Kemi was in good form at the crease this afternoon at PMQs, stinging Starmer with the bombshell line: he is “stuffing Government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists”. A point that rings true given Labour’s long history with ‘paedo adjacent’ figures…
It’s a far cry from the general meltdown by establishment insiders when Boris Johnson suggested that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was DPP – a point not first made by him but by many others in the past. Could the general focus on Labour’s “peado problem” return to this question?
Johnson said in 2022: “I’m not talking about the leader of the opposition’s personal record when he was DPP. I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole.” Going back up the agenda…
Downing Street is tying itself in knots over Matthew Doyle’s peerage. At the post-PMQs huddle of journalists, Labour’s spokesman insisted there is “no established precedent for withdrawing a peerage after the nomination stage”, claiming that’s why the government ploughed on despite revelations about Doyle’s links to a convicted sex offender. The line from Starmer is that he was lied to…again…
Despite that, Sky News’ Sam Coates now reports that Lords clerks have told the Tories they “are not aware of any barriers to His Majesty’s Government stopping or delaying an appointment to the House before letters patent are sealed”. In other words: Starmer could have stopped Doyle’s peerage…
UPDATE: A House of Lords spokesman says:
“Under the Life Peerages Act 1958 a peerage is created when the letters patent are sealed.”
There were 12 days between The Times’ article and the confirmation of Doyle’s peerage – during which Starmer did nothing…
Ayesha Hazarika on Times Radio. Presented without comment…
Keir Starmer at PMQs has defended his decision to give his ex-comms chief Matthew Doyle a peerage despite his links with a convicted sex offender. The excuse might sound familiar…
He said: “Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions.” The ghost of Peter Mandelson just chuckled…
Starmer refused to apologise, added he would “no lessons from the Tories,” and attacked Partygate. Tired…
Badenoch retorted that the PM only cares about violence against women and girls “when he is trying to save his own job” and added: “How dare he criticise us? We’re not the ones stuffing government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists.” Ouch…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”