The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 3 May 2018

issue 05 May 2018

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The prospect of Brexit in name only hovered on the horizon as the government contemplated an association agreement with the EU, which Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed as ‘second-tier EU membership’. The cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee considered two ways of coping with the Irish problem: either a customs partnership with the EU, in which Britain would collect tariffs at the Irish border on behalf of the EU, or a combination of technology and trusted trader schemes to avoid a hard border. Peers voted 335 to 244 for an amendment, introduced by the Conservative Viscount Hailsham, to the EU Withdrawal Bill which would enable MPs to send ministers back to renegotiate with Brussels if parliament rejected the Brexit deal presented to it. A plague of European oak processionary moths, with hairy bodies that cause rashes and breathing difficulties, struck west London and as far afield as Slough.

Amber Rudd resigned as Home Secretary for giving unreliable answers about the existence of targets to deport illegal immigrants.

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