Sir Keir Starmer was again drawn into political controversy on Wednesday over his decision to appoint a “pedophile apologist” to the House of Lords, with claims he waited weeks before acting on the issue.
Starmer appeared upset in the House of Commons as opponents slammed his decision to give peerage status to his former media chief Lord Matthew Doyle, despite evidence of his links with a pedophile councillor.
Starmer claimed that Doyle “did not give a full account of his actions” at the time of the appointment and said he had taken action this week to suspend his colleague from the Labor whip.
But the case, which has been in the news for weeks, has been seized upon by Starmer’s critics in the wake of the scandal surrounding her relationship with Lord Peter Mandelson and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer had claimed that Mandelson “lied” about her relationship with Epstein before becoming Britain’s ambassador to the US, leading to claims that Starmer was either naïve or culpable in the way he handled public appointments.
The Prime Minister apologized again to Labor female MPs for her handling of the Mandelson case, some of whom were particularly critical of Starmer for her response to the Epstein files and for relying too heavily on male advisers.
Baroness Harriet Harman, the former acting Labor leader, called for a cabinet-level minister to be appointed to tackle long-standing misogyny under various administrations and to “change the political culture in government around women and girls”.
The Prime Minister survived a leadership coup this week and saw Labor MPs rally behind him, but the allegations regarding Doyle’s appointment were greeted by an uncomfortable silence on the backbenches.
During heated Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of always putting “the Downing Street boys’ club first” and “filling the government with hypocrites and pedophile apologists”.
Stephen Flynn, Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party, said Starmer must be “the most naive former director of public prosecutions in history”.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Appointing one pedophile supporter cannot be excused as bad luck. Appointing two shows an appalling lack of judgement.”
Starmer, who had hoped to make his final Commons appearance before the half-term break at a high level, bristled at Davy’s remarks, and criticized him for being part of a coalition government that imposed “austerity” on Britain.
On Tuesday, Starmer stripped his former communications chief of the Labor whip over his decision to campaign for a councilor who was accused of possessing indecent images of children and later admitted.
Doyle campaigned for Scottish Labor councilor Sean Morton ahead of the local elections in 2017, despite Morton being accused of displaying indecent images of children.
Doyle said he believed Morton’s claim of innocence, but Morton admitted later that year that he had the photographs and was added to the sex offenders’ register.
Doyle was offered a peerage by Starmer in early December last year and on 27 December the Sunday Times newspaper reported details of Doyle’s relationship with Morton. Number 10 said it had “thoroughly investigated” the matter and was confident there were no problems.
By 8 January “letters patent” were signed confirming Doyle’s peerage and on 12 January they were presented to the Chamber.
Asked why Starmer did not conduct further inquiries before Doyle was formally confirmed as a peer, Number 10 claimed there was “no precedent” for blocking a peer once the nomination had been made. However, Starmer’s spokesman did not claim that such a move was impossible.
Instead the spokesman insisted that the decision to remove Doyle from the whip this week was part of the Prime Minister’s promise to Labor MPs to make a fresh start.
“He made it clear that he wanted to make changes and asked for this to be reconsidered,” the spokesperson said. However, he refused to say why it took the Prime Minister so much time.
The case marks a damaging few days for Starmer, helping him avoid a potential leadership coup after Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar called on the prime minister to step down.
Starmer survived the week with his position strong – cabinet members and MPs indicated their strong support – but the Doyle affair would further demoralize the party.
Doyle, a former aide to Tony Blair, is the latest member of the “New Labour” coterie in Starmer’s circle to be sidelined by the prime minister, raising hopes of a political shift to the left among some Labor MPs.
Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who played a key role in advising the prime minister to appoint Mandelson, resigned on Sunday.
Mandelson and Tim Allen, another Blair aide, left the post as Starmer’s latest communications director on Monday. Blair’s former deputy chief of staff, Baroness Liz Lloyd, left Starmer’s Number 10 last year after only a short time in the job.
“I keep hearing that we’re going to shift to the left – let’s see,” one cabinet minister said. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is adamant that fiscal discipline must underpin all government policy.
Asked whether he was worried that his legacy would be the wrong decision for him in appointing Mandelson and Doyle, Starmer said: “My legacy is to turn my party around and win the general election.”
He made no mention of anything his government has done to improve the country since taking power, and the prospect of a half-term break from Westminster couldn’t come soon enough for Starmer.
