Pressure mounts on Starmer even as top aide resigns

单集文稿 ...

• 00:23

  Good morning from The Financial Times.

• 00:25

  Today is Monday, February 9th.

• 00:27

  And this is your FT News Briefing.

• 00:30

  The UK Prime Minister seeks to extinguish a widening political scandal

• 00:35

  while Japan's premier rides to victory in a snap election.

• 00:39

  Plus, Syria looks to the oil industry to shore up a fragile economic recovery.

• 00:44

  I'm Victoria Craig, and here's the news you need to start your day.

• 00:56

  UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is bracing for fallout of the Lord Peter Mandelson scandal.

• 01:02

  to intensify.

• 01:03

  On Sunday, Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned.

• 01:07

  McSweeney claimed he was the reason the prime minister appointed Mandelson to serve as UK ambassador to the US.

• 01:14

  Mandelson was dismissed in September following revelations about his relationship with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

• 01:21

  A spokesperson for Mandelson said he, quote, regrets believing Epstein's lies about his criminality.

• 01:27

  Starmer, meanwhile, apologized last week to Epstein's victims for giving Mandelson the role,

• 01:32

  he also agreed to allow Parliament to release a trove of thousands of documents this week related to the appointment.

• 01:39

  While members of the Prime Minister's party called for McSweeney to quit,

• 01:43

  some say his departure will not resolve questions about Starmer's judgment.

• 01:53

  Japan's Prime Minister cruised to victory in a snap election on Sunday.

• 01:57

  Sanae Takeichi led her Liberal Democratic Party to secure a single party majority in the Lower House of Parliament.

• 02:04

  It comes after the shortest campaign in the country's modern history, which lasted just two weeks.

• 全部文稿