Portrait of the Week: Supermajorities, falling inflation and rammed cows

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The electorate mulled over the words of Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary: ‘You don’t want to have somebody receive a supermajority.’ A question that lodged in the election campaign was put by Beth Rigby of Sky News to Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, asking whether he had meant it when he said his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, would make a great prime minister; he replied: ‘I was certain we would lose the 2019 election.’ A few days later, Sir Keir told a phone-in questioner that serving in a Corbyn administration ‘didn’t cross my mind because I didn’t think we would win’. He evaded questions on council tax, taxing pensions and VAT on schools. A dishevelled Boris Johnson made some short videos endorsing Conservative candidates. Three suppliers recalled 61 types of pre-packed sandwiches, wraps and salads from major supermarkets after salad leaves were suspected of spreading Escherichia coli, which made more than 200 ill, with more than 60 taken to hospital.

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The annual rate of inflation fell to 2 per cent, from 2.3 per cent the month before, prompting Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, to say he wanted to be ‘cutting people’s taxes’. After the excitement of a YouGov opinion poll putting Reform one point ahead of the Tories, Nigel Farage launched the party’s ‘contract’ (rather than manifesto), which undertook to freeze non-essential immigration, leave the European Convention on Human Rights, add 30,000 to the Armed Forces and cut income tax. In the seven days to 18 June, 1,066 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. Sir Ian McKellen fell off the stage during a performance of Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre in London.

Surrey Police, unable to capture a heifer called Beau Lucy that had strayed from a meadow in Staines, decided to ram it repeatedly with a police car; the Home Secretary said: ‘I can think of no reasonable need for this action.’