Portrait of the week: Scottish independence, striking lawyers and the end of Roe vs Wade

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Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said that military spending had to increase. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, reacted to the loss of two by-elections by saying ‘I’ve got to listen to what people are saying’, but did not resign. Oliver Dowden said ‘Somebody must take responsibility’, and resigned as a co-chairman of the Conservative party. Later Mr Johnson joked to reporters in Kigali, Rwanda, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting: ‘I’m thinking actively about the third term.’ The Liberal Democrats won Tiverton and Honiton with a swing of 29.9 per cent from the Conservatives; the Conservative majority of 24,239 from the 2019 general election was the largest ever overturned in a by-election. On the same day, Labour regained Wakefield with a majority of 4,925 and a swing of 12.7 per cent from the Tories. As soon as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into effect, police seized the sound equipment of the Stop Brexit Man, Steve Bray, familiar for his protests outside parliament.