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Boris Johnson (having had sight of the report by the Commons Privileges Committee on his conduct concerning Covid regulations) called it a ‘kangaroo court’ and left parliament immediately; to be disqualified as an MP he was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham. His majority at Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where there will now be a by-election, was 7,210. ‘Most members of the Committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence,’ he said, adding: ‘I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.’

Mr Johnson also blamed Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, for blocking eight nominations for peerages that he’d made on leaving office as prime minister. They had been referred in the usual way to the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which said: ‘Eight nominees were not supported by the commission.’ Two of these nominees triggered two more by-elections by leaving parliament: Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty (with a majority of 20,137), who left by being appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, and Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid-Bedfordshire (with a majority of 24,664), whose appointment to a Crown office to get her out of the Commons was delayed.

Nicola Sturgeon, from 2014 to 2023 first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National party, was arrested by police investigating the party’s finances. She was released without charge after seven and a quarter hours helping police with their inquiries, which continued. SNP MSPs sent her some flowers ‘as a mark of sympathy’. The economy grew by 0.2 per cent in April and wages rose at an annual rate of 7.2 per cent, their fastest in 20 years, though less than the rate of inflation. Junior doctors in England went on strike for three days. The Covid inquiry under Baroness Hallett began. A 44-year-old mother of three who during lockdown procured an abortion when 32-34 weeks pregnant without seeing a doctor but by getting pills from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, by saying on the phone that she was seven weeks four days pregnant, was sentenced to 14 months’ jail. Three people were stabbed to death and three others wounded by a van driven at them in Nottingham; police arrested a man. Workers at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency went on strike for a fortnight. On Sunday, 616 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats, bringing the total for 2023 to 8,380.

Abroad

Donald Trump, the former American president, appeared in court in Miami, on 37 federal charges of mishandling hundreds of classified documents, including some about US nuclear secrets; files were said to have been kept at his Florida estate. He called it a witch hunt. In Washington, Rishi Sunak stood next to President Joe Biden, who spoke of the ‘unshakable foundation of this special relationship’. They signed an economic partnership called the Atlantic Declaration. Smoke from Canadian wildfires darkened the air in New York City and Washington DC.

Ukraine began its counter-offensive against Russia, advancing a little in the east near Bakhmut and in the south near Zaporizhzhia. Parts of Kherson and four dozen villages near the River Dnipro remained flooded from the destruction of the dam at Kakhovka. A missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed 11; Odesa was hit. Russia was suspected to be importing Iranian drones across the Caspian Sea. On the death of Silvio Berlusconi, four times prime minister of Italy, aged 86, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said: ‘I have always sincerely admired his wisdom, his ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions.’

Revised figures showed that the eurozone fell into recession between October and March. A 24-year-old pilgrim swung his backpack at a man stabbing children in a park at Annecy in Haute-Savoie; a 31-year-old man from Syria with refugee status in Sweden was charged with attempted murder. Codeco militiamen attacked a refugee camp in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, leaving more than 40 people dead; tens of thousands of people sought shelter in Bule, where UN peacekeepers are stationed. A ruby from Mozambique weighing 55.22 carats, the biggest ever to come to auction, was sold in New York for $34.8 million.