Portrait of the week: The Queen’s Speech, Sinn Fein surge and an £184m lottery win

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The Prince of Wales delivered the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament sitting on a throne next to the crown put on a table by Lord Cholmondeley. Prince Charles acted with the Duke of Cambridge as counsellors of state under the Regency Act 1937, since the Queen cannot walk easily; the other two counsellors, the Duke of York and Duke of Sussex, are not seen as fit to act in the role. The Speech mentioned 38 laws to level up, regenerate, bring safety online, secure ‘Brexit freedoms’ in the amending of legislation, regulate railways and ferries, promote heat pumps, prohibit protestors glueing themselves to buildings, deter puppy smuggling and enforce school registers, but nothing to stop the import of fur or foie gras. One person won a £184 million lottery prize.

Sinn Fein, with 27 seats out of 90, was left the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, ahead of the Democratic Unionist party, with 25. The Alliance party increased its seats from eight to 17. In England, of 4,411 contested council seats, the Conservatives lost 336 but Labour gained only 22. Labour lost Hull to the Liberal Democrats, who also gained 37 councillors in Somerset. In London, the Conservatives lost Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet to Labour. Lutfur Rahman was elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, where he had been removed from office in 2015 for electoral fraud. In Scotland, the Conservatives lost 63 councillors leaving them with 214 and Labour with 282; the Scottish National party increased its total a little to 453. In Wales, Labour improved, Plaid Cymru declined a little and the Conservatives lost more than 40 per cent of their seats.

Durham police decided after all to investigate under coronavirus laws an incident on 30 April 2021 in which Sir Keir Starmer was seen on video drinking beer from a bottle while colleagues gathered in the room to eat takeaways.