Wednesday's papers

The Telegraph leads this morning with a report that MPs are to be offered a pay rise to make up for a loss of income from expenses claims under plans drawn up by Gordon Brown to quell a growing back-bench rebellion.

Under Mr Brown’s plan, any rise in an MP’s basic salary of £64,766 would be paid for by a reduction in ministers’ wages. Currently, 98 MPs serve as members of the Government, earning between £96,000 and £197,000. If they took a £20,000 pay cut, it would save almost £2 million and mean all 646 MPs could be paid around £3,000 more without further cost to the taxpayer.

says the paper

The Independent features last night's speach from Mervyn King.Under the headline,Never has so much money been owed by so few to so many' the paper says the governor of the Bank Of England

described the £1 trillion of support given to banks by the taxpayer as "breathtaking" and "unsustainable". He said: "To paraphrase a great wartime leader, never in the field of financial endeavour has so much money been owed by so few to so many. And, one might add, so far with little real reform." Mr King argued that banks took huge risks because they knew they would be bailed out and because they were seen as "too big to fail". He called for sweeping reforms to the way they are supervised.

The Guardian adds that

King told business leaders in Edinburgh that the current regulatory arrangements were impractical and added "it was hard to see why" support could not be limited to retail, or utility, banking.

As the Times reports that

Eleventh-hour attempts to block the appearance on the BBC’s flagship political programme of Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party, are expected to collapse today

and the Guardian says that

The BBC is to include BNP supporters in the audience for Thursday'scontroversial edition of Question Time when the party's leader, Nick Griffin, will become the first far-right politician to appear on the programme.

the Telegraph reports how the BNP leader compared some of Britain’s most respected military commanders to Nazi generals hanged for war crimes.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, accused General Sir Richard Dannatt and General Sir Mike Jackson, two former chiefs of the general staff, of complicity in “illegal” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the MPs’ expenses scandal.

The big news from Afghanistan is that

Hamid Karzai yesterday finally caved to intense international pressure and reluctantly agreed to a run-off vote next month.

The Independent reports that

Standing by the Afghan leader's side in the splendour of the presidential palace in Kabul, the US Senator John Kerry congratulated him for transforming "a time of enormous uncertainty... into a time of great opportunity".

The Times leads with the news that

As many as 1,000 priests could quit the Church of England and thousands more may leave churches in America and Australia under bold proposals to welcome Anglicans to Rome.

As the Telegraph explains

The historic move will allow groups of Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Holy See while allowing them to retain some of their traditions, and could see married Church of England clergy ordained as Catholic priests.

More problems for the Tories on the front of the Guardian which reports that amid growing unease in the White House

William Hague, is to meet the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in Washington tomorrow amid concern in the Obama administration about the Conservatives' European policy and Jewish outrage at their alliance with far-right parties with alleged antisemitic and neo-Nazi links.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that

David Cameron provoked a furious row with Tory backbenchers and grassroots members yesterday after reversing his party's opposition to all-women shortlists in a bid to boost the number of female Conservative MPs.

In the run up to this week's postal strike,the Mail leads with the stoty that

Royal Mail is hiring thousands of 'strike-breakers' who have not had their references checked or been vetted for criminal records and that they are being hired - on the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour - after only cursory interviews.

According to the Times,Gatwick will be sold today for £1.5 billion.

As part of BAA’s plan to reduce its £10 billion debt burden, the airport will be sold to Global Infrastructure Partners, an investment fund that also owns London City Airport. The fund is a joint venture between Credit Suisse, the investment bank, and GE, the world’s largest company.

The Guardian has discovered secret documents which show

The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and that the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets.

More secret networks in the Mail which reports that

An astonishing £380 a minute will be spent on surveillance in a massive expansion of the Big Brother state.The £200million-a-year sum will give officials access to details of every internet click made by every citizen - on top of the email and telephone records already available.

Finally the Sun continues to focus on Britain's fattest man revealing this morning that Paul Mason wanted to become the world's heaviest man

His bizarre ambition came to light three years ago after he lost 20 stone in hospital.Paul, now 48, told stunned staff his weight loss was not what he really yearned for.