Portrait of the week: Harry’s confessions, house prices fall and Cornish space launch fails

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Government ministers held short meetings with trade union representatives as strikes continued by ambulance drivers, teachers, bus drivers and driving test examiners. A bill was introduced to require some workers to provide a minimum level of service during strikes in the NHS, education, fire and rescue, border security, nuclear decommissioning and public transport. Evri, the courier formerly known as Hermes, said ‘Our service has not been as good as we would have liked’ as parcels were reported delayed or undelivered. James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, and Maros Sefcovic, a vice-president of the European Commission, held ‘cordial and constructive’ talks on Northern Ireland trade. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen was suspended from the Commons for five days after breaching rules on paid lobbying, then lost the whip over comments about the Covid vaccine.

Even before its publication on 10 January, the Duke of Sussex’s memoir, Spare, provoked sharp intakes of breath when details were gleaned from a Spanish edition.