Starmer accused of ‘stuffing Government with paedophile apologists’ by Badenoch

Sir Keir Starmer is “stuffing Government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists”, the Conservative leader has suggested, as she grilled the Prime Minister in the Commons.

The Prime Minister was also accused of pretending to care about violence against women to “save his own skin” by Kemi Badenoch, amid simmering discontent following the fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Sir Keir has faced significant pressure to quit, with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar being the most prominent Labour member to call for his resignation.

However, the lack of support for Mr Sarwar’s position from ministers in Westminster does suggest the immediate danger has passed.

The Prime Minister has said the political “turmoil” would not stop him and pledged to lead the Labour Party into the next general election.

On Wednesday, he was greeted to the despatch box by loud cheers from his Labour backbenchers, but his authority continues to appear fragile.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch claimed Sir Keir’s decision over Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador is not an “isolated” one, as she questioned why former head of communications Matthew Doyle received a peerage despite his ties to a paedophile councillor.

She said: “The Mandelson episode was not an isolated incident. A few weeks ago he announced a peerage for one Matthew Doyle, his former director of communications.

“Immediately after that, the Sunday Times published on the front page that Doyle campaigned for a man charged with child sex offences, yet despite the Prime Minister knowing this, he gave Doyle a job for life in the House of Lords anyway. Why?”