Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week: Trump’s victory, Kemi’s shadow cabinet and footballer killed by lightning

9 November 2024 9:00 am

Home Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of the Conservative party, appointed a shadow cabinet. She made Robert Jenrick, whom she…

Portrait of the week: Tax rises, a cheddar heist and snail delivery man gets slapped

2 November 2024 9:00 am

Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, repeatedly mentioning an inherited ‘£22 billion black hole’, raised taxes by £40…

Portrait of the week: Budget leaks, prisoners released and Israel kills Hamas leader

26 October 2024 9:00 am

Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was expected to freeze tax thresholds in the Budget on 30 October,…

Portrait of the week: Weight loss jabs and England’s German manager

19 October 2024 9:00 am

Home Neither Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, nor Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ruled out a rise…

Portrait of the week: Sue Gray resigns and the Chagos Islands are handed back

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Home Sue Gray resigned as chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister. She will become Sir Keir’s envoy…

Portrait of the week: Iran fires missiles into Israel, Rosie Duffield resigns and Mount Everest gets taller

5 October 2024 9:00 am

Home The Conservatives at their party conference examined the four surviving candidates for leader – Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James…

Portrait of the week: Starmer’s sausages slip-up, Israel’s strikes on Lebanon and Amazon staff summoned back to office

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in his speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, said that ‘if…

Portrait of the week: Keir Starmer’s free clothes, Huw Edwards sentenced and Tupperware faces bankruptcy

21 September 2024 9:00 am

Home Sir Keir Starmer met Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, in Rome and said that sending funds to…

Portrait of the week: State pension to rise, prisoners released early and a new owner for The Spectator

14 September 2024 9:00 am

Home The government won by 348 to 228 a Commons vote on limiting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners to those…

Portrait of the week: UK cancels Israel exports, Grenfell fire report released and AfD victory in Germany

7 September 2024 9:00 am

Home The government cancelled 30 out of 350 export licences for arms to Israel on items that it said could…

Portrait of the week: Sir Keir’s tax warning, Russian air attacks and another prisons crisis

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, speaking in the garden of 10 Downing Street, warned that the Budget in…

Portrait of the week: prisoners are freed, Ted Baker closes and train drivers announce strikes

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Home Emergency measures, known as Operation Early Dawn, were brought in to ease prison overcrowding. Defendants would be summoned to…

Portrait of the week: riot justice, Olympic success and Ukraine’s Russian advance

17 August 2024 9:00 am

Home Riots subsided after 7 August, a night when many were expected but only empty streets or demonstrations against riots…

Portrait of the week: riots and Russia’s prisoner swap

10 August 2024 9:00 am

Home A week of riots, with violence against the police, threats to Muslims, burning of vehicles and looting (Greggs, Shoezone,…

Portrait of the week: Stabbings in Southport, a £22bn ‘black hole’ and Tory leadership nominations

3 August 2024 9:00 am

Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said she had found a £21.9 billion hole, and a black one…

Portrait of the week: IT meltdown, riots in Leeds and the wrong kind of pandemic

27 July 2024 9:00 am

Home Britain enjoyed its share of the worldwide failure of 8.5 million computers reliant on Microsoft, through a faulty update…

Portrait of the week: King’s Speech, Trump shot and Rouen cathedral in flames

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Home The government funnelled three dozen bills into the King’s Speech, highlighting one to make a specific offence of spiking…

Portrait of the Week: Starmer’s first steps, Biden’s wobble and Australia’s egg shortage

13 July 2024 9:00 am

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, appointed several ministers who are not MPs, but will be created life peers.…

Portrait of the week: gambling politicians, gender rows and a free Julian Assange

29 June 2024 9:00 am

Home The Conservative party withdrew its support from two parliamentary candidates, Craig Williams (who was parliamentary private secretary to the…

Portrait of the Week: Supermajorities, falling inflation and rammed cows

22 June 2024 9:00 am

Home The electorate mulled over the words of Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary: ‘You don’t want to have somebody receive…

Portrait of the Week: Sunak’s D-Day misstep, Michael Mosley’s death and Macron’s snap election

15 June 2024 9:00 am

Home The Conservatives promised to reduce National Insurance from 8 per cent to 6 per cent (and abolish it for…

Portrait of the Week: Farage returns, Abbott reselected and Trump guilty

8 June 2024 9:00 am

Home Nigel Farage took over leadership of the Reform party from Richard Tice and is standing for parliament in Clacton.…