Portrait of the week | 12 July 2018

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Boris Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary the day after David Davis resigned as Brexit Secretary, both in reaction to a government plan for Brexit agreed by the cabinet after being held incommunicado at Chequers for 12 hours, their mobile phones confiscated. At Chequers, Mr Johnson was reported to have said: ‘Anyone defending the proposal we have just agreed will find it like trying to polish a turd.’ In his resignation letter he said that the Brexit ‘dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt’, adding: ‘We are truly headed for the status of a colony.’ Dominic Raab, the housing minister, replaced Mr Davis; Kit Malthouse replaced Mr Raab. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, replaced Mr Johnson; Matt Hancock, the digital, culture, media and sport secretary, replaced Mr Hunt; Jeremy Wright, the attorney general, replaced Mr Hancock; Geoffrey Cox replaced Mr Wright. Steve Baker the Brexit minister also resigned, as did Maria Caulfield and Ben Bradley, vice-chairmen of the party, of which there had been at least nine.