Portrait of the week | 16 May 2019

Home

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said that the EU withdrawal bill would be introduced in the Commons in the first week of June (just when President Donald Trump of the United States is making his state visit). If parliament did not vote for it, Britain would leave without an agreement, or its notice to leave under Article 50 would be revoked. Parliament sat for its 301st day, the longest session since the Long Parliament in the English Civil War. Olly Robbins, the civil servant who is chief negotiator for exiting the European Union, was sent to Brussels for no clear reason. May had a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition, after the cabinet agreed to let talks with Labour on Brexit continue. Thirteen former cabinet ministers and Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, wrote to May, warning her not to agree with Labour a customs union after Brexit. Brian Walden, the television interviewer and a Labour MP from 1964 to 1977, died aged 86.

The Conservatives pondered cataclysmic opinion polls for the European Union elections on 23 May. A survey by Opinium for the Observer put Nigel Farage’s Brexit party on 34 per cent — more than Labour (21 per cent) and the Tories (11 per cent) combined. The Conservatives did not publish a manifesto for the elections. Many MPs (at least 16 by this week) proposed themselves for the future leadership of the Conservative party, but none grasped the nettle of ousting the Prime Minister. The new Change UK party, which favours the EU, refused to ruffle the waters and painted a message on the side of a white coach in small black letters: ‘For a People’s Vote for Remain Vote Change UK.’