Portrait of the week: Christmas rail strikes, Lady Hussey’s resignation and Indonesia’s sex ban

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The RMT union decided to add a couple of rail strikes just before and after Christmas to those planned. Nurses, ambulance workers, driving test examiners, baggage handlers at Heathrow and bus drivers joined in. Postmen hoped to fit in another six strikes before the end of the month; Currys stopped using Royal Mail parcel delivery. ‘This is a time to come together and to send a very clear message to Mr Putin that we’re not going to be divided in this way,’ said Nadhim Zahawi, chairman of the Conservative party. ‘Our message to the unions is to say this is not a time to strike.’ Conor Burns had the Tory whip restored after being cleared of misconduct. He had been sacked as trade minister by Liz Truss after it was reported that someone claimed to have seen him touching the thigh of a young man in a hotel bar at the party conference; ‘It felt and smelt like a stitch-up,’ he said.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said that the party would in its first term of office abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber. He presented a report, A New Britain, by Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, which called for the transfer of 50,000 civil service jobs from London and the designation of 288 new economic clusters. Ian Blackford resigned as leader of Scottish Nationalist party MPs at Westminster; MPs elected Stephen Flynn to succeed him. Nine children since September had died from Group A Streptococcus infection. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, in the face of Tory rebels, eased restrictions on onshore wind farms and dropped mandatory house-building targets. House prices fell 1.4 per cent from October to November, according to the Nationwide.

Lady Mone took leave of absence from the House of Lords ‘to clear her name’, from allegations that she benefited from a company she recommended for a contract for Covid masks and medical gowns.