• PM says he will not ‘walk away’ from his mandate.
• His two senior aides resign within days over Epstein issue.
• Senior ministers rally behind him amid deepening crisis.

LONDON: UK premier Keir Starmer insisted he would not “walk away” on Monday after a prominent ally demanded the prime minister quit for embroiling the British government in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Senior ministers rallied around him over the most serious crisis yet of his stuttering 19-month premiership, as a rising far-right challenges him in the polls.

“After having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility,” Starmer told Labour MPs at a crunch meeting where he was greeted with applause.

The beleaguered prime minister appeared defiant as he insisted he had “won every fight I’ve ever been in”.

Earlier on Monday, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to resign for appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite knowing he had maintained links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“The distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” Sarwar told a press conference in Glasgow, becoming the most senior Labour politician to publicly urge Starmer to go.

Several cabinet ministers came out in support of the prime minister following several days of ominous silence, including his deputy David Lammy, foreign minister Yvette Cooper and finance minister Rachel Reeves.

Left-wing figurehead Angela Rayner and interior minister Shabana Mahmood, both tipped as possible replacements for Starmer, both said they had “full support” for their leader.

Departures

Earlier on Monday, Starmer lost his second top aide in two days when his communications chief Tim Allan quit just months into the role.

On Sunday, Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned for advising Starmer to make the contentious Mandelson appointment.

McSweeney’s departure deprives the beleaguered UK leader of his closest adviser and the man who helped Starmer drag Labour back to the centre after succeeding leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.

Starmer has had several communications chiefs in his short tenure, with staff departures, policy reversals and missteps an increasing hallmark of his administration, denting his popularity.

Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC radio that Starmer’s position was “untenable”, while hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the leader’s tenure was “drawing to the close”.

Labour has trailed Farage’s anti-immigration party by double-digit margins in polls over the past year.

Far-right challenge

On the streets of London, James Lyon, 30, who works in the creative industries, said: “He’s let us down with his judgement in appointing Peter Mandelson.”

Anil Passi, 53 owner of an IT business, thought Starner should not resign, however.

“He supported somebody on good faith, and that person let him down… It’s a bit unfair to push him to the edge for that reason.”

In his speech to Labour MPs, Starmer described the fight against Reform UK – which is hoping to make gains in upcoming key local elections – as the “fight of our lives”.

Starmer sacked Mandelson in September last year after documents published by the US Congress revealed the extent of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein following the financier’s conviction in 2008.

Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking.

Documents released on January 30 by the US government reignited the controversy, appearing to show that Mandelson leaked confidential UK government information to Epstein when he was a British minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis.

Police probe

Police are investigating Mandelson, 72, for misconduct in public office and raided two of his properties on Friday. He has not been arrested.

Starmer, a former human rights lawyer and top prosecutor for England and Wales, has apologised to Epstein’s victims and accused Mandelson of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting for his appointment to Washington.

The government is to release tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents on Mandelson’s appointment, which could increase pressure on the prime minister and other senior ministers.

Several backbench Labour MPs, mostly from the left of the party who have never warmed to Starmer, have suggested that the prime minister should follow McSweeney out of the exit door.

But no clear successor has emerged and party rules make mounting a challenge difficult.

The party also faces a crucial by-election on February 28 and local elections in May, including in Scotland where Labour is expected to lose to the pro-independence Scottish National Party.

The next general election is not due until 2029.

• Italy to take charge of NATO’s Naples command.
• Britain set to lead NATO’s Norfolk command.
• US to assume control of NATO’s maritime forces.

BRUSSELS: The United States will hand over two top regional commands in NATO to European countries, diplomats said on Monday, as President Donald Trump presses allies to take greater responsibility for their defence.

Washington will transfer leadership of NATO’s Naples command, which focuses on the alliance’s south, to Italy and leadership of its Norfolk command in Virginia, focusing on the alliance’s north, to Britain, two diplomats at NATO said.

The United States will meanwhile take over the command of NATO’s maritime forces, based in the United Kingdom, the diplomats said.

“Allies have agreed on a new distribution of senior officer responsibility across the NATO Command Structure in which European Allies, including NATO’s newest members, will play a more prominent role in the Alliance’s military leadership,” a NATO official said, without detailing the changes.

“The decision relates to planning for future rotations.”

The changes, first reported by French outlet La Lettre, will likely take months to be implemented, the NATO diplomats told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It’s a good sign of burden shifting in practice,” one of the diplomats said.

The shuffling of NATO command positions comes as Washington has said it could reduce its defence presence in Europe to focus on other threats such as China.

But military superpower Washington will still remain central as it will have control of NATO’s core air, land and sea commands and retain the top position of Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

European countries have already ramped up military budgets in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and last year agreed to hike NATO’s defence spending target.

Trump has rattled faith in the reliability of the United States and last month plunged the alliance into crisis by making claims on Greenland.

But US NATO ambassador Matthew Whitaker separately on Monday insisted that the US leader was looking to strengthen, rather than “dismantle”, NATO by making Europe step up.

“We’re trying to make NATO stronger, not to withdraw or reject NATO, but make it work like it was intended as an alliance of 32 strong and capable allies,” Whitaker said.

• US demands Iran give up stockpile enriched up to 60% purity.
• Iran insists sanctions relief key to any nuclear compromise.
• Khamenei adviser to visit Oman after US-Iran nuclear talks.
  

Iran could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for all financial sanctions being lifted, its atomic chief said on Monday, one of the most direct indications so far of its position at talks with Washington.

US and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy, after US President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action.

The talks follow anti-government demonstrations in Iran last month, the biggest domestic unrest since the 1979 Revolution.

Trump joined an Israeli bombing campaign last year and hit Iranian nuclear sites. He also threatened last month to intervene militarily during the protests but ultimately held off.

Washington has demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile — estimated last year by the UN nuclear agency at more than 440 kg — of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons grade.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslami, said on Monday: “The possibility of diluting 60% enriched uranium … depends on whether, in return, all sanctions are lifted or not”.

Eslami, whose remarks were reported by Iran’s ISNA news agency, said however, that another proposal, sending Iran’s highly enriched uranium abroad to another country, had not been discussed at the talks with US officials.

Khamenei adviser to visit Oman

Ali Larijani, a close adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and secretary of its national security council, will visit Oman on Tuesday following the US-Iranian talks there, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

“During this trip, (Larijani) will meet with high-ranking officials of the Sultanate of Oman and discuss the latest regional and international developments and bilateral cooperation at various levels,” Tasnim said.

The date and venue of the next round of talks have yet to be announced. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that a new round of talks would be “an appropriate opportunity for a fair and balanced resolution of this case,” and that a desired outcome could be reached if the US avoids maximalist positions and respects its commitments.

Iran would continue to demand the lifting of sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights, including enrichment, he said.

Iran and the US held five rounds of talks last year on curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme, with the process breaking down mainly due to disputes over uranium enrichment inside Iran.

Since Trump struck Iran’s facilities, Tehran has said it has halted enrichment activity. It has always said its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

The United States wants to include Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal in negotiations, but Tehran has ruled this out.

In a televised statement aired on Monday, Khamenei called on Iranians to participate in the coming anniversary of the 1979 Revolution.

“The presence of the people in the march and their expression of loyalty to the Islamic Republic will cause the enemy to stop coveting Iran,” Khamenei said.