Portrait of the Week – 19 April 2018

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Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, apologised in Parliament for the treatment of immigrants from the Commonwealth from before 1971, known as the ‘Windrush generation’ (after the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought West Indian workers to England in 1948). The 1971 Immigration Act allowed Commonwealth citizens then living in the United Kingdom indefinite leave to remain, but the Home Office kept no records of these. Some had lost their jobs, others had been refused National Health Service treatment, and others threatened with deportation. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, apologised to Caribbean heads of government who were in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. A teenager was stabbed to death in Forest Gate, bringing to 59 the number of murders in London this year. Gillian Ayres, the abstract painter, died aged 88.

Sir Martin Sorrell left WPP, the advertising company that he ran for three decades. Unemployment fell to 1.42 million, at 4.2 per cent, the lowest level since 1975. The pub chain J. D. Wetherspoon left Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Ant McPartlin, the television presenter, was fined £86,000 after pleading guilty to drink-driving. The England netball team achieved a thrilling victory, 52-51, against Australia in the Commonwealth Games. The Queen’s corgi Willow died, aged 14.

Four RAF Tornados, flying from the British base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, launched, from outside Syrian air space, eight Storm Shadow missiles at a former missile base 15 miles west of Homs in Syria. The air strike was part of a joint attack with the United States and France that launched 105 missiles in response to a chemical weapons air attack on 7 April by the Syrian government on Douma, seven miles north-east of central Damascus. Jet fighters flying from France fired nine missiles and three more were launched from French naval ships.