Portrait of the week | 13 October 2016

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The pound fell against the dollar and the euro, weakening by 19 per cent against the dollar from its level at the time of the EU referendum to lows last seen in 1985. The FTSE 100 index almost beat its highest-ever closing level. There was much unrooted talk about what votes Parliament should have on the Brexit process and when. A spokesman for Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Parliament is of course going to debate and scrutinise that process as it goes on’ and would then perhaps vote on the ‘final deal’. Cuadrilla was given permission by the government to drill four shale-gas wells in Lancashire that would employ hydraulic fracturing. Wolfgang Suschitzky, the photographer, died aged 104. Some Tory MPs called for the commissioning of a new royal yacht.

Steven Woolfe, a Ukip MEP who wants to become its leader, had to stay in hospital for a few days after collapsing two hours after an altercation in Strasbourg with another Ukip MEP, Mike Hookem. Mr Woolfe was accused by some of having spoken to the Conservatives about a reconciliation between the parties. Diane Abbott became shadow home secretary in a front-bench reshuffle by Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party. Shami Chakrabarti, who joined the party in April to chair an inquiry into its alleged anti-Semitisim and was made a peer in September, became shadow attorney general. Dame Rosie Winterton, who had tried to intercede between Mr Corbyn and Labour MPs, was sacked as chief whip, to be replaced by Nick Brown. Sir Keir Starmer, who became shadow secretary of state for exiting the European Union, was among ten MPs back on the Labour front bench after leaving it over the summer. Newcastle and Gateshead were selected to hold quite a small exhibition in 2018 called the Great Exhibition of the North.