Fresh figures have allayed fears of a tightening in Australia’s labour market, which should rule out the Reserve Bank returning to a major rate-hiking cycle.

Australia’s economy added an estimated 21,000 jobs in January, while wages grew by 0.8 per cent over the quarter, according to Commonwealth Bank data drawn on de-identified salary payments from about 400,000 CBA accounts.

The CBA data provides an early indicator of official Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

While it shows the jobs market remains in a good position, the sharp fall in unemployment in official figures for December was more noise than signal, CBA economist Harry Ottley said.

ABS figures showed the jobless rate fell to 4.1 per cent in December, well below the RBA’s estimate of the natural, non-inflationary rate of unemployment.

If that was indicative of a sustained tightening trend in the labour market, the central bank could see it as evidence inflationary pressures were getting worse.

“But we’re not seeing in our data yet any evidence of a material re-tightening that was hinted at in the (ABS) labour force survey,” Mr Ottley told AAP.

“It gives us confidence that we’re still in a bit of a fine-tuning phase in terms of monetary policy, rather than a big risk of a massive (tightening) cycle.”

CBA economists expect the central bank to lift the cash rate once more in May to 4.1 per cent.

But from then, they see the bank sitting on hold, with other indicators also showing the economy finely balanced.

Consumer confidence fell further on Tuesday, with the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index declining 2.6 per cent to 90.5, following the RBA’s rate hike a week prior.

Confidence levels have plummeted since November, when the index was in positive territory at 103.8, and markets were still relatively bullish about the chance of more rate cuts.

While the continuing strength of the jobs market and wages growth will support consumption, weakening sentiment, the high Australian dollar and the impact of higher interest rates should slow the economy and bring it back towards balance, Mr Ottley said.

A NAB survey released on Tuesday showed business conditions also softened, driven by declines in trading conditions and profitability, while capacity utilisation eased 0.6 percentage points.

AMP economist My Bui said the combination of data pointed to the economy in a roughly balanced position, with business and consumer sentiment softer than usual and capacity utilisation slightly tighter than historical averages.

“With the consumer sector still very price conscious, evident in their concentration of purchases in promotional periods, we think that the softer sentiment readings point to some slowing in discretionary spending ahead as well as a moderation in underlying inflation pressures,” Ms Bui said.

The world’s biggest social media companies are facing several landmark trials seeking to hold them responsible for harms to children who use their platforms.

Opening statements in one such trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court began on Monday.

Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube face claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums. 

Jurors got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterised by duelling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining social media companies named as defendants. 

Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt spoke of the disagreement within the scientific community over social media addiction, with some believing it doesn’t exist or that addiction is not the most appropriate way to describe heavy social media use.

Mark Lanier delivered the opening statement for the plaintiffs first, in a lively display where he said the case is as “easy as ABC”, which he said stands for “addicting the brains of children”.

He called Meta and Google “two of the richest corporations in history” that have “engineered addiction in children’s brains”.

He presented jurors with a slew of internal emails, documents and studies conducted by Meta and YouTube, as well as YouTube’s parent company, Google.

He emphasised the findings of a study Meta conducted called ‘Project Myst’,in which they surveyed 1000 teens and their parents about their social media use.

The two major findings, Lanier said, were that the company knew children who experienced “adverse events” like trauma and stress were particularly vulnerable for addiction; and that parental supervision and controls made little impact.

He also showed internal Google documents that likened YouTube to a casino, and internal communication between Meta employees in which one person said Instagram is “like a drug” and that employees are “basically pushers”.

At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM”, whose case could determine how thousands of other, similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out. 

She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials – essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury.

Lanier spent time speaking about her childhood and particularly focused on what her personality was like before she began using social media, saying her mother called her a “creative spark” as a child. 

She started using YouTube at six and Instagram at nine and before she graduated elementary school, she had posted 284 videos on YouTube.

The outcome of the trial could have profound effects on the companies’ businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms. 

Lanier said the companies’ lawyers will “try to blame the little girl and her parents for the trap they built”, he said.

She was a minor when she said she became addicted to social media platforms, which she claims had a detrimental impact on her mental health.

