Is this the end for New Labour asks the front pages of the Independent and the Mail

The New Labour coalition of support has collapsed. To the left and to the right, voters are deserting the once-heaving big tent that propelled Labour to power and kept it there for more than a decade

says the Independent adding

The Conservatives' overwhelming victory in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election is the latest, vivid sign of the new, formidably sized anti-Labour tent that is forming around the country. The local elections earlier this month and the ousting of Ken Livingstone as London Mayor were equally potent examples of the hostile anti-Government mood.

The Mail says

As Labour reeled from its worst by-election defeat in 30 years, the Cabinet yesterday launched a last-ditch effort to save Gordon Brown.
In crisis telephone talks, ministers debated how to revive the Prime Minister’s
political fortunes.

Quit now call grows as Labour MP's panic says the Times

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, was being earmarked by senior backbenchers as the figure to tell Mr Brown that they had lost confidence in him and that he should step aside unless there was a swift improvement in Labour’s fortunes.
Graham Stringer was the first Labour MP to call for Mr Brown to go, saying that the party needed a new leader to save it from “disaster” at the next election.
Ivan Lewis, the Health Minister, said that Crewe & Nantwich, where the Conservatives overturned a 7,000 Labour majority to win with their own majority of nearly 8,000, could mark the “beginning of the end” for Labour.

The Guardian headlines PM Isolated

Gordon Brown is losing the confidence of his cabinet as an increasing number of ministers voice the fear that Labour cannot win the general election under the prime minister's leadership, authoritative sources told the Guardian yesterday.

adding

Had the byelection happened on its own, Brown would probably face no more than a whispering campaign, senior sources say. But two factors are convincing cabinet ministers that Labour's poor performance is directly linked to the prime minister: the local election reverses earlier this month, and Brown's decision to give away £2.7bn in tax cuts in an emergency mini-budget designed to solve the crisis provoked by the abolition of the 10p starting rate of tax in his last budget as chancellor last year.

The Sun puts a football take on its front page

Reds 0 Blues 1

The Premier vowed to soldier on despite losing the rock-solid Labour seat of Crewe and Nantwich to a gigantic swing of almost EIGHTEEN PER CENT to the Tories.
Last night some Cabinet ministers admitted they fear Mr Brown may not be able to win a general election.

The Telegraph leads with a twist on the story

Crisis-hit Brown told to scrap car tax rises

Gordon Brown is being urged by ministers to scrap rises in car taxes and petrol duty as he struggles to regain popularity after a humiliating by-election defeat

adding

The Prime Minister faces the gravest crisis of his career after seeing the safe Labour seat of Crewe lost to a resurgent Tory party.

The Express leads with

MPS SPLASH OUR CASH WHILE WE SCRIMP

TAXPAYERS were forced to pay nearly £6,000 for redecorating Gordon Brown’s kitchen and bedroom, it was revealed last night.
The supposedly “prudent” Prime Minister has also been using public money to fund his satellite TV bills and buy him more than £200 worth of food a month.
He even claimed £15 for lightbulbs. The shocking details of the Westminster expenses gravy train will amaze voters at a time when ordinary families are struggling to make ends meet with escalating food, utility and petrol bills.


A comment by a coroner also dominates the papers

Ageing Nimrod fleet is unsafe and should be grounded,reports the Independent

The RAF's entire Nimrod fleet is unsafe and should be grounded, a coroner has insisted as he delivered a devastatingly critical verdict on the deaths of 14 servicemen.

adding

Twelve RAF personnel, a soldier and a marine were killed when the Nimrod XV230 exploded after undergoing air-to-air refuelling near Kandahar in Afghanistan, in September 2006.

MoD rejects call by coroner to ground RAF Nimrod fleet says the Times

The families of 14 servicemen killed in an RAF Nimrod surveillance aircraft that exploded over Afghanistan after a fuel leak reacted with fury yesterday when the Government rejected a coroner’s judgment that the whole fleet should be grounded.
Andy Knight, the brother of Sergeant Ben Knight, one of the victims, said that the decision was “an insult to all the families”. Richard Mitchelmore, the father of Flight Lieutenant Leigh Mitchelmore, added: “The Ministry of Defence is going to do absolutely nothing. These planes will still be flying and these boys will risk their lives every day.”

Pictures of the Exeter bomber also share a prominent role in the papers

Bomb cops Bomb boy is the lead in the Mirror reporting

The bomb which exploded in an Exeter restaurant was a "viable" device constructed of sodium hydroxide, kerosene, strips of aluminium foil and nails, police have revealed.
Police also said that suspected bomber Nicky Reilly, who had a computer screensaver of the burning Twin Towers, received a text message of encouragement moments before leaving his Plymouth home on the failed suicide mission.

