The House of Lords has effectively trashed Keir Starmer‘s claim he could not block his former spin doctor from getting a peerage after learning of his ties to a paedophile councillor.
A statement from the Upper House confirmed that appointments are only final when ‘letters patent’ are signed by the King and sealed.
The intervention came after the premier wriggled over why the process of elevating Lord Matthew Doyle was not stopped after it emerged that he campaigned for a councillor charged over indecent images of children.
Downing Street insisted it was not possible to change tack once the honour had been announced on December 10, even though Sir Keir read media reports of the allegations on December 28.
The peerage was not formalised until January 8, nearly two weeks later.
A House of Lords spokesman said: ‘We cannot comment on specific confidential advice given by Parliamentary Officials.
‘However our understanding is that under the Life Peerages Act 1958 a Peerage is created when the letters patent are sealed.’
Kemi Badenoch hammered Sir Keir at PMQs over the latest furore, accusing him of ‘stuffing’ the government and Parliament with ‘hypocrites and paedophile apologists’ today..
She said the premier had failed to take responsibility for the appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador, and was instead ‘throwing everyone under the bus’.
Sir Keir told the Commons this afternoon that he had acted to strip Lord Doyle of the Labour whip.
‘Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions… yesterday I removed the whip from Matthew Doyle,’ he said.
On the Mandelson crisis, Sir Keir said: ‘I accepted responsibility and apologised for the mistakes that I made.’
A Parliamentary briefing on the creation of life peers indicates that the PM would have needed to make a second ‘formal’ submission of the nomination to the King. It is not clear when that happened.
There is at least one case of an individual backing out of a peerage between a nomination being announced and ‘letters patent’ being confirmed.
As the knife was twisted following an apocalyptic week for the PM:
- Ed Davey said that it was unforgivable to appoint one person linked to a paedophile, but ‘to appoint two shows a catastrophic lack of judgement’;
- SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Sir Keir must be ‘the most gullible former director of public prosecutions in history’;
- The Tories have floated repeating the Commons tactic that forced ministers to promise the release of a swathe of Mandelson documents last week;
- Mrs Badenoch said Sir Keir was now ‘sacking’ the Cabinet Secretary rather than taking responsibility for his own failure;
- The PM has suggested to MPs that he might appoint a female First Secretary of State, amid rumours of a deal with Angela Rayner;
- Sir Keir praised his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – who quit on Sunday – for helping ‘change our party’ and secure a ‘landslide majority’.
- Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell tells LBC Starmer ‘ends the week much stronger than he started it’
Keir Starmer was branded ‘delusional’ today as he batted away fury over his comms chief getting a peerage despite ties to a paedophile councillor
Kemi Badenoch hammered Sir Keir at PMQs for being mired in ‘yet another scandal’ after the Mandelson chaos nearly claimed his job
Sir Keir opened the PMQs session by trying to make light of the carnage engulfing his government.
‘This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues – now there’s been quite a few of those this week – in addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today,’ he joked.
But fresh doubts have been raised about the PM’s judgment after Lord Doyle was stripped of the Labour whip last night.
He has apologised for campaigning for Sean Morton in 2017 – after the latter had been charged over indecent images of children – saying he believed his friend’s assertions of innocence.
Labour party chair Anna Turley is calling for Lord Doyle to be kicked out of the Upper House, insisting he did not tell the truth before being elevated by Sir Keir.
No10 is adamant Lord Doyle’s actions were not known when the peerage was announced on December 10 last year.
However, there are mounting questions about the timeline, with the Sunday Times having claimed that Downing Street looked into the issues beforehand.
The paper ran a front-page story on December 28 laying out the allegations. But Lord Doyle’s peerage was still formalised – posted in the London Gazette – on January 8.
In echoes of the Mandelson scandal that brought Sir Keir to the brink of disaster, the PM has been blaming the vetting system for letting him down.
Mrs Badenoch said: ‘The Mandelson episode was not an isolated incident. A few weeks ago he announced a peerage for one Matthew Doyle, his former director of communications.
‘Immediately after that, the Sunday Times published on the front page that Doyle campaigned for a man charged with child sex offences, yet despite the Prime Minister knowing this, he gave Doyle a job for life in the House of Lords anyway. Why?’
Sir Keir replied: ‘Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions. I promised my party and my country there will be change, and yesterday I removed the whip from Matthew Doyle.
‘I’ll tell you what other actions we’ve taken Mr Speaker, along with the safeguarding minister, I and this Government have introduced the most far-reaching violence against women and girls strategy, and I’ll tell you what else we’ve done, this Government has introduced a pay rise for millions of working class women. What did the leader of the opposition do? She opposed it.
‘This Government is introducing greater protection for women at work. What did the leader of the opposition do? She opposed it, and I’ll tell you what else she opposes, this Government removing the disgusting rape clause that they put in place.’
