Portrait of the week | 27 April 2017

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Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, cheered the United Kingdom by promising four new bank holidays for the whole country when he becomes prime minister, for the patronal days of St David, St Patrick, St George and St Andrew. Asked about the replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent, he said: ‘I’ve made clear any use of nuclear weapons would be a disaster for the whole world.’ Three hours later, the Labour party put out a statement saying: ‘The decision to renew Trident has been taken and Labour supports that.’ The Communist Party decided not to field candidates against Labour.

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, visited South Wales, following a YouGov poll (for what it was worth) suggesting the Conservatives would gain 40 per cent of the vote in the principality with Labour at 30 per cent. She said that voters could choose between ‘lower taxes under the Conservatives or higher taxes under Labour’ but refused to say if her party would repeat its current manifesto undertaking not to raise income tax, National Insurance and VAT, nor would she guarantee the triple-lock on state pensions. Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, appealed for voters ‘to return as many Members of Parliament as possible to Parliament that are going to keep an open mind on this Brexit negotiation’, which, he said could mean voting Labour, Lib Dem or even Tory, though he added: ‘I will vote Labour; I would always vote Labour.’ Asked on Newsnight what Labour’s position was on Europe, Peter Mandelson, the former cabinet minister, said: ‘Search me.’ Sir Keir Starmer said that Labour wanted to keep the EU single market ‘on the table’ for negotiations but opposed free movement of people, though not of labour.