The Guardian reporting

Armed police swooped on a second man in a cafe in Plymouth city centre yesterday and arrested him in connection with the inquiry.
The arrest came as further details emerged of the attack and the man believed to have carried it out. Nicky Reilly, 22, was injured when a nail bomb he is alleged to have been assembling partially detonated. He had gone into toilets in the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter at lunchtime on Thursday. Counter-terrorism officials believe the attack was intended to be a suicide bombing, two sources told the Guardian.

The Sun saying that

CAFE bomb suspect Nicky Reilly was talked into a bungled terror attack by Muslim men he met at his local CHIP SHOP, it was claimed last night.
Neighbours said the 6ft 3in giant, who has a form of autism and is said to be easily led, regularly met the group at the chippie near his home.

Most of the papers report

Clinton forced to apologise for staying in race ‘in case of an assassination’

Hillary Clinton rushed out an apology last night after citing the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason for her to remain in the race against Barack Obama — an extraordinary admission which caught her campaign aides off guard.
Mrs Clinton, dismissing the idea of abandoning her increasingly longshot attempt to win the Democratic presidential nomination, said in South Dakota: “My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it.”

says the Times

The Independent reports

Migrants flee South Africa as wave of violence spreads to Cape Town

The wave of xenophobic violence that has convulsed South Africa reached Cape Town yesterday with mobs looting shops and immigrants forced to flee a squatter camp which came under attack on the outskirts of the city.
At the same time neighbouring Mozambique declared a state of emergency to help its citizens fleeing the attacks, warning the "exodus will worsen" as thousands are still housed in makeshift camps awaiting transport back home.

According to the Telegraph

US drops plans to raid Sadr City

after Iraqi forces negotiated a ceasefire with Shia militia. Under the deal, brokered between the Iraqi government and forces loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, two Iraqi divisions will take up positions in the vast slum in eastern Baghdad but no US troops will be allowed in.

The Guardian reports that

Burma agrees to let in foreign aid workers

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, appeared to have made a dramatic breakthrough yesterday in his mission to get relief to Burma's cyclone survivors after the regime agreed to allow in all international aid workers.
Three weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck killing an estimated 134,000 people, the reclusive regime's leader, General Than Shwe, gave the go-ahead for the influx of disaster management specialists needed to boost relief efforts

According to the Mail

'Fat cat' bosses get staggering 33% pay rise and now earn 200 times average worker

Britain's top bosses scooped average pay rises of a staggering 33 per cent last year, a report revealed today.
Their massive pay rise means a typical top executive enjoyed an average pay package of £4.6million.
With this amount of money, they could use just one year's pay package to buy around 23 "average" homes - without needing to get a mortgage

The Times reports

Regulator investigates £50m gas overcharging claims against npower

Millions of consumers may have been overcharged by at least £25 on their gas bills by one of the biggest energy companies, The Times has learnt.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, is investigating claims that up to 2.2 million customers of npower may have been billed too much for gas usage. Energywatch, the energy watchdog, believes that excess charges could total more than £50 million

According to the Telegraph

Interest rate rise is on the cards, says IMF

The International Monetary Fund last night warned the Bank of England not to cut borrowing costs for the foreseeable future, adding that it might lose control of inflation if it did so.
It said the Bank must be ready to raise interest rates from their current five per cent if there are any signs that wages are starting to soar.

Meanwhile the Independent reports

UK leads Fairtrade shopping revolution as sales hit £560m

British consumers willing to pay more for ethical products are at the forefront of a global surge in fair trade, new figures reveal. UK sales jumped 72 per cent last year, from £325m to £560m, more than double the rise in Germany and France, according to the Fairtrade Foundation.

The Guardian reports on the case of

Student researching al-Qaida tactics held for six days

A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university informed police about al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the "psychological torture" he endured in custody.
Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the a training manual from a US government website for his research into terrorist tactics.

The Express reports that

PRINCE Charles sported a plaster on the right side of the bridge of his nose yesterday after having a non-cancerous growth removed.
Aides said he had the red blemish taken off for cosmetic reasons by a doctor who went to Clarence House on Thursday afternoon.

Angler wins £2.7m on Lotto reports the Sun

ANGLER Mark Weir has landed a £2.7million Lotto whopper — but for pals it’s the one that got away.
The delighted dad, 45, bought a Lucky Dip after years in a work syndicate without even a nibble.
Now after hitting the jackpot, Mark has vowed to keep the lot for himself and his family. Mark — who is on holiday from his plastics factory job — said: "The lads won’t be getting a share.
"I paid into a lottery syndicate for years and never won anything to shout about. But now I’ve got the jackpot."

Finally it's Bank holiday weekend and the Independent reports

A great bank holiday getaway is expected today as the combination of school half-term breaks, bad weather, rail failures and congestion on the roads encourages people to escape abroad.
Almost two million holidaymakers are expected to fly to sunnier climes amid claims by travel experts that the industry is still strong despite gloom about the economy. But a less pleasant weekend looks set for those who stay in the UK, with 18 million cars due on the roads and more than 30 sets of engineering works on the railways announced for this weekend, including on the West Coast Main Line.