Lanier said that despite the public position of Meta and YouTube being that they work to protect children and implement safeguards for their use of the platforms, their internal documents show an entirely different position, with explicit references to young children being listed as their target audiences.

Lanier also drew comparisons between the social media companies and tobacco firms, citing internal communication between Meta employees who were concerned about the company’s lack of proactive action about the potential harm their platforms can have on children and teens.

“For a teenager, social validation is survival,” Lanier said. 

The defendants “engineered a feature that caters to a minor’s craving for social validation,” he added, speaking about “like” buttons and similar features.

In his opening statement representing Meta, Schmidt said the core question in the case is whether the platforms were a substantial factor in KGM’s mental health struggles. 

He spent much of his time going through the plaintiff’s health records, emphasising that she had experienced many difficult circumstances in her childhood, including emotional abuse, body image issues and bullying.

Schmidt presented a clip from a video deposition from one of KGM’s mental health providers,  Thomas Suberman, who said social media was “not the throughline of what I recall being her main issues”, adding that her struggles seemed to largely stem from interpersonal conflicts and relationships.

Schmidt emphasised to the jurors that the case is not about whether social media is a good thing, the content seen on social media, whether teens spend too much time on their phones or whether the jurors like or dislike Meta, but whether social media was a substantial factor in KGM’s mental health struggles.

Judge Carolyn B Kuhl emphasised jurors should not make any changes to the way they interact with the platforms, including changing their settings or creating new accounts and should decide the liability of Meta and YouTube independently when they deliberate.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is refusing to heed calls to quit, even by the leader of his party ‍in Scotland, pledging to fight on after his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador plunged his government into crisis.

Under pressure over the appointment of a man whose close ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have ​come into full focus, Starmer has attempted to change the narrative.

Starmer has told Labour MPs he had “won every fight I’ve ever been in” as he vowed not to “walk away” amid calls for him to resign.

The prime minister addressed a packed meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster on Monday in the wake of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s call for him to step down.

The new scandal over Mandelson, who was sacked as ambassador to the US in September, came after files released by the US Justice Department last month included emails suggesting Mandelson had leaked discussions on possible UK asset sales and tax changes to Epstein during the financial crash.

The resignation of communications chief Tim Allan followed the exit of Starmer’s closest aide Morgan McSweeney, who said he took responsibility for advising on the appointment of Mandelson to the United Kingdom’s top diplomatic role in the US.

But Starmer, flanked by his cabinet, struck a defiant note, telling MPs he was staying.

“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 to my country, or to plunge us into chaos as others have done,” he said.

Arguing he had changed the Crown Prosecution Service so it “better served victims of violence against women and girls” and changed the Labour Party so it could win an election.

“I have won every fight I’ve ever been in.”

Downing Street sources characterised the prime minister as “absolutely determined” as he appeared before MPs hours after Sarwar said he should quit.

But they added he acknowledged his operation had not been “open or inclusive enough”, and pledged to give more weight to the views of the Parliamentary Labour in a meeting described by MPs present as broadly positive towards Starmer.

But Sarwar, speaking in Scotland where polls suggest support for Labour has slumped since the 2024 election, said it was with a heavy heart that he had to defend Scotland and call for a change of leader in the UK capital London.

“The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” he told a press conference.

In response, a Downing Street spokesman said Starmer had “a clear five-year mandate from the British people to deliver change, and that is what he will do”.

With his statement, Sarwar became the most senior Labour figure to call for Starmer’s resignation, and did little to quell a febrile mood in parliament in London’s Westminster.

Government borrowing costs rose, reflecting investors’ concerns that a ​more progressive Labour leader, who was willing to borrow and spend more, could take over.

The climb in yields, along with ‌the value of the pound against the euro, later eased after the potential successors came out in Starmer’s support.

With Starmer losing his fourth director of communications, his record in government is under scrutiny, including the gaffes and policy U-turns that have tainted his almost two ​years in power.

“It’s painful,” said one Labour MP on condition of anonymity.

“It’s like watching a fatal car crash in slow motion.”

