Portrait of the Week – 17 April 2019

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Although the latest date for Brexit had been postponed by the European Council until Halloween, 31 October, the government had to confront the prospect of holding elections to the European parliament on 23 May if parliament would not agree to Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement before then. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said that May should go before those elections, which ‘would be a disaster for the country. What are you going to say on the doorstep — vote for me and I’ll be gone in three months?’. Nigel Farage launched his Brexit party. The House of Commons went into recess until 23 April, St George’s day.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, entertained an audience in the United States with his analysis of the 2016 Conservative leadership contest: ‘Michael Gove and Boris Johnson knifed each other in an unintended suicide pact. Which left just Andrea Leadsom — who? — and Theresa May in the running. And then Andrea Leadsom knifed herself in a private suicide pact and Theresa May inherited the prime ministership without anybody ever casting a single vote for anything.’ David Lammy, a Labour MP, likened the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs to Nazis: ‘I would say that that wasn’t strong enough.’ Legal aid was granted for Shamima Begum, aged 19, who had gone to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015, to challenge the decision to revoke her UK citizenship. A nine-year-old boy was mauled to death by a dog while alone in a caravan at a holiday park in Cornwall.

Julian Assange, who had enjoyed asylum in the embassy of Ecuador in  London for seven years, was arrested by the Metropolitan police at the invitation of the ambassador. He was in breach of bail conditions relating to sexual assault allegations in Sweden.