Portrait of the week | 26 July 2018

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Dame Margaret Hodge accused Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, of being an ‘anti-Semite’ and a ‘racist’ in front of a number of MPs at Westminster; within 12 hours she had received a disciplinary letter. ‘People have to be judged on what they do and not on what they say,’ she insisted on BBC radio. The government announced pay rises for a million public sector workers, with 2.9 per cent for the armed forces, 2.75 per cent for prison officers, up to 3.5 per cent for teachers and 2 per cent for police and general practitioners. The budget for London’s Crossrail project rose from £14.8 billion to £15.4 billion. London, with more rail journeys than all other regions of Great Britain combined, saw 23 per cent of its passengers standing each morning, the Department for Transport said. The BBC discontinued The Daily Politics after 2,700 episodes presented by Andrew Neil.

Theresa May declared: ‘I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union deputising on my behalf.’ The Europe Unit led by the civil servant Olly Robbins would have ‘overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations’, Mrs May said. Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary, suggested to the Sunday Telegraph that he was still trying to convince other cabinet ministers that the government’s ‘pragmatic’ strategy for leaving the EU was the best plan. The Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill was published, with a provision on the ‘Divorce Bill’ that allowed the EU to ‘inform the UK of the required payment amounts during the transition process’. Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist MP for North Antrim, was suspended from the Commons for 30 sitting days after failing to declare two family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government. A pair of beavers were released into the Forest of Dean.