But Starmer received a show of support from his deputy, David Lammy, finance minister Rachel Reeves and ‍foreign minister Yvette Cooper, among others.

Angela Rayner, his former deputy who is seen as a leading leadership candidate, offered him her “full support”.

“I urge all my colleagues to come together, remember our values and put them into practice as a team. The Prime Minister has my full support in leading us to that end,” she said on X.

with Reuters

Japanese companies with gas export interests have met with Australian policymakers at least two dozen times in recent years, as an analysis asserts narratives pushed by both countries do not align with global climate goals.

Japanese firms, including INPEX, JERA and Mitsubishi Corporation, have almost $70 billion ($US50 billion) in equity invested in 13 Australian liquefied natural gas export projects, according to research from climate think tank InfluenceMap.

The report’s author Jack Herring was surprised by the scale of their financial stake.

“This serves to link Japanese corporate interests directly to Australia’s gas export economy,” InfluenceMap’s Australian program manager told AAP.

Australia is a major supplier of gas to Japan but in recent years, the importer’s practice of reselling it to other markets – namely Southeast Asia – has come under scrutiny, particularly against the backdrop of warnings Australia might not have enough of the fuel to meet domestic needs.

Roughly 600 to 800 petajoules of Australian gas was onsold to other Asian markets by Japanese companies in 2024, according to Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis estimates – comparable to eastern Australia’s annual domestic gas consumption. 

InfluenceMap says four tactics are being used to keep expanding the fossil fuel industry: investment, lobbying in Australia, government influence in Japan, and public and political “narrative capture”.

At least 24 meetings between Japanese companies and Australian ministers and officials since Labor came to power in 2022 have been identified via freedom of information requests.

Mr Herring said the two-dozen meetings were “the tip of the iceberg” and it was impossible to know the full extent without mandatory ministerial diary disclosures and other transparency reforms.

The report also contained briefs, revealed for the first time, prepared for Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King before an October 2024 visit to Japan that repeatedly emphasised Australia’s commitment to “encouraging targeted investment into new gas projects in Australia”.

Pro-LNG narratives were also tested against scientific guidance for meeting global climate goals set out in the Paris agreement.

Common descriptions of gas as a “transition fuel”, as well as its importance for energy affordability and security, were deemed inconsistent with science-based pathways to stay within the 1.5C warming limit.

Mr Herring said continued investment in the LNG industry could delay decarbonisation in both Australia and the broader region by locking in decades of gas production.

He pointed to a Deloitte report commissioned by the WA Labor government and leaked in 2025 that found gas could “crowd out investments in renewable technologies”.

A spokesperson for Ms King said regular meetings with industry stakeholders were part of the role.

“Japan has been a strong and valued investment partner for Australia’s offshore LNG industry,” the spokesperson said.

A JERA spokesperson said like many businesses in Australia, it regularly engaged with state and federal governments and regulators on the operation and management of the LNG projects it is involved in.

“Australian LNG contributes to Japan’s supplies of reliable and affordable gas while generating valuable jobs and revenue in Australia,” the spokesperson said.

INPEX senior vice president corporate Bill Townsend said the company took a “bi-partisan approach to government engagement” and highlighted the jobs created by the Ichthys LNG project it operates, and its tax contributions.

“We are actively working to support Indo-Pacific energy security, while helping the region to achieve net zero by 2050, as detailed in our INPEX Vision 2035 strategic roadmap,” he said.

The Israeli president is set to carry on with his Australia tour after thousands attended a protest against his visit, which descended into chaos.

Protesters were pepper sprayed, arrested, beaten and shoved by police as they gathered at Sydney Town Hall to speak out against Isaac Herzog, who arrived in the harbour city on Monday.

Organisers had hoped to march through the city but a court decision, that upheld the police’s ability to restrict protests, scuppered plans.

As the demonstration drew to an end, the group moved towards the exit, with some trying to leave and others calling on the hundreds of surrounding police to let them march.

Though there was an exit towards the south side of the block where some could trickle out, along most of the square’s mouth, police restricted movement and would not let people march, forcing the large group into a gridlock. 

