Portrait of the week
Portrait of the week: May’s historic loss, Brexit chaos and the US shutdown
Home Brexit threw politics into unpredictable chaos. The government was defeated by an unparalleled majority of 230 — 432 to…
Portrait of the week: a government defeat, the harassment of Anna Soubry and Trump’s wall crisis
Home The government drifted towards a vote by the Commons, which it had cancelled in December, on its withdrawal agreement…
Portrait of the week: A migrant ‘crisis’, Gatwick drone awards and Donald Trump to withdraw troops from Syria
Home The number of would-be migrants known to have reached England in small boats from France in the last two…
Portrait of the year: from the collapse of Carillion to the sacking of John Kelly
January Four young men were stabbed to death in London as the New Year began. The Crown Prosecution Service was…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May’s double defeat on Brexit
Home Political hobbyists speculated on the future of Brexit if the government fell, if a new Conservative leader was chosen,…
Portrait of the week: the Brexit world, the non-Brexit world and Mars
Brexit Theresa May, the Prime Minister, seemed to succeed in uniting the country in opposition to the withdrawal agreement to…
Portrait of the Week: May’s deal, water cannon, John Worboys and Interpol
Home Five pizza-eating cabinet ministers — Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt, Liam Fox, Michael Gove and Chris Grayling — put it…
Portrait of the week: Moment of truth for Theresa May’s Brexit deal
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, defended a 500-page technical draft of the agreement on withdrawal from the European Union.…
Portrait of the week: The US midterms, Theresa May’s Brexit plan and London’s murder rate
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, set off for St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, from which she was to…
Portrait of the week: Hammond ‘ends austerity’, Angela Merkel resigns and Leicester City’s owner killed in helicopter crash
Home Austerity was ‘finally coming to an end’, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in the Budget. He…
Portrait of the Week: the Brexit march, Nick Clegg’s new job and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, found herself in another crisis over Brexit. Backbenchers whispered that 48 letters were being…
Portrait of the week: Crisis talks and pizza in Andrea Leadsom’s office
Home Brexit was in crisis as the European Council (of heads of state or government) met. Theresa May, the Prime…
Portrait of the Week: EU mandarins are suspiciously cheerful about Brexit
Home EU officials were suspiciously cheerful over the prospects of Brexit negotiations running up to the next summit on 18…
Portrait of the Week: Boris mocks May and Hammond mocks Boris
Home Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, played a well-nourished Banquo’s Ghost at the Conservative party conference, where Theresa May,…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May’s fury at the EU and Labour’s Brexit chaos
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, held a special cabinet to retrieve something from the wreckage of the Brexit policy…
Portrait of the Week: Brexitry, Jaguar and the Lib-Dems’ non-leader
Home Britain was overwhelmed by Brexitry. Before flying off to an EU summit in Salzburg, Theresa May, the Prime Minister,…
Portrait of the week: Tories against Brexit, the Salisbury poisoning and Sweden’s election
Home Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, was said to want to throw a lifeline to Theresa May, the…
Portrait of the week: Mark Carney’s kind offer, the return of Parliament and Steve Bannon vs the New Yorker
Home Mark Carney kindly said he would stay on as governor of the Bank of England if it helped the…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May goes to Africa, Labour accused of anti-Semitism (again) and John McCain dies
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, flew off to South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria accompanied by a trade delegation. In…
Portrait of the week: Government surpluses, desperate Donald and a prisons meltdown
Home Government finances were in surplus by £2 billion in July. Public sector net debt rose to £1,777.5 billion, equal to 84.3…
Portrait of the Week: Westminster attack, House of Fraser and bridge collapse
Home Unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.36 million — at 4 per cent the lowest level since 1975. The economy…
Boris and burkas; Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism; Donald Trump and Iran
Home Brandon Lewis, the chairman of the Conservative party, demanded that Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, should apologise for…
Portrait of the week: ‘Project Fear’, Labour’s anti-Semitism row (continued) and Jeremy Hunt’s wife gaffe
Home When families and doctors are in agreement, medical staff will be able to remove tubes supplying food and water…
Portrait of the week: Labour’s anti-Semitic row, public-sector pay rises and Greek forest fires
Home Dame Margaret Hodge accused Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, of being an ‘anti-Semite’ and a ‘racist’ in front of…
Portrait of the Week: Brexit votes and Trump’s double negatives
Home The administration of Theresa May, the Prime Minister, staggered on, as Conservative MPs exchanged angry words in the Commons,…