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…
Investment in the UK’s fintech sector took a sharp knock last year, falling by 21% as investors increasingly opted for the US over Labour’s higher-tax, higher-regulation Britain, according to accounting firm KMPG. The lowest level since the start of the pandemic…
UK fintech drew in just under $11 billion across the year, down from $13.4 billion in 2024. There were 109 fewer deals closed in 2025 than the previous year. A big chunk of all fintech investment in 2025 came from Revolut’s fundraising – with the firm raising around $4 billion. Meanwhile Rachel Reeves has remained rather quiet recently…
Tory peer Mark Harper was in the Lords last night to blast No10’s decision to go ahead with Matthew Doyle’s peerage. Although he’s had the Labour whip withdrawn over his links to a sex offender (which were known before his peerage was confirmed) he is still in the Lords…
Asked whether Doyle should be removed from the House, Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Smith claimed she didn’t know enough to decide:
“I think in all of these things there needs to be a proper process. There is an issue I think about party due diligence on issues of members being nominated from all parties. So we all have to ensure we have the right processes in place. He was approved on the information available at that time. He has now no longer has the Labour whip and there will be an investigation. I don’t really want to get into speculating and I don’t know enough about the details of whether an individual should have the peerage removed.”
The ‘details’ have been pretty clear well before Doyle was approved. A pattern starting to emerge here…
Flashback to January 23, 2023:
Yesterday the Mail on Sunday ran a story about an unnamed Starmer aide briefing against a Labour MP:
“a senior aide to Sir Keir Starmer said ‘it would be nice’ if Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield ‘spent a bit more time’ in her constituency, rather than ‘hanging out with JK Rowling”
JK Rowling spotted the Mail on Sunday story and mocked the advisor:
“Fight that FOMO, bro.”
In response, Rosie Duffield tweeted:
“Never had the pleasure of meeting this unelected Head Of Comms person. But for the record, while he was overheard loudly opining on my whereabouts and choice of friends, I was in my constituency meeting with members of Canterbury’s Hazara community. Really hope he’s OK with that”
Labour’s “Head of Comms person” is Matthew Doyle, a veteran Labour spin doctor from the New Labour Blair era. It is his job to hone the attack on the Tories, which is why it is all the more surprising that he would be briefing against a Labour MP. Obviously if it were true that Starmer’s top spin doctor is briefing against a Labour MP it would not be a good look. We put Rosie Duffield’s allegation to Labour’s press office this morning:
A rare categoric, on-the-record denial.
Unfortunately it is also untrue – listen to Matthew Doyle briefing against Rosie Duffield below:
Listen to Matthew Doyle briefing against @RosieDuffield1 https://t.co/PigBcBGpa1 pic.twitter.com/K6LYqq1wLn
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) January 23, 2023
Now you might think that the Leader of the Labour Party’s top attack dog briefing against one of their own MPs – in the same breath as saying that the MP had been in to see the leader about how she was being treated by the party – might be newsworthy. When Britain’s top-selling writer and campaigner for women’s rights JK Rowling, who incidentally has given over a million pounds to the Labour Party, is also being criticised you would think political editors would be scrambling to cover the story. You would think this morning’s papers would be following it up with feral glee. You would be wrong, there was no follow up of the story this morning, like JK Rowling’s infamous villain Voldemort it seems Doyle is he-who-must-not-be-named. Surely the Lobby’s political editors wouldn’t be craven cowards afraid of being cursed by Labour’s wielder of the dark arts?
Schools minister Georgina Gould was on the morning round to face questions over why Starmer proceeded with Matthew Doyle’s peerage despite knowing that he had campaigned for convicted sex offender Sean Morton, as The Times revealed. Pressed on Sky News, Gould said there was an ongoing investigation:
“I think the the story was later in the month but I think the prime minister has looked at this given the commitments that he has made to ensure the highest standards in public life. No one is harder on themselves than the prime minister but you know he’s clear that things need to change, vetting has to be better. I think there is an investigation going on at the moment. We’ll have more to say when when that’s completed.”
Doyle’s Labour peerage had been confirmed two weeks after it was known he had campaigned for a sex offender. Starmer could’ve cancelled the peerage at any time up to this point…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”