Protesters’ chants soon grew louder and the police presence swelled.

Officers issued a move-on order but many within the immense, densely packed crowd were unclear on directions and the situation quickly devolved.

Police on foot and on horseback formed a front and rushed at the protesters as they attempted to disperse the group.

Others were seen beating and deploying pepper spray at attendees, and at one point a group of Muslim men leading a prayer were ripped from their knees and taken away by police.

Media, including photographers and those with press passes displayed, were forcibly pushed away from the scene by officers.

The streets were lined with medics kneeling over pepper-sprayed protesters, pouring water into their eyes as they sputtered and hacked up phlegm.

“Instead of respecting the right of 50,000 people who turned up to express their outrage against our government celebrating someone accused of inciting genocide, the police resorted to unleashing unseen violent repression,” Palestine Action Group Sydney wrote in a social media post.

Police said 27 people were arrested, including 10 for assaulting officers.

Prior to the chaos, the crowd stood peacefully and chanted in between speeches from people like former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, Jewish academic Antony Loewenstein, and Amnesty International Australia spokesman Mohamed Duar.

Protests across other major Australian cities also drew strong attendance as participants spoke out against Israel’s bombardment and starvation of Gaza – which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians – and decried photos of Mr Herzog signing an artillery shell that would be dropped on the occupied territory.

Mr Herzog was invited to Australia by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the Bondi mass shooting in mid-December.

He visited the scene of the terror attack on Monday and is set to attend more community events on Tuesday.

Asked by AAP if he had a message to protesters, he claimed the demonstrations “undermine and delegitimise” Israel’s existence.

He previously said Palestinians bore collective blame for Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, before later walking back the remarks.

A United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry in September found the statement might reasonably have been interpreted as inciting genocide.

The federal government has said Mr Herzog’s visit would provide comfort to the Jewish community.

Controversial gaming platform Roblox has been put on notice, with persistent reports predators are targeting kids with sexually explicit and suicidal material. 

Communications Minister Anika Wells has requested an urgent meeting with the popular platform two months after Australia’s world-leading social media ban kicked in. 

She is alarmed by claims young Roblox users are being exposed to graphic and gratuitous user-generated content. 

“Even more disturbing are reports and concerns about children being approached and groomed by predators, who actively seek to exploit their curiosity and innocence,” Ms Wells said in a statement.

Australia’s social media minimum age restrictions came into effect on December 10 and require digital platforms to verify users’ ages and lock accounts for those younger than 16. 

Ten digital platforms were asked to comply with the law, including Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and Threads, as well as Snapchat, Reddit and TikTok.

Roblox, which is not named under the law, revealed 60 per cent of its Australian daily active users had undertaken age checks.

The platform is not a single game, but is described as a vast ecosystem of user-created “experiences” hosted on it.

In the lead up to the ban, parents expressed concerns over harms on Roblox, including sexually explicit and suicidal content being shared in public chats.

Ms Wells said that content was persisting, despite Roblox engaging “extensively” with eSafety over the past two years.

“This is untenable and these issues are of deep concern to many Australian parents and carers,” she said. 

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Roblox must immediately take action to block predators having access to children after the “horrendous” reports.

Roblox informed eSafety it delivered on its commitments under the ban, including switching off features such as direct chats and voice functions for Australian kids.

Ms Inman Grant said the platform would be assessed for its compliance. 

“We remain highly concerned by ongoing reports regarding the exploitation of children on the Roblox service, and exposure to harmful material,” she said.

“They can and must do more to protect kids, and when we meet I’ll be asking how they propose to do that.”

Platforms that decline to comply with the social media ban face fines of up to $49.5 million. 

Ms Wells has asked the internet watchdog what powers can be ramped up to combat harms on Roblox as the government works towards legislating a digital duty of care.

The proposed legal obligation is separate from the social media ban and would apply to large online platforms to take proactive, reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harms to users.

The commissioner said codes focused on age-restricted material, including pornography and self-harm, would come into force on March 9 and apply to Roblox.

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The Liberals are expected to have a new leader in coming days, but a spill will do little to cure their dire polling woes, an expert warns. 

