Portrait of the Week – 6 September 2018

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Mark Carney kindly said he would stay on as governor of the Bank of England if it helped the government ‘smooth’ the Brexit transition. Lord King of Lothbury, Mervyn King, a former governor of the Bank of England, said that ‘incompetent’ preparation for Brexit had left Britain without a credible bargaining position. Paul Pester announced his resignation as chief executive of TSB after seven years, following the computing failure at the bank. Chris Evans announced on air that he would be leaving the Radio 2 breakfast show at the end of the year; he is to host Virgin Radio’s equivalent. David Watkin, the architectural historian, died aged 77. Lord Melchett , the former chairman of Greenpeace, died aged 70.

With the return of Parliament after the summer recess, Brexit entangled all. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, declared: ‘I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest.’ Nick Boles, a former minister, said: ‘I am afraid that her policy has failed and I can no longer support it.’ Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, said that ‘in adopting the Chequers proposals, we have gone into battle with the white flag fluttering’. Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator on Brexit, said of the Chequers plan: ‘I strongly oppose the British proposal.’ Another former Conservative minister, John Whittingdale, went to visit Mr Barnier and reported back that the EU ‘just can’t accept’ the Chequers plan, but that Mr Barnier had instead been open to a free trade deal of ‘unprecedented closeness’. The summer of 2018 was as hot as those of 1976, 2003 and 2006 in the UK, the Met Office said, but in England this summer was even hotter than in 1976.