Politics
Japan’s ‘Iron Lady’ Takaichi forges stunning election win
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s coalition swept to a historic election win on Sunday, paving the way for promised tax cuts that have spooked financial markets.
The conservative Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader who says she is inspired by Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, was projected to deliver as many as 328 of the 465 seats in parliament’s lower house for her Liberal Democratic Party.
The LDP alone sailed past the 233 seats needed for a majority less than two hours after polls closed, on track for one of its best ever election results.
With her coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, Takaichi now has a supermajority of two-thirds of seats, easing her legislative agenda as she can override the upper chamber, which she does not control.
Winter election brings blizzard of votes
“This election involved major policy shifts — particularly a major shift in economic and fiscal policy, as well as strengthening security policy,” Takaichi said in a television interview as the results rolled in.
“These are policies that have drawn a great deal of opposition […] If we have received the public’s support, then we truly must tackle these issues with all our strength.”
Takaichi, 64, called the rare winter snap election to capitalise on her buoyant personal approval ratings since she was elevated to lead the long-ruling LDP late last year.
Residents trudged through snow to cast their ballots with record snowfall in some parts snarling traffic and requiring some polling stations to close early. It was only the third postwar election held in February, with elections typically called during milder months.
Outside a polling station in the town of Uonuma in the mountainous Niigata prefecture, teacher Kazushige Cho, 54, braved below-freezing temperatures and deep snow to cast his vote for Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party.
“It feels like she’s creating a sense of direction — like the whole country is pulling together and moving forward,” Cho said.
But Takaichi’s election promise to suspend an 8% sales tax on food to help households cope with rising prices has rattled investors concerned about how the nation with the heaviest debt burden among advanced economies will fund the plan.
Takaichi said on Sunday she would speed up consideration of the sales tax cut while focusing on fiscal sustainability.
“Her plans for the cut in the consumption tax leave open big question marks about funding and how she’s going to go about making the arithmetic add up,” said Chris Scicluna, head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe in London.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Takaichi, saying he hoped her victory would “bring a more prosperous and secure future for Japan and its partners in the region”.
Takaichi’s strong mandate could accelerate her plans to bolster Japan’s defences, further angering Beijing, which has cast her as attempting to revive its militaristic past.
Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told TV stations on Sunday evening that he wanted to push ahead with policies to strengthen Japan’s defence.
- Mandelson damaged party and trust in politics: McSweeney.
- Says “decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong”.
- His resignation comes as ministry reviews Mandelson exit payment.
LONDON: Embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff resigned on Sunday over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington despite links to US convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the government. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street’s chief of staff, said in a statement.
“I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice,” he added.
The 48-year-old Irishman always maintained a low profile but was dubbed by some as the “most powerful man in politics” having played a key role in Starmer’s emphatic election victory in July 2024.
He is credited with helping to move the Labour Party towards a more centrist policy agenda following leftist ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn’s ill-fated tenure.
He was also said to have been close to Mandelson who previously helped ex-prime minister Tony Blair transform the party and its fortunes in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The resignation came as the foreign ministry said it was reviewing an exit payment to Mandelson, who was sacked by Starmer last September over his friendship with Epstein.
Mandelson, a pivotal figure in British politics and the Labour Party for decades, received an estimated pay-out of between $52,000 to $74,000 after only seven months in the job, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
Documents released on January 30 by the US Justice Department appear to show that Mandelson allegedly leaked confidential UK government information to financier Epstein when he was a British minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis.
The revelation has placed intense pressure on Starmer and triggered a police investigation into Mandelson, 72, for alleged misconduct in a public office.
The Foreign Office said in a statement it had launched a review into Mandelson’s severance payment “in light of further information that has now been revealed and the ongoing police investigation”.
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden earlier insisted Starmer should remain in office despite his “terrible mistake” in appointing Mandelson.
He said the real blame lay “squarely” with Mandelson for putting himself forward for the job despite knowing the extent of his relationship with Epstein.
