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 Although he’s had the Labour whip withdrawn over his links to a sex offender (which were known before his peerage was confirmed) he is still in the Lords…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…
Starmer’s former Director of Communications Matthew Doyle has been suspended from Labour over his links to a convicted sex offender, the i Paper reports. Starmer handed Doyle a peerage at the end of last year…
Doyle had campaigned for ex-Labour councillor Sean Morton in Scotland after he was charged with possessing indecent images of children in December 2016. Moran later admitted to sex offences. Doyle said:
“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.
“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.
“Following his conviction any contact was extremely limited and I have not seen or spoken to him in years. Twice I was at events organised by other people, which he attended, and once I saw him to check on his welfare after concerns were raised through others.
“I acted to try to ensure the welfare of a troubled individual whilst fully condemning the crimes for which he has been convicted and being clear that my thoughts are with the victims of his crimes.
“I am sorry about the mistakes I have made. I will not be taking the Labour whip.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, let me conclude where I started. Morton’s crimes were vile and my only concerns are for his victims.”
Another one gone…
Reheated from last night’s speech to Labour MPs. Almost like he’s saying he is a fighter, not a quitter…
The department for cover-ups and government secrecy is living up to its usual agenda by demanding massive redactions of the Mandelson data dump, due from the government after a successful Humble Address motion by the Tories. Insiders at 70 Whitehall say the redaction button is in overdrive…
There are “hundreds of thousands” of items of data in scope of the motion, including WhatsApp and text messages between Mandelson and Cabinet ministers, which a special team including government lawyers from Government Legal Department are now working through. Guido understands this includes messages with Starmer. Wes Streeting got ahead of the issue yesterday with a carefully selected set of self-published data – the Cabinet Office is telling other ministers and special advisers not to follow suit. Should those messages reveal further embarrassments for the government (which is “inevitable”), Starmer’s position will once again wobble…
The Cabinet Office and FCDO (Mandelson’s line management department as an Ambassador, he was an officer of the Diplomatic Service despite being a political appointee) are deploying “national security and diplomatic redactions” to the material – for an Ambassador, basically any communication could be said to be relevant to “relations between the UK and other countries“. Parliament is in no mood to tolerate extensive redactions however. The greatest fear in Whitehall is that the messages will further expose Mandelson’s commercial interests and friends…
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…”
