The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Labour wins by-elections, Navalny dies and Eiffel Tower closes

issue 24 February 2024

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Labour called for an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ in Gaza for the first time since the attack by Hamas in October. Earlier, at a Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, Sir Keir Starmer said that a ‘ceasefire that lasts’ must ‘happen now’. The Prince of Wales called for an end to the fighting and the release of hostages, saying that ‘too many have been killed’. The ‘very small recession’ may already be over amid ‘distinct signs of an upturn’, Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, told a Commons committee. Provisional figures for the last quarter of 2023 had shown a 0.3 per cent fall in GDP, following a 0.1 per cent fall in the quarter before. The government sent ‘guidance’ to schools saying: ‘We are determined that all schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the school day.’

In two by-elections, the Conservatives took another turn in their spiral down the plughole.

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