Portrait of the Week: Yousaf resigns, Charles resumes duties and Poulter joins Labour

Home

Humza Yousaf resigned as the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National party, posts he had held since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last year. He had precipitated confidence votes by terminating an arrangement with the seven Scottish Green MSPs. Royal Mail stopped imposing £5 penalties on letters with stamps deemed to be counterfeit after suspicions that China had produced many. Nigel Railton, the former chief executive of the Lottery operator Camelot, was appointed interim chairman of the Post Office. The Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund RedBird IMI abandoned its attempt to buy the Telegraph and The Spectator, which will now be up for sale. The King resumed public engagements by visiting a cancer centre with the Queen.

The government finally got its Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill through parliament. The next day, 141 people crossed the Channel in small vessels and, the day after, 359; with another 132 on Monday. A failed asylum seeker was flown to Rwanda and received £3,000 under a voluntary removal programme. Eighty per cent of asylum seekers reaching Ireland were said by its government to come via Northern Ireland and, to send them back, the Irish government planned legislation declaring the UK a safe country notwithstanding a Dublin High Court ruling. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said Britain would not take them until EU asylum rules were changed. In N. Ireland the DUP approved the addition to the Windsor Framework of a new EU law reducing the organic content requirement of dog food to 95 per cent, as in Great Britain. Physical checks began on meat, plants and dairy produce entering the UK from the EU. In West Yorkshire, 24 men were sentenced to up to 30 years in jail for sexually exploiting girls. The wet spring promised a poor harvest and price rises for biscuits.