Portrait of the week | 29 September 2016

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Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said that Britain would oppose attempts to create an EU army, as it would ‘undermine’ Nato. Forecasts for British economic growth in 2016 collated by the Treasury were revised from 1.5 to 1.8 per cent, the level expected in June, before the EU referendum. Mathias Döpfner, the chief executive of Axel Springer, said that leaving the European Union would make Britain ‘better off than continental Europe’ within five years. Scotland began importing shale gas from the United States. Fourteen candidates are to stand in the by-election at Witney on October 20 to replace David Cameron as MP, including one from the Bus-Pass Elvis Party.

At the Labour party conference in Liverpool, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said Labour would create ‘a £250 billion National Investment Bank’ to put money into things such as rail, energy and broadband, and it would ‘make sure any future government has the power to intervene in our economy’. Clive Lewis, Labour’s shadow defence secretary, received a message just as he was about to begin his speech telling him that the autocue had been changed; this was the deletion of an undertaking that he ‘would not seek to change’ the party’s policy of supporting renewal of Trident. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with their children, toured Canada.

Merlin, the operator of Alton Towers, was fined £5 million over the crash last June on its Smiler rollercoaster, which injured 16 people, including two teenage girls who had legs amputated. The decision not to prosecute Sir Cliff Richard over claims of historical sex offences was upheld in a review by the Crown Prosecution Service. Russian computer hackers revealed evidence that the cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins had used steroids to treat his asthma, but no rules had been broken.