The party is rumbling towards a leadership challenge following weeks of speculation, with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley likely to be rolled as historically low opinion polls spur conservative rival Angus Taylor.

But a change in leader will do little to garner votes and cure the party’s deeper problems, according to Redbridge Group director and former Victorian Labor strategist Kos Samaras.

“The antidote to their problems is not the leader,” he told AAP. 

“It would be good policy, and that’s a long road ahead of them and isn’t an easy solution.”

The latest Newspoll by The Australian, conducted during the most recent break-up between the Liberals and Nationals, puts the coalition’s first-preference vote at just 18 per cent, eclipsed by One Nation on 27 per cent.

Mr Samaras doubted the coalition could develop robust policies before the 2028 election while also competing with One Nation. 

“They are not only declining in support in regional Australia to One Nation – they’ve historically been losing ground to the Labor Party and to independents,” he said.

“Outside of Queensland, they only hold five urban seats among a cluster of voters to the tune of 14.5 million. So they’ve got a lot of problems.”

Redbridge’s most recent poll produced a similar result to Newspoll in a pattern Mr Samaras said could not be ignored. 

“We have seen many, many times in the past of particular political movements or independents that do harbour support in polling and then it drops off (before elections),” he said.

“But these numbers have never been so significant, beyond what we would define as simply just a protest.”

A spill is tipped to happen as soon as Tuesday morning when the Liberals hold their regular party room meeting, but is more likely to occur later in the week due to Senate estimate hearings, sources have told AAP.

Backbenchers Jane Hume and Sarah Henderson are among those who on Monday publicly questioned Ms Ley’s leadership.

“I don’t know what the solution is, and I don’t know who the solution is, but what I do know is that more of the same simply isn’t good enough,” Senator Hume told reporters in Canberra.

“We have to do something different and we have to do it soon because we are running out of time.”

Ms Ley remained defiant on Monday, insisting she would remain as leader and was “up for the job”.

Mr Taylor failed to put rumours of a spill to bed on Friday, telling radio 2GB Sydney he had leadership ambitions.

Police will retain the power to bar people from the centre of Sydney during the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog after a court win.

Protest organisers Palestine Action Group were unsuccessful in their legal action against the NSW government on Monday after it declared Mr Herzog’s visit a major event.

The declaration grants police extra powers to bolster officer numbers, search anyone in the declared event area and prevent them from entering ahead of a rally at Sydney’s Town Hall planned for the evening.

Less than 45 minutes before the protest was due to begin, NSW Supreme Court Justice Robertson Wright announced the challenge to the declaration was dismissed.

“Submissions on both sides had … considerable force,” Justice Wright said.

“My conclusions have not been reached easily or lightly.”

Thousands of protesters will still show their opposition to Mr Herzog despite the ruling, Palestine Action Group spokesman Josh Lees said outside court.

“We’ve lost this case, but that does not affect what we’re doing tonight,” Mr Lees said.

Palestine Action Group is still seeking a compromise with NSW Police that would allow the activists to march from Town Hall to Parliament House, Mr Lees said.

Hundreds of protesters and about 200 police had descended on Town Hall more than half an hour before the planned protest.

Lawyers for the protesters told the court that the government’s declaration was too broad and did not meet legal requirements because no participants or geographic area were specified.

The scope of police powers was illustrated in a hypothetical constructed by barrister Peter Lange SC.

“A stereotypical barrister might happen to be searched without a warrant because he happens to be in the eastern suburbs,” he said.

“If he refuses to undergo a search … he may be excluded from the area in which he resides.”

However, the government’s barrister Brendan Lim SC argued the scenario was not useful for adjudicating whether protesters were the intended target of the declaration.

“(It is) a distorting hypothetical that is of no assistance … there is no attempt to focus on the consequences for the plaintiff,” Mr Lim said.

He argued the declaration was not made to suppress Monday evening’s protest but rather to relocate it to Hyde Park, where Palestine Action Group has conducted hundreds of rallies.

Evidence suggests that separating protesters from mourners and the Israeli president was the motivation, Justice Wright noted.

