PM says peer did not give 'full account' over links to sex offender

Sir Keir Starmer has come under scrutiny after awarding a peerage to his former director of communications, Lord Matthew Doyle, amid controversy surrounding Doyle’s past connections with a convicted sex offender. During Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Starmer defended the appointment but acknowledged that Lord Doyle had “not given a full account” regarding his relationship with Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor who pleaded guilty to indecent child image offenses in 2017. Starmer also confirmed that Doyle had been removed from the Labour parliamentary party whip.

The matter was raised by Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who questioned what Starmer knew about Doyle’s background at the time of his appointment. Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of filling the government with “hypocrites and paedophile apologists.” Lord Doyle apologized for his prior support of Morton and admitted that continuing to back Morton before the judicial process concluded was a serious misjudgment. It emerged that Number 10 officials were not aware Doyle had campaigned for Morton when he was nominated in early December, but the Prime Minister saw the report published by The Sunday Times on 27 December detailing Doyle’s actions.

Lord Doyle, a seasoned Labour communications expert who served as the party’s head of press between 1998 and 2005 and later worked for prominent figures including Lord Blunkett and Sir Tony Blair, formally took his seat in the House of Lords in mid-January. The controversy intensified as Starmer faced further criticism for also appointing Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the United States, despite being aware of Mandelson’s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer apologized to Epstein’s victims for having believed Mandelson’s “lies” regarding the extent of that relationship.

The debate around these appointments extended beyond the Commons, with the government defending the vetting procedures in place. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander explained that once a peerage nomination is submitted to the House of Lords, there is no established process for retracting it before the new peer is introduced. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said this was part of why reforms to the vetting and appointment system were being considered. Opposition voices, including Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, called Starmer’s decisions a “catastrophic lack of judgement” and demanded full disclosure of vetting documents. The SNP has formally requested the release of all documents and correspondence connected to Doyle’s appointment, while the Conservatives have suggested parliamentary motions could compel such transparency if Labour does not cooperate

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