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Sir Keir Starmer has stripped the Labour whip from his former communications chief, Lord Matthew Doyle, over his past association with a paedophile councillor.
Starmer’s move comes after he survived an attempt to oust him in the wake of new revelations about the ties between Lord Peter Mandelson, appointed by the prime minister as UK ambassador to Washington, and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
People briefed on the matter said Starmer wanted to “look again” at the conduct of Doyle, who resigned as Downing Street director of communications last March after nine months in the job.
They said the prime minister was “not aware” that Doyle had campaigned for Sean Morton, who admitted having indecent images of children in November 2017.
Starmer made Doyle a peer and the former communications chief took his seat in the House of Lords last month. But the links between Doyle and Morton have attracted growing criticism from political opponents.
Doyle said in a statement: “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.”
He campaigned for Scottish Labour councillor Morton ahead of local elections in 2017 despite Morton having been charged over indecent images of children.
Doyle said he had believed Morton’s claim to have been innocent, but Morton later admitted having the images and was added to the sex offenders register.
An early day motion was tabled by nine opposition MPs last month that noted “with concern that the government knew of Doyle’s association with Morton before offering him a peerage”.
The motion held that Doyle’s elevation to the Lords was “wholly indefensible” and called for the revocation of his peerage.
Last December Scottish Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy was forced to resign from her role as the party’s education spokesperson at Holyrood after admitting a “serious lapse in judgment” in maintaining contact with Morton following his conviction.
Doyle said: “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 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.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said on X that Starmer gave Doyle a peerage “despite knowing about his ongoing friendship with a man charged with child sex crimes”.
She said the prime minister “must come clean about what he was told before making this appointment”, adding: “We won’t let this go.”