Mrs Badenoch raged that Sir Keir ‘only cares about the victims when he’s trying to save his own skin’.
‘They can shake their heads. We saw it with grooming gangs, we saw it with Mandelson, and now we see it with Doyle. Isn’t that what a former prosecutor would call an established pattern of behaviour?’ she swiped.
The PM said he would be taking ‘no lectures from the Tories’ on standards in public life.
Mrs Badenoch said that Sir Keir was refusing to ‘step into the ring’ with his backbenchers, amid signs he has bowed to demands to lurch to the Left to keep his job.
‘He’s never lost a fight – he’s walked away from welfare reform, he won’t stand up to the unions, he won’t stand up to China, he can’t even stand up to Mauritius,’ she said.
‘He’s had three Cabinet secretaries, four chiefs of staff, five director of communications in just 18 months and now he is mired in yet another scandal.
‘Does he ever look in the mirror and ask himself is the real problem staring him in the face?’
The PM said he had ‘delivered a landslide victory’, adding: ‘Only four people have ever led the Labour Party to victory in a general election. I am one of them.’
After the clashes, the PM’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘There’s no established precedent for withdrawing a peerage nomination after the announcement stage.
‘That’s why we’re undertaking wider reform to both vetting and appointment processes.’
But Labour MP John McDonnell said the facts seemed to damn the PM.
‘I am at a loss how this can be explained to my constituents other than assessing it as another disastrous failure of judgement,’ he posted on X.
Asked on an LBC phone-in this evening if she would have given Lord Doyle a peerage, Lucy Powell said ‘clearly not’.
She added: ‘My understanding is that it wasn’t known he had kept up this association … but of course anything like this where people are given patronage, peerages, that are then found to have behaved completely unacceptably and inappropriately, it stains the whole system and stains everybody else as well.’
Challenged on the situation during a tour of broadcast studios this morning, education minister Georgia Gould said: ‘I think the decision, the announcement was made on December 10. I think the story was later in the month.
‘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.’
Ms Turley told Sky News last night that ‘what we’d been told was not the truth when that decision was made’ in reference to Lord Doyle’s appointment as a peer.
Asked if he should remain a Lord, she said: ‘No, I don’t think he should. That’s my personal view.
‘And … we’re going to be making it easier for people who have particularly undertaken criminal offences to be removed from the Lords.
‘We don’t have that power at the moment. He’s not committed a criminal offence, but you know … I just think people who have got this kind of record or have not been clear and transparent, there’s no place for them in the Lords.’
In an earlier statement, Lord Doyle apologised ‘unreservedly’ for supporting Moray councillor Morton before the case against him had concluded.
He said he also had ‘extremely limited’ contact with Morton after his conviction.
He said: ‘I want to apologise for my past association with Sean Morton.
‘His offences were vile and I completely condemn the actions for which he was rightly convicted. My thoughts are with the victims and all those impacted by these crimes.
‘At the point of my campaigning support, Morton repeatedly asserted to all those who knew him his innocence, including initially in court. He later changed his plea in court to guilty.
‘To have not ceased support ahead of a judicial conclusion was a clear error of judgment for which I apologise unreservedly.’
The Scottish National Party had objected to Lord Doyle’s peerage and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called on Sir Keir to publish ‘vetting advice and due diligence’ reports provided before his appointment to the Lords.
Labour had suspended Morton after he appeared in court in connection with indecent child images in late 2016.
Lord Doyle campaigned for Morton when he ran as an Independent in May 2017.
Morton admitted having indecent images of children in November 2017.
Lord Doyle said: ‘Those of us who took him at his word were clearly mistaken. I have never sought to dismiss or diminish the seriousness of the offences for which he was rightly convicted.
‘They are clearly abhorrent and I have never questioned his conviction.
‘Following his conviction any contact was extremely limited and I have not seen or spoken to him in years.
‘Twice I was at events organised by other people, which he attended, and once I saw him to check on his welfare after concerns were raised through others.
‘I acted to try to ensure the welfare of a troubled individual whilst fully condemning the crimes for which he has been convicted and being clear that my thoughts are with the victims of his crimes. I am sorry about the mistakes I have made. I will not be taking the Labour whip.
Fresh doubts have been raised about the PM’s judgment after Labour removed the whip from Lord Matthew Doyle (pictured) last night over his links to Sean Morton
‘For the avoidance of any doubt, let me conclude where I started. Morton’s crimes were vile and my only concerns are for his victims.’
Labour said the whip had been withdrawn from Lord Doyle while an investigation is carried out.
A Labour spokesman said: ‘All complaints are assessed thoroughly in line with our rules and procedures.’
Tory leader Mrs Badenoch said: ‘Keir Starmer handed a peerage to Matthew Doyle despite knowing about his ongoing friendship with a man charged with child sex crimes.
‘The Prime Minister has now suspended the whip, but he must come clean about what he was told before making this appointment. We won’t let this go.’