Portrait of the week: Met misconduct, Starmer in Paris and Spanish football in turmoil

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Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, proposed reaching net zero in 2050 ‘in a better, more proportionate way’ such as by delaying a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars and delaying the phasing out of gas boilers. Ford the car makers told him it would undermine the three things it needed from the government: ‘ambition, commitment and consistency’. Inflation decreased from 6.8 per cent annually in July to 6.7 per cent in August despite a rise in oil prices. Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, appointed commissioners to run Birmingham, which had run out of money. A man was killed by two dogs, said to be Bully XLs, in Staffordshire. Mr Sunak said he would ban the breed by the end of the year under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Christine Middlemiss, the chief veterinary officer, said there would be an ‘amnesty’, saving the dogs from death, perhaps referring to exemptions under the Act. The Federation of Independent Retailers called on the government for help over shoplifting; the police refused to come if called. In the past year 100 officers in the Metropolitan Police had been sacked for gross misconduct; more than 1,000 were currently suspended or on restricted duties, the force said. The British Medical Association organised a strike by consultants for two days, overlapping with a strike by junior doctors for three.

The cost of housing migrants in hotels rose to £8 million a day, according to the Home Office, from nearly £7 million in March. People-smuggling gangs cut the price for crossing the Channel by small boat to £1,500 from £3,500. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, visited the Hague and suggested that when he was prime minister he would negotiate the return of migrants in small boats in exchange for Britain taking a quota of asylum-seekers from the EU.