Portrait of the week: Boris on trial, SNP in crisis and Rupert Murdoch’s fifth marriage

Home

Boris Johnson appeared before the Privileges Committee, publishing in advance a 52-page defence of his actions while Prime Minister regarding Covid regulations. He said that ‘the House of Commons was misled by my statements’ but they were ‘not intentionally or recklessly’ misled. Before the hearing he was reselected as the Conservative candidate for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. The review of the behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police by Baroness Casey of Blackstock found ‘institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia’ in the force. London no longer had a ‘functioning neighbourhood policing service’, she said. Commissioner Mark Rowley of the Met said he was not willing to use the word ‘institutional’ because it had become politicised and meant ‘different things to different people’. The BBC advised staff to delete TikTok from corporate phones over fears about privacy and security. This came a week after the Chinese-owned app was banned on government phones.

Most popular

Gareth Roberts

Have I Got News for You is a sad, unfunny spectacle

Peter Murrell, the husband of Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, resigned as chief executive of the Scottish National party. A day earlier Murray Foote had resigned as the party’s media officer, citing problems with statements he had issued in ‘good faith’. The SNP admitted that it now had only 72,186 members, 32,000 fewer than two years ago. The Democratic Unionist party decided to vote in parliament against the government’s Windsor Framework affecting the Northern Ireland Protocol, its leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, said. The European Research Group of MPs was advised by lawyers that the so-called Stormont brake in the framework was ‘practically useless’.

Inflation unexpectedly rose from 10.1 per cent to 10.4 per cent, partly through an increase in the price of tomatoes and alcohol served in pubs and restaurants.