Thursday's National Newspaper Front Pages

THE PAPERS' TOP STORIES

:: Financial Times

George Osborne has called time on the toughest phase of Britain's "age of austerity" in his Autumn Statement - abandoning plans to axe £4.4bn in tax credits and reining in public spending cuts.

:: The Guardian

Councils will see a near halving of their central government grant - forcing them to sell assets, draw on reserves and raise council tax by £2bn in order to prevent the collapse of social care in England.

:: The Times

Buy-to-let landlords and large businesses will be particularly hit by Mr Osborne's policies - with stamp duty to rise by an additional 3%, and a new apprentice levy to be paid by larger companies.

:: The Telegraph

The Chancellor has "wrongfooted Labour" after boosting spending by tens of billions of pounds - as he "ushered in the end of austerity".

:: Daily Mail

Mr Osborne has used a £27bn windfall to go on a "spending spree", with the newspaper asking: "Whatever happened to austerity?"

:: The Sun

The "lucky" Chancellor was able to perform the U-turn because of the "unexpected £27bn jackpot" - with a "booming" economy expected to yield higher-than-expected tax revenue over the next four years.

:: The Independent

There are concerns that the Government has performed the U-turn based on optimistic economic forecasts which may not come to fruition.

:: Metro

The freesheet goes with the headline "The Tories are for turning" - as it also emerges the Health Secretary has had a "change of heart" by agreeing to negotiate with junior doctors threatening strike action through a mediator.

:: i

The Chancellor has stunned critics with his reversals - and the Spending Review also revealed plans to protect police funding, as well as increase spending on health and education.

:: Daily Mirror

Millions of people have been "saved from the misery of tax credit cuts", the newspaper says - and claims that its campaign against the controversial policy contributed to the U-turn.

:: Daily Express

The UK's overseas aid budget has been sent "soaring" in this year's Spending Review, in what is a "huge gamble" by Mr Osborne.

:: Daily Star

A reality TV star's "raunchy sex scenes" in the Australian jungle have had to be cut from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

:: Watch the Press Preview on Sky News every evening at 10.30pm and 11.30pm. Thursday night's reviewers will be the deputy director of Civitas, Anastasia de Waal, and the PR consultant George Pascoe-Watson.