Good morning and welcome back to the working week. In today’s newsletter:

• Keir Starmer faces crunch week in battle to hold on to power

• How Trump’s immigration clampdown reached the UK

• EU revives campaign for common deposit insurance scheme

• Germany’s painful estrangement from the US

We begin in London, where UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing a crunch week as he seeks to hold on to office following the exit of his chief of staff.

What to know: Starmer is battling to save his premiership after the exit yesterday of his most trusted aide Morgan McSweeney, as Labour MPs and officials warn that his job is still in peril.

McSweeney’s resignation statement, in which the Downing Street chief of staff took responsibility for the decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, has triggered calls for Starmer to bear a similar level of blame.

‘Very exposed’: Starmer will attempt to regain the initiative today, with allies saying he has “instructed officials to move at pace to deliver change”. But his closest helper will no longer be at his side to implement it.

One person close to the prime minister said McSweeney’s departure left Starmer “very exposed”, adding: “Morgan is effectively saying that he advised Keir to make a bad decision, which he made.” Read the full story.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

Five more top stories

1. Exclusive: The US embassy in London is preventing top-level business executives from travelling to America over police cautions or petty offences on their records, according to lawyers and visa consultants. Read more on how Trump’s immigration clampdown has extended to the UK.

2. The European Commission will try to revive its campaign to create a common deposit insurance scheme for EU banks as part of efforts to encourage more cross-border mergers in the sector and boost competitiveness. Read the full story.

• Seeking alternatives: Europe “urgently” needs to reduce its reliance on US payments groups such as Visa and Mastercard, the head of a banking alliance has said.

3. Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by Hong Kong’s High Court, in the most high-profile national security case in China’s crackdown on the territory. The 78-year-old billionaire media entrepreneur was a supporter of the pro-democracy movement that rocked the city in 2019, and has long been a staunch critic of Beijing.

4. Exclusive: Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority is aiming to tackle a “drastic under-reporting” of market liquidity that has driven some companies to move their listings to the US by starting to publish all trading data for London-listed shares. Read the plan’s details.

5. Exclusive: Global securities regulators are set to probe the risks of private equity investments in audit firms. The move comes as buyout groups, attracted by cash flows and a market ripe for consolidation, snap up mid-tier accountants. Read the full report.

The Big Read

The Trump administration’s attacks on Germany’s democratic values, on Nato and the EU have shocked a country whose people have an emotional historical attachment to the transatlantic relationship.

Can Europe stand on its own two feet? Join FT journalists for a subscriber-only webinar on Thursday on the evolving transatlantic relationship. Register here and send us your questions.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Services cutback: Millions of women in England have access to only one round of IVF on the NHS as health authorities curtail the availability of fertility treatment despite official policy.

• Outgunned and overrun: Massacres in remote villages highlights Nigeria’s inability to stem militant violence amid US pressure to deal with Islamist extremists.

• Novo Nordisk woes: The Danish group faces mounting challenges amid pressure to cut prices in a crowded market for anti-obesity treatments.

• Bash by day, buy at night: Even as the perception of the US plummets, the world’s investors keep on pouring money into the country, writes Ruchir Sharma.

Chart of the day

For the past 15 years Europe’s banks have been left behind by their US rivals. But the worms may be turning. Patrick Jenkins looks at three of the continent’s most ambitious banks which are taking very different approaches to propel growth.

Take a break from the news . . . 

What we eat — and when — is aligned with how we sleep. Ajesh Patalay digests the latest literature on snooze-supporting ingredients in his HTSI food column.