Portrait of the week | 13 March 2014

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Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour party, promised that, if elected, his administration would hold a referendum on membership of the European Union only if there was a new transfer of power to Brussels, which he called ‘unlikely’. If Scotland votes for independence, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds might have to move their legal homes to London under European Union law, the BBC reported. BBC Three is to be closed as an on-air channel, to go online only. The future of BBC Four is also in question. Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, told the Treasury Select Committee that interest rates could reach 3 per cent within three years. He also said that a new deputy governor would be appointed with responsibility for markets, after criticism of its response to claims of manipulation of foreign exchange rates. Euan Sutherland resigned as chief executive of the Co-operative Group after saying that its failure to change its governance made it impossible to overhaul the business.