The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 21 February 2019

Home

Seven MPs resigned from the Labour party and sat in the Commons (next to the DUP) as the Independent Group, or Tig. They were Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith and Chuka Umunna. The next day they were joined by Joan Ryan and the following one by three Tories, Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen. The Labour eight said they objected to anti-Semitism in the party, the security risk should Jeremy Corbyn become prime minister and Labour’s lukewarm attitude to a second referendum. Derek Hatton, who had been the deputy leader of the Militant-controlled council which set an illegal budget in Liverpool, was readmitted to the Labour party after 34 years. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, returned to Brussels for talks on Brexit with Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission. Lady Falkender, who as Marcia Williams acted as private and political secretary to Harold Wilson and drew up on her notepaper the ‘lavender list’ of honours at his resignation in 1976, died aged 86.

Honda said it would close its car plant in Swindon in 2021, with the loss of about 3,500 jobs. ‘This is not a Brexit-related issue for us,’ said Honda’s boss in Europe, but Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, called Brexit uncertainty facing manufacturers in the UK ‘unacceptable’. The number of people in work continued to grow, reaching a record 32.6 million in the last quarter of 2018, with unemployment at 4 per cent, its lowest since 1975. The Competition and Markets Authority criticised a planned merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, decided not to make a trade visit to China after it responded angrily to a speech by Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, in which he said that the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth would be sent to disputed waters in the Pacific over which China claims control.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in