Portrait of the week | 25 April 2019

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Theresa May, the Prime Minister, returned to parliament after the Easter recess to find backbenchers plotting to get rid of her. The 1922 Committee agonised over whether to change its rules in order to hold another vote of no confidence in her. More than 70 local Conservative association chiefs called an extraordinary general meeting of the National Conservative Convention to consider the proposition: ‘We no longer feel that Mrs May is the right person to continue as prime minister.’ A poll of Conservative councillors by Survation, for the Mail on Sunday, found that 40 per cent were planning to vote for the Brexit party in next month’s EU elections. One of the candidates for new party Change UK, which wants Britain to stay in the EU, is Rachel Johnson, the sister of MP Boris Johnson, a prominent supporter of Brexit. The government decided to let the Chinese company Huawei build part of Britain’s 5G data network. A ‘concreteberg’ 300 ft long and weighing 100 tons was found in an Islington sewer where it had formed from concrete poured down the drain.

The police allowed protesters against climate change to close Waterloo Bridge to traffic for a week, as well as Parliament Square, Marble Arch and Oxford Circus. The 9,000 police involved arrested 1,065 people, but only 53 were charged. The protesters were addressed by a frowning Greta Thunberg, aged 16, who misses classes every Friday to protest outside the Swedish parliament. A man was charged with arson after fire swept over Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire. While firemen were dealing with it another big fire broke out on Marsden Moor, started by a barbecue. Easter Monday was the hottest on record, with 25°C recorded at Heathrow, though the hottest Easter weekend day remained 29.4°C