayor stepped down to focus on the US presidential race.

The governor has been signed up to galvanise action among financial institutions ahead of the 26th round of global climate talks in November 2020. His main focus will be on mobilising private finance to invest in schemes that will help achieve the Paris climate agreement goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C. - The Guardian

Boris Johnson has said more than 70 terrorists released from prison are being examined to ensure they pose no threat to the public amid a growing political row over the London Bridge attack.

The Prime Minister claimed there were “probably about 74” people subject to early release after terror offences who were now being “properly invigilated”. - the Telegraph

Boris Johnson announced new anti-terror laws last night as a counter-terrorism expert said ministers had ignored plans that might have prevented the London Bridge attack.

The prime minister said that if the Tories won a majority next week, terrorists would serve their entire sentence, no longer be eligible for early release, and would spend at least 14 years behind bars.

He spoke as the government sought to prevent a public relations setback over Usman Khan — a convicted terrorist released from jail last December — who went on a stabbing rampage on Friday, killing two people and wounding three. - The Times

A month of misery for hundreds of thousands of rail commuters begins on Monday when RMT members of South Western Railway walk out on the first of 27 days of strike action.

Hundreds of guards and a small number of drivers will not clock on for work again this Christmas, apart from on election day on 12 December, in a bitter row over the role and responsibilities of onboard train crew. The train firm was among others to be hit by similar strike action last year over the role of guards.

Only about half of normal weekday services will run on SWR, the UK’s second-biggest train operator with about 600,000 passenger trips a day from Surrey, Hampshire and beyond into London Waterloo, the country’s busiest station. - the Guardian

Boris Johnson has widened his lead over Jeremy Corbyn to 10 points, amid a further fall in support for the Brexit Party, according to a poll.

A Savanta ComRes survey for The Sunday Telegraph puts the Conservatives on 43 per cent, a two point rise since early last week.

Labour and the Brexit Party have each dropped by one point to 33 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, while the Liberal Democrats remained on 13 per cent. - The Telegraph

In a sign that the election campaign could go down to the wire, Labour has cut the Conservative lead to nine points, a narrowing of two percentage points since YouGov’s last survey on Wednesday.

In the latest YouGov poll for The Sunday Times, the Tories are on 43% with Labour up two to 34%, the Lib Dems static on 13% and the Brexit Party down to just 2%. That is still enough for a Conservative majority, but if Labour gains two more points it will be touch and go. - The Times

Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, barrister and lifelong Conservative, was always an unlikely rebel.

But opposition to a catastrophic no-deal Brexit has seen him morph from senior Tory backbencher to parliamentary insurgent, leading to his ejection from the party by Boris Johnson. - The Independent

On a cold, crisp day in a prosperous neighbourhood in Earley, Berkshire, Phillip Lee, the former Tory minister now running for the Lib Dems, has reason to be cheerful. In the space of a few minutes, he has traipsed up the long gravel drives to speak to a couple of voters pledging to switch from the Conservatives to back him.

And yet it is clear that Lee, whose concerns about Brexit drove him to give up a safe Tory seat to fight the Remain cause, is aware that there are frustrating obstacles that could prove critical in his quest to overturn the 18,000 majority of the arch-Brexiter John Redwood. The failure of a bigger pro-Remain pact looms large. “Alastair Campbell was out supporting me yesterday,” he says. “He’s pretty depressed about it.” - the Guardian

Dr Martens’ private equity owner is seeking more than £1bn for the shoe brand, despite weak investor appetite for retail companies.

Permira has told would-be buyers that Dr Martens is on course to double underlying earnings to £170m for the year ending in March. That follows a 70% jump the previous year. - The Times

Heathrow will be penalised if it fails to build its £14bn third runway efficiently — the first time such a condition has been imposed on the airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has inserted a significant new clause into its licence, amid concerns that costs on the vast project will spiral out of control.

Heathrow’s plans for the third runway are a complex feat of engineering that will see it straddle the M25. That has stoked a fear in airlines, including British Airways owner IAG, that rising costs will fall on passengers and make flying to and from the airport unaffordable. - The Times