Portrait of the Week – 7 May 2005

Britain held a general election, except in South Staffordshire, where the death of the Liberal Democrat candidate after ballot papers had been sent out required the holding of a by-election later. More than five million requests for postal votes had been met. The Conservatives had hoped that the result would be unexpected in the same way as that in 1970. The degree to which Mr Tony Blair was sweating prompted speculation that he would retire from domestic politics early on health grounds. Campaigning in Huddersfield before the election, Mr Blair said of David Blunkett, the disgraced former home secretary: ‘That is one of the most special people I have ever worked with in my life and I want to see him back where he belongs as soon as possible.’ The government had released the full text of the Attorney General’s advice from 7 March 2003 on the legality of going to war against Iraq; controversy over the subject was kept alive by the publication in the Sunday Times of a leaked minute of a meeting in No.