‘Regrets’
Starmer’s deputy, David Lammy, became the first cabinet minister to appear to distance himself from the premier, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph.
The deputy prime minister had not been in favour of appointing Mandelson due to his known links to Epstein, the report quoted friends of Lammy as saying.
Starmer’s Labour Party took power just over 18 months ago in a landslide election victory.
But it has been trailing Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK as the government has come under fire over immigration, economic growth and the cost of living crisis.
Reform UK has led by double-digit figures in the polls for the past year.
Mandelson, also a former European Union trade commissioner, stood down from parliament’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, earlier this week.
The ex-envoy was one of numerous prominent figures further embarrassed by last week’s latest revelations of ties to financier Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while facing charges of alleged sex trafficking.
US officials ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.
A spokesperson for law firm Mishcon de Reya, representing Mandelson, said he “regrets, and will regret until to his dying day, that he believed Epstein’s lies about his criminality”.
“Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019. He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved,” the law firm said.
Starmer paid tribute to McSweeney in a statement. It was “largely thanks to his dedication, loyalty and leadership that we won a landslide majority”, he said.
“Our party and I owe him a debt of gratitude,” he added.
- It was the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s history.
- Shooting prompted govt to quickly tighten gun laws.
- Brenton Tarrant was convicted of 51 charges of murder.
A white supremacist who killed 51 Muslim worshippers and injured dozens at two mosques in New Zealand will begin an appeal hearing against his sentence on Monday.
Brenton Tarrant, 35, opened fire on two mosques in Christchurch in March 2019, in the worst mass shooting in the country’s history.
He was convicted of 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one charge of committing a terrorist act and is serving a life sentence in prison without parole.
It was the first time a New Zealand court had sentenced a person to prison for the rest of their life.
Tarrant, an Australian national, released a racist manifesto shortly before storming the mosques armed with military-style semi-automatics, indiscriminately shooting at Muslims gathered for Friday prayers and livestreaming the killings on Facebook using a head-mounted camera.
New Zealand’s worst peacetime killing shocked the country and prompted the government to quickly tighten gun laws.
- “Zero enrichment” is unacceptable, says Iran’s FM
- Recognising Iran’s right to enrich is key: Araqchi
- Iran open to talks on enrichment “level and purity”: diplomat
DUBAI: Recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium is key for nuclear talks with the US to succeed, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday.
American and Iranian diplomats held indirect talks in Oman on Friday, aimed at reviving diplomacy amid a US naval buildup near Iran and Tehran’s vows of a harsh response if attacked.
“Zero enrichment can never be accepted by us. Hence, we need to focus on discussions that accept enrichment inside Iran while building trust that enrichment is and will stay for peaceful purposes,” Araqchi said.
Iran and the US held five rounds of nuclear talks last year, which stalled mainly due to disagreements over uranium enrichment inside Iran. In June, the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities at the end of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign.
Tehran has since said it has halted enrichment activity, which the US views as a possible pathway to nuclear bombs. Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
A diplomat in the region briefed by Iran told Reuters on Friday that Tehran was open to discussing the “level and purity” of enrichment as well as other arrangements, as long as it was allowed to enrich uranium on its soil and would be granted sanctions relief in addition to military de-escalation.
“Iran’s insistence on enrichment is not merely technical or economic (…) it is rooted in a desire for independence and dignity,” Araqchi said. “No one has the right to tell the Iranian nation what it should or should not have.”
The minister also said that Iran’s missile programme, which the US would like to include in negotiations, had never been part of the agenda.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on Sunday that talks with the US were a “step forward” and that Tehran wanted its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to be respected.
The date and venue of the next round of talks will be determined in consultation with Oman and might not be Muscat, Araqchi said.
UK PM’s top aide quits in scandal over Mandelson links to Epstein
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Japan’s ‘Iron Lady’ Takaichi forges stunning election win
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