Sir Keir Starmer went ahead with a peerage nomination for a former aide even after being informed the man had given “support” to a councillor later convicted of child sex offences, believing him to be innocent.
Lord Doyle, Downing Street’s former head of communications, admitted to Number 10 that he had stood by Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Moray after he faced charges of possessing and distributing indecent images of children.
The story deepens the cloud hanging over Starmer’s leadership, coming hard on the heels of the row over Lord Mandelson’s ties to convicted paedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein during his time as British ambassador to Washington.
Six weeks of inaction
For more than six weeks after discovering that Doyle had actively backed Morton’s bid to stand as an independent councillor while facing sex offence charges, Starmer refused to reverse his decision to elevate him to the Lords.
It took pressure from female Labour MPs and ministers, to finally push Starmer into withdrawing the whip from Doyle this week.
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of appointing “paedophile apologists” to key roles.
Starmer 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.”
How concerns were raised
The issue first came to light on December 4 when concerns were passed to Morgan McSweeney, who was serving at the time as Starmer’s chief of staff. McSweeney decided he was too close to the situation to tackle Doyle directly and instead asked Tim Allan, then Starmer’s director of communications, to handle it, reports The Times.
Over a series of conversations, Allan pressed Doyle on the nature of his involvement with Morton. He said Doyle “believed Morton’s protestations of innocence prior to his conviction and had been supportive of him during that time.”
What Doyle chose not to reveal was that he had thrown himself into Morton’s corner even after the charges landed and Labour had shown Morton the door. Allan’s report went back to Starmer, who pressed ahead with the peerage announcement on December 10.
Window of opportunity missed
It was not until December 27 that The Sunday Times revealed Doyle had thrown his weight behind Morton’s 2017 council campaign while the charges were live. Despite this, Doyle’s letters patent – the formal document conferring a peerage – was not sealed until January 8, meaning Starmer had nearly two weeks to act before the appointment was locked in.
Downing Street insisted there was “no established precedent” for withdrawing a peerage once it had been publicly announced. However, House of Lords clerks told the Conservative Party: “We are not aware of any barriers to HMG [His Majesty’s government] stopping or delaying an appointment to the House before letters patent are sealed.”
Doyle accused of misleading PM
Starmer’s position is that Doyle deliberately withheld the fact that he had worked to get Morton elected.
Allan said: “The PM is right to state that Doyle did not tell me about his campaigning in a council election for Morton.
“Doyle did however tell me that he had believed Morton’s protestations of innocence prior to his conviction and had been supportive of him during that time.”
Questions also swirled around the suitability of Allan to carry out the inquiry given his long history with Doyle. The pair go back almost three decades to their time working together in communications during the Blair years, though sources say the relationship was never a particularly close one.
Lord Doyle and No 10 have both been contacted for comment by email.
