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Morgan McSweeney, the helmsman of Labour, walked the plank by resigning as chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, whom he had advised in 2024 to appoint Lord Mandelson as ambassador to Washington. Mr McSweeney’s resignation statement began: ‘After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the government,’ as though he had been a member of the government. In a speech meant to be about funding for local communities, Sir Keir said he was ‘sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him’. But he added: ‘I had no reason to believe he was telling anything other than the truth’, even though the Financial Times had in 2023 reported that Mandelson had stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s house when the financier was in prison. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, called on Sir Keir to resign, but the cabinet then posted choreographed messages of support. Sir Keir told Labour MPs: ‘I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate.’ Police searched Lord Mandelson’s houses in Regent’s Park and Wiltshire. MPs approved the release of all documents, including electronic communications, relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, published WhatsApp messages he had exchanged with Lord Mandelson; the Cabinet Office then said ministers should not publish messages on their own initiative.
With regard to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Buckingham Palace said on behalf of his brother, the King: ‘If we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect.’ The Prince of Wales flew off on an official visit to Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who an American intelligence report concluded had approved the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, an Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in a small boat in March 2025 was found guilty of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The City of London approved plans for a 318ft tower block above the Grade II-listed Liverpool Street station.
A split Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee left interest rates at 3.75 per cent after Andrew Bailey, its governor, decided not to favour a cut. The government tried to interest the nation in apprenticeships. Eddy Shah, the newspaper owner who defied the print unions and later founded Today, died aged 81. In the Winter Olympics curling mixed doubles, Britain was beaten to the bronze medal by Italy.
Abroad
Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old pro-democracy tycoon, was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Hong Kong’s National Security Law for ‘colluding with foreign forces’; Mr Lai, a British national, was convicted in December before Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to China. In Japan’s snap election, the coalition between the ruling Liberal Democratic party (led by Sanae Takaichi, the Prime Minister) and the Japan Innovation party won 352 seats in the 465-member lower house of parliament. Jack Lang, 86, a former minister in socialist French governments, resigned as head of the Arab World Institute because of links with Jeffrey Epstein.
America and Iran held talks in Oman. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, visited Washington. President Donald Trump of the United States said that Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was, ‘the best he could make’. America proposed that Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams should meet in the US. Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, Russia’s deputy military intelligence chief, was shot and wounded in Moscow; a Russian citizen, Lyubomir Korba, was arrested and handed over to Russia by the United Arab Emirates. Nine people were shot dead at a school and house in British Columbia, Canada; the suspect then died by suicide. St Helena’s airport, opened in 2016, closed because its fire engines failed safety tests.
Thirty-two people were killed by a suicide bomber at a Shia mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan; the Islamic State group said it was behind the attack. At least 75 people were killed by Islamists and 38 women and children abducted in the villages of Woro and Nuku in the Nigerian state of Kwara; the attack was blamed on Mahmuda, a faction of Boko Haram. Three incidents on the northern Italian rail network were suspected of being sabotage as the Winter Olympics opened. Train drivers in Spain went on strike in protest at a lack of safety on the rail system. CSH
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