Keir Starmer’s former communications chief Matthew Doyle “did not give a full account of his actions” before being nominated for a peerage, the prime minister has told the Commons after it emerged Doyle had campaigned for a friend charged with possessing indecent images of children.
Doyle, a longstanding Starmer aide who stepped down as the No 10 head of communications last March, was suspended on Monday from the Labour whip in his new role in the Lords after reports about his actions.
In the first prime minister’s questions since Starmer faced a near-rebellion from his MPs over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, Kemi Badenoch largely ignored the internal Labour dissent.
Instead, the Conservative leader pressed the PM on the resignation over the weekend of Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, the expected departure of Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, and the peerage for Doyle.
After Doyle was named as one of a tranche of new Labour peers in December, media reports set out that in 2016 he campaigned in a local election on behalf of Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Scotland who had been charged with possessing indecent images. Morton was convicted two years later.
On Tuesday, Doyle apologised for doing this, saying Morton had insisted on his innocence before later changing his plea to guilty, and that he had believed him.
Downing Street has argued that the information came too late to rethink the peerage. But according to the House of Lords, a peerage only comes into existence when “letters patent” are sealed, a process that for Doyle happened in January. Badenoch said this showed “terrible judgment” by Starmer.
A government spokesperson said there was “no established precedent for withdrawing a peerage nomination after the announcement stage”.
In often noisy scenes in the Commons, Badenoch asked why Starmer had given Doyle what she called “a job for life in the House of Lords” despite the reporting about his support for Morton.
“Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions,” Starmer said. “On Monday I promised my party and my country there will be change, and yesterday I removed the whip from Matthew Doyle.”
Starmer also defended McSweeney, who resigned as his chief of staff on Sunday in the wake of the Mandelson controversy, saying he had “helped me change our party and helped me win a landslide election victory”.
In contrast, he told Badenoch she had “delivered for them the smallest Tory party in over 100 years” and had since helped “make it even smaller” as a series of Tory MPs defected to Reform.
Questioned by reporters about whether Doyle would be stripped of his peerage, Starmer’s press secretary said: “As you’re aware, the Labour party is investigating, so we can’t prejudice that.”
Speaking later on Wednesday, Lucy Powell, the Labour deputy leader, hinted that she would support new legislation being drawn up to strip Mandelson of his title to potentially also apply to Doyle.
“I think the new legislation will be legislation that will apply to any man or woman, to be honest,” she said when asked if this should be the case. “And we do need to look at the sort of standards regime in the House of Lords.”
No 10 declined to say if it would release its advice to the Lords appointment commission. Badenoch’s spokesperson said the possibility of the Tories using a parliamentary vote to compel the release of such documents was “not off the table”.
Earlier, the junior education minister Georgia Gould said Starmer had not known about Doyle’s actions before he was nominated. “No 10 did not know before they made the decision to give him the peerage,” she told Sky News.
Challenged about the fact that the Sunday Times reported on 27 December that Downing Street had investigated Doyle’s continued support for Morton after he was charged with indecent child image offences, Gould said the announcement was made on 10 December. “But I think the prime minister has looked at this afresh, given the commitment that he has made to ensure the highest standards in public life,” she said.
Meanwhile Pam Duncan-Glancy, the Scottish Labour MSP who had the whip withdrawn over her friendship with Morton, defended their relationship, saying she was giving support to a “highly vulnerable person”.
Duncan-Glancy, who stood down as Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson after initial revelations about the friendship, also hit out at her treatment, saying she was “deeply disappointed” at the party’s decision and “not yet clear” why they chose to act now.
Describing Morton as “someone who grew up with me, and who is to all intents and purposes, family”, Duncan-Glancy said: “I have never condoned his crimes and have always been clear that his actions were wrong.” Morton was, however, “someone requiring support”.
“My actions arise from loyalty and care, she said. “I was providing support to a highly vulnerable person. Loyalty and care are values that I think make me a good representative and for which I believe others know me for.”
