Portrait of the week: Queen Camilla, a cabinet rejig and NHS waiting list warning

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In a message for the 70th anniversary of her accession, the Queen said it was her sincere wish that ‘when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort’. She signed the message: ‘Your servant, Elizabeth R.’ Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the government would pay energy suppliers to discount bills by £200 in October, but customers would then have to pay back £40 a year for five years. People living in houses of the A-D council tax bands would receive a £150 rebate. The regular Ofgem energy price cap adjustment meant that a typical household would pay £693 extra a year, a 54 per cent rise. Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, was asked whether the Bank was asking workers not to demand big pay rises, and replied: ‘Broadly, yes.’ The Bank doubled interest rates from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent. Spectators chanted ‘RSPCA’ at the West Ham player Kurt Zouma after a video had shown him kicking his cat.

Jacob Rees-Mogg became minister for Brexit opportunities, with a seat in the cabinet. He was replaced as leader of the House by Mark Spencer, who was replaced as chief whip by Chris Heaton-Harris, who was replaced as minister for Europe by James Cleverly. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, appointed a new chief of staff, Steve Barclay, already Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. This was meant to cheer up MPs after Martin Reynolds (who had sent out the invitation in May 2020 to ‘bring your own booze’) resigned as the PM’s principal private secretary; Dan Rosenfield, the chief of staff, went; Jack Doyle had to go as director of communications; and Munira Mirza resigned as head of policy, mentioning the ‘scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition’, Sir Keir Starmer, made at Prime Minister’s Questions, of ‘failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile’.