The NSW government passed laws following December’s Bondi Beach terror attack which restricted protections typically granted to authorised protests.

Those temporary powers – which can be extended for up to three months after a terror event – were fortified by the major event declaration announced on Saturday.

NSW Premier Chris Minns incorrectly claimed the major events powers had previously been used when Sydney hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2007.

The laws were not implemented until 2009, with separate specific legislation developed for the APEC event.

Mr Herzog’s role is largely ceremonial, but he has sparked outrage for being photographed signing an Israeli artillery shell.

A United Nations inquiry found his comments after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 – in which he described Palestinians as an “entire nation out there that is responsible” – to reasonably be interpreted as incitement for genocide.

Rallies against Mr Herzog’s visit are scheduled across Australia on Monday evening.

Anyone who fails to comply with NSW police directions will face penalties that include fines of up to $5500.

Australia’s most popular vehicle-selling platform has declared it sees big things for artificial intelligence after posting double-digit revenue and earnings growth.

CAR Group, which operates Carsales.com and other vehicle-selling marketplaces in nine countries including the US and China, made $626 million in revenue in the six months to December 31, up 13 per cent in constant currency terms.

Its adjusted net profit after tax rose 12 per cent to $177 million, leading CAR Group to raise its interim dividend by 10 per cent to 42.5 cents per share.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Wei-Weng Chen said it was a “largely uneventful” set of results, but in light of its large underperformance to the market, traders would likely consider it a win and move on.

CAR Group shares were up 10.7 per cent to $27.11 going into lunchtime on Monday, but the stock was still down 29.3 per cent over the past 12 months.

Chief executive William Elliot told analysts on a conference call CAR Group was using advanced technology, particularly AI, to lift its performance across the group.

“We’re driving efficiencies that enable us to invest in new growth opportunities whilst also sustaining high margins,” he said.

A new “conversational voice” search function recently rolled out to its iOS audience had made searching for a new vehicle intuitive and natural, Mr Elliot said, adding the technology would be coming to Android soon.

“This is just the beginning in terms of our use of voice-based conversational search, and we see it as a significant opportunity to improve the customer experience,” he said.

It is also using AI to provide dealers with insights into pricing trends, inventory velocity and buyer behaviour, he said.

In Korea, its using AI to cut inspection times in half, from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, he said. 

While Mr Elliot said it was hard to isolate his company’s spending on AI, it was a growing share of its $120 million annual investment in software development.

The company has opened an AI hub in Brazil, where there is a “strong pipeline of amazing talent”, to build AI agents and deploy them across the company’s global marketplaces.

Keir Starmer will face mutinous Labour MPs as he fights for his political survival after the resignation of his top aide over the Peter Mandelson/Epstein scandal.

The prime minister is expected to address a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday, amid anger over his appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US despite knowing that his links with Jeffrey Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

It comes a day after Morgan McSweeney quit as Starmer’s chief of staff, taking “full responsibility” for giving the prime minister advice that resulted in the “wrong” appointment.

But scrutiny of Starmer’s own judgment is mounting as critics, including some of his MPs, have highlighted that he made the final decision.

The pressure on his premiership looks unlikely to ease as the government prepares for the lengthy process of releasing tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment.

Starmer believes the files will prove Mandelson lied about the extent of his ties to the notorious pedophile during his vetting.

The Guardian, citing a well-placed source, said they would show the Cabinet Office had warned about the grave reputational risk of handing Mandelson the ambassadorship.

Starmer and McSweeney, blamed by many for pushing for his ally Mandelson to get the coveted ambassadorship, mutually came to the decision that it was the right moment to move on, it is understood.

The prime minister credited his longtime adviser’s “dedication, loyalty and leadership” for Labour’s 2024 general election win and said he owed him a “debt of gratitude” in a statement that did not mention the Mandelson fiasco.

Labour MPs on the left of the party, including Brian Leishman, Ian Byrne and Kim Johnson, suggested Starmer should consider following McSweeney out the door.

Two unnamed cabinet ministers were quoted by The Times as saying Starmer was “weaker” and “could stand down at any moment”, a claim No 10 said was “categorically untrue”.