Portrait of the week | 11 July 2019

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Sir Kim Darroch resigned as British ambassador to Washington after the Mail on Sunday published disobliging emails he had sent between 2017 and now, which said things like: ‘We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction-riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept.’ In response President Donald Trump said: ‘We’re not big fans of that man.’ Next day, Trump added that he had told Theresa May, the Prime Minister, how to manage Brexit, ‘but she went her own foolish way — was unable to get it done. A disaster!’. As Conservative party members posted their votes, bookmakers put the chance of Boris Johnson becoming party leader at 95 per cent and of Jeremy Hunt at 5 per cent. Sir John Major, a former prime minister, said he would seek a judicial review if a prime minister tried to prorogue parliament to secure Brexit.