Sunday newspaper round-up: Water executive bonuses, British Steel, Gorton and Denton by‑election, Vladimir Alexeyev shooting,

(Sharecast News) - The government will move to shut down loopholes that have allowed executives at struggling water companies to keep collecting hefty payouts despite a bonus ban introduced last year, according to reporting in the Guardian.

The paper noted that senior figures at firms responsible for illegal sewage discharges and widespread supply failures have continued to receive millions by rebadging awards or routing payments through connected entities.

MPs told the Guardian that these workarounds meant bosses whose bonuses were explicitly blocked for presiding over pollution and outages were still being rewarded.

Thames Water, designated a failing company and therefore subject to the ban, is cited as planning to hand out multimillionpound "retention payments" funded by a highinterest loan originally intended to stabilise the business - a move permitted because the awards are now classified as nonperformancerelated.

British Steel was losing roughly �700,000 a day last year when its owner, China's Jingye, unveiled plans to close the Scunthorpe steelworks, the Guardian reports.

After Jingye declined support to purchase raw materials, the UK government intervened with emergency legislation to take control of the site. The Guardian says the state was now absorbing more than �1.2m a day to keep the operation running, with the �359m disclosed to parliament so far likely to be only an initial tally.

Nearly a year after the intervention, the future of the blast furnaces, rolling mills and the 4,000strong workforce remains unresolved, while losses continue to mount.

Keir Starmer's deputy has framed the forthcoming Gorton and Denton byelection as a pivotal test ahead of the general election, with the prime minister - already under pressure from the Peter Mandelson scandal - fighting to hold a seat long considered safely Labour, according to the Independent.

Lucy Powell told the paper the 26 February vote marks "a line in the sand" in Labour's effort to halt Reform UK's momentum under Nigel Farage. She acknowledged the Mandelson affair was likely to surface on the doorstep and stopped short of expressing confidence that Labour will retain the seat or that the prime minister will visit.

The Independent also reported that ministers, senior Labour figures and backbenchers view the contest as a critical moment for the embattled leader, with one MP describing it as "a referendum on Starmer, pure and simple".

A man suspected of shooting senior Russian military intelligence officer Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev has been detained, the Independent reports. Alexeyev - previously linked to the Salisbury poisonings - was shot several times outside a Moscow apartment block in what authorities allege was an assassination attempt. He is recovering in hospital after surgery.

Russia's FSB said a Russian national, Lyubomir Korba, was detained in Dubai and extradited. Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of orchestrating the attack, a claim Kyiv has denied, according to the Independent.

Tata Steel is weighing plans to mothball parts of its UK operations as cheap foreign imports turn Britain into a global "dumping ground", according to the Times. Sources cited by the paper say the Indianowned group was drawing up costcutting measures that could see production suspended across multiple sites.

More than 3,000 jobs are understood to be at risk as Tata looks to stem UK losses running at roughly �5m a week. Executives believe they have exhausted other options and may now have little choice but to mothball parts of the business, the Times reports.

Marks & Spencer has urged ministers to include alcohol in forthcoming rules requiring major retailers to report sales of healthy and unhealthy products, warning that excluding it would leave "empty calories" uncounted in efforts to tackle obesity, the Times reports. Under current proposals, supermarkets will need to disclose their food and drink mix by 2029, but alcohol would not be covered.

Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food, told the paper this omission risks creating a blind spot in understanding the link between alcohol consumption and obesity. He said the company supports mandatory reporting but argued that alcohol must be included to give a full picture of health impacts.

He said: "We support the government's proposal for mandatory reporting of food sales, encouraging retailers to make healthy choices easier for customers. However, reporting models do not currently include alcohol, which, as research shows, can contribute to empty calories, having a potential impact on health."