UK prime minister Keir Starmer is facing further pressure over the appointment of an ally to a key position despite having links to a sex offender, just days after he survived an attempted ousting over his former US ambassador Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Matthew Doyle, who was made a member of the House of Lords by Starmer in January, relinquished the Labour whip on Tuesday over concerns that he campaigned politically in 2017 for a man who at the time was charged with having child abuse images.
The man, Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor, was running in local elections in Scotland at the time. He later pleaded guilty to the offences in court, after Doyle had campaigned for him.
Doyle, a former head of Labour’s Irish society whose family roots are in Sligo, was Starmer’s Downing Street director of communications before quitting in March last year.
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The row had already surfaced before he was formally ennobled as a peer in January, and the Scottish National Party argued at the time that his peerage should be blocked.
Doyle, who was also a member of Tony Blair’s Downing Street team, on Tuesday apologised for his past association with Morton, and expressed his concern for the former councillor’s victims.
“His offences were vile and I completely condemn the actions for which he was rightly convicted,” said Doyle.
“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.
“Those of us who took [Mortin] at his word were clearly mistaken ... I am sorry about the mistakes I have made. I will not be taking the Labour whip.”
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, accused the prime minister of “handing a peerage to Matthew Doyle despite knowing about his ongoing friendship with a man charged with child sex offences”.
“He must come clean about what he was told before making this appointment. We won’t let this go,” said Badenoch.
The decision that Doyle would no longer take the Labour whip in the Lords came a day after Starmer’s premiership barely survived an attempt to oust him over Mandelson’s association with the US child sex offender, Epstein.
Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, quit on Sunday for advising the prime minister to appoint Mandelson to Washington 14 months ago, despite his known links to Epstein at the time.
The full closeness of Mandelson’s association with the sex offender – he had previously claimed they barely knew each other – was revealed in Epstein files released by the US government. The first tranche, last September, prompted Starmer to sack Mandelson from his ambassador role in Washington.
The second tranche released in recent weeks sparked a full-blown political crisis for Starmer, who was already under pressure over Labour’s slump in opinion polls.
The crisis culminated on Monday in Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, calling for Starmer to resign for his Downing Street “failures”.
Starmer’s depleted Downing Street team – his director of communications also quit on Monday – then launched a desperate rearguard action to shore up his support with his cabinet and among Labour MPs.
The situation had calmed somewhat by Tuesday after those seen as his main leadership rivals – health secretary Wes Streeting, former deputy leader Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham – gave him public support.
However, Starmer is expected to face renewed pressure if Labour loses the upcoming Gorton and Denton byelection in Greater Manchester and also, as expected, does badly in elections in Wales and Scotland.
Starmer blamed the government appointments vetting system for not flagging issues with Mandelson. On Tuesday, it was also reported in Britain that Chris Wormald, Britain’s top civil servant, could be forced out by Downing Street within days.
