Friday's papers

One story dominates this morning.

The Independent reporting that

Government support for Britain's banks has reached a staggering £850bn and the eventual cost to taxpayers will not be known for years, the public spending watchdog says today.

That's £5,500 per family says the Telegraph adding that

it was the first time that a definitive figure had been put on the amount spent by the Government in rescuing the banks following the near-collapse of the financial system.

Although the Mail claims it is £40,000 per family reporting that

Not all the cash has actually been spent, and ministers insist that taxpayers will see a return when the banks get back to profitability and the public stakes are sold off to the private sector.

Meanwhile

A fresh row over City bonuses is set to engulf ministers after it emerged last night that 200 executives at Lloyds, the partly state-owned bank, are set to receive one-off payments worth up to 80 per cent of their annual salaries.

says the Times

The Guardian says that

The government ratcheted up the pressure on bankers after a succession of ministers accused the City of lining its pockets by planning to pay more than 5,000 executives bonuses worth over £1m.

The sane paper reports that Bankers taken under the state wing in credit crunch take 22 places in top 50, according to a tax cut lobby.and

Gordon Brown is the 324th highest paid person in Britain's public sector, according to figures showing that record levels of pay were awarded during the recession.

Middle-class families are to keep a benefit worth up to almost £2,400 a year after Gordon Brown reversed a plan to scrap tax relief on childcare vouchers following a Labour revolt.says the Telegraph

Mr Brown announced yesterday that higher earning couples will continue to benefit from the scheme, which allows couples to spend up to £486 of their monthly salaries on childcare vouchers before having to pay tax on it.

Labour closes the gap on the Tories in the polls. Gordon Brown is reinvented as a class warrior. David Cameron is given a hiding at PMQs. It can only mean one thing,says the Independent

In fact, a familiar figure has been seen paying unpublicised calls on the Prime Minister – a tall, athletically built man in his early fifties, who holds his head high and has the manner of someone who is daring anyone to take him on if they are hard enough. Alastair Campbell, the most famous unelected adviser ever employed by any British prime minister, is back on the scene.

According to data passed to the Times

Tesco is planning scores of new supermarkets across Britain before a proposed clampdown that would restrict its ability to expand. The country’s largest retailer has lodged nearly double the number of planning applications as its two largest rivals combined

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, has accused two senior Tories who questioned the science behind global warming of being "profoundly irresponsible"says the Telegraph adding that he

suggested climate sceptics such as Lord Lawson - who has set up a thinktank questioning the scientific consensus behind climate change - and the former shadow home secretary David Davis were "climate saboteurs".

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that

Europe's flagship carbon trading scheme suffered a blow today as the Danish government was forced to rush an emergency law through parliament to clamp down on a virulent form of VAT fraud.

To the Iraq inquiry and the Independent reports that

Geoff Hoon held back military preparations for the Iraq invasion when he was Defence Secretary, because he wanted to keep the plans secret from the public, his armed forces chief has revealed.

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood gets many of the headlines,the Sun's front page claims that

he was arrested amid claims that he "choked" his young Russian lover during a violent street bust-up.The guitarist, 62, was said to have dragged 20-year-old Ekaterina Ivanova by the scruff of her neck in the 30-minute row.

Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito made last-ditch pleas to an Italian jury today not to jail them for life for the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher.

reports the Guardian as the 11 month trial comes to a conlusion

Finally Vladimir Putin has given the strongest hint yet that he may return to the Russian presidency in 2012 reports the Independent.

During a marathon televised question-and answer-session with the Russian public yesterday, the Prime Minister said he'd think about running in three years' time, and told a questioner who asked if he'd like to retire from politics and devote more time to family life, "don't hold your breath".