THERE ARE TWO stories dominating the UK newspapers this morning.

The first is the tragic news that the UK now has the highest Covid-19 death toll across all of Europe, 32,37 dead as per yesterday’s total. 

The second is the significant but far less consequential news that one of the academics who sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (basically they UK’s version of Nphet) has resigned. 

Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, was the lead author of a report which warned that 250,000 people could die if the government did not introduce social distancing.

Ferguson broke lockdown rules by allowing a woman from another household into his home. The woman in question is married and the newspapers are therefore full of speculation about their relationship. 

The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail report that Ferguson, or ‘Professor Lockdown’, broke rules to “meet his married lover”.

The Daily Mail is one of two papers whose picture of the woman is larger than the professor who’s actually resigned. 

‘Prof Lockdown broke lockdown to get his trousers down’, says The Sun, which also reports that he “deeply regrets” his actions for undermining “the continuing need for social distancing”.

Metro gets the first use of sub-editor favourite ‘boffin’ into the headline. There’s also a bonus story about Nigel Farage, calling him an ‘illegal’ for allegedly flouting rules to travel to Dover for a TV recording.

Elsewhere, The Guardian, i and Daily Mirror all lead with a story on the UK’s coronavirus death toll becoming “the worst in Europe”.

The Guardian does have the Ferguson story as its second-lead, referring to him as a ‘scientific adviser’ and the woman involved as ‘his girlfriend’. 

The Times, which often sits in the middle of the other papers, today has a totally different story as its main one, with fears that British firms are becoming ‘addicted’ to state supports.

It does carry a picture of Ferguson and his supposed ‘mistress’ on the front page too though. 

The Financial Times leads with Virgin Atlantic’s decision to “cut almost a third of its 10,000 workforce and close its Gatwick operations” in an attempt to survive the pandemic. 

The Independent reports on concerns over the NHS contact-tracing app while The Daily Express is worried that China could be ‘spying’ on UK vaccine development.

Oh, and the Daily Star says Coronation Street writers will “tackle coronavirus in upcoming episodes”.