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The number of people not working due to long-term sickness rose to a record 2.5 million, many with mental sickness or back pain, according to the Office for National Statistics. Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that income tax could be cut by 2p in the pound if Britons who had left the workforce during the pandemic returned to work. Pay growth in the public sector rose to 5.6 per cent, the highest rate since 2003. Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing union, said that the Health Secretary should ‘start off in double figures’ in pay negotiations. The Bank of England expected inflation to be as high as 5 per cent by the end of the year and for the economy to continue growing, not fall into a long recession as it forecast six months ago. It raised interest rates to 4.5 per cent from 4.25 per cent. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, had pledged when inflation was 10.1 per cent, that it would be halved by the end of the year. Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, said immigration should come down: ‘There is no good reason why we can’t train up enough HGV drivers, butchers or fruit pickers.’ The Prime Minister told farmers that 10,000 visas for agricultural workers would be added to the 45,000 available. Vodafone is to cut 11,000 jobs. Greggs the bakers saw sales rise by 17 per cent in a year.

Lord Sentamu, the retired Archbishop of York, was suspended from active ministry by the Rt Revd Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle, after an inquiry found that he should have sought advice from his diocesan safeguarding adviser when he was told by a clergyman in 2013 that he had been abused in the Sheffield diocese in the 1980s. Lord Sentamu rejected the findings, saying that the inquiry had a ‘fundamental misunderstanding’ of diocesan bishops’ responsibilities. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, paid £510 in fines and costs after driving at 25mph in a 20mph zone. Adam Price resigned as the leader of Plaid Cymru after an inquiry found misogyny, harassment and bullying in the party.

Michael Gove, the Housing Secretary, introduced a Renters’ Reform Bill that would end ‘no-fault’ evictions and oblige landlords to accommodate domestic animals. Labour considered giving votes in parliamentary elections to EU citizens resident in the United Kingdom and to 16-year-olds. Operations at Gatwick airport were disrupted for 50 minutes after a suspected drone was seen, which turned out to be a party balloon. In the week ending 13 May, 429 people were detected crossing the Channel in small boats. The United Kingdom came 25th, one from bottom, in the Eurovision Song Contest, which was won by Sweden’s Loreen with ‘Tattoo’.

Abroad

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited Germany for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who promised £2.4 billion worth of weapons, then met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and Rishi Sunak at Chequers. Britain pledged Storm Shadow missiles, with a range of up to 200 miles, and other arms. Russia launched more large-scale night attacks with missiles and drones, eight on Kyiv in a month; Ukraine said it had intercepted six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Mr Zelensky had earlier met the Pope in Rome. Ukraine had probably made advances of 2km at Bakhmut, the Institute for the Study War judged. Alexander Lukashenko, 68, the ruler of Belarus since 1994, was absent from the country’s National Flag, Emblem and Anthem Day.

The Turkish presidential election went to a second round after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won 49.5 per cent of first-round votes. Five days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza left 33 Palestinians dead; a rocket launched from Gaza killed an Israeli at Rehovot.

In the United States, the immigration provision known as Title 42, which allowed rapid deporting of people without an asylum hearing, expired; about 10,000 people a day were crossing the 2,000-mile Mexican border and 25,000 migrants were in Border Patrol custody. Fighting continued in Sudan from which almost 200,000 had fled, with perhaps 700,000 being displaced. In 24 hours, Tunisian authorities recovered from the coast 14 bodies of migrants from sub-Saharan countries attempting to reach Italy; at least 12,000 migrants who have reached Italy this year left from Tunisia. The 70 people of Brienz, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, and their cows were evacuated because the mountain above the village was moving. CSH