Portrait of the week: By-elections, dangerous dolphins and Djokovic’s £6,000 smashed racquet

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Ben Wallace said he would cease to be the Defence Secretary at the next cabinet reshuffle and would not stand again for parliament. The Conservatives endured three by-elections – at Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome. The left-wing mayor of North of Tyne, Jamie Driscoll, resigned from the Labour party after a rival was selected to stand for the newly created mayoralty of the North East. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said he would not reverse the Conservative limit on claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children. On universities, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Our young people are being ripped off. They’re being saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt from bad degrees.’ Huw Edwards was in hospital with ‘serious mental health issues’, according to his wife, who had revealed he was the BBC presenter against whom allegations were made, according to the Sun, of receiving photographs from a young person now aged 20; police said there was ‘no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed’. The BBC found 100 employees and ex-employees of McDonald’s who alleged sexual assault, racism and bullying.

A woman who illegally procured her own abortion when more than 32 weeks pregnant had her sentence reduced by the Appeal Court and was freed from prison. On the Isle of Lewis, 55 pilot whales died after being stranded on the beach near North Tolsta. The Illegal Migration Bill passed the Lords to become law. The Bibby Stockholm, a barge to house 506 single men, arrived at Portland, Dorset. Overseas tilers, plasterers and carpenters were added to the government’s Shortage Occupation List, making it easier for them to obtain visas.