Portrait of the Week – 8 February 2003

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, returning from a meeting at the White House with President George Bush of the United States, said, ‘I believe there will be a second resolution,’ referring to a further United Nations Security Council vote for action against Iraq, the advisability of which he had tried to convince Mr Bush. Mr Blair then flew off to Paris to try, with little apparent success, to persuade President Jacques Chirac to back a new UN resolution; he took with him four Cabinet ministers – the secretaries of state for the home and foreign departments, for defence and for education – as well as Sir Michael Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff. Meanwhile the Commons voted against all seven ways presented to them in which the Lords might in future be constituted, including total appointment, favoured by Mr Blair, and full election, favoured by Mr Robin Cook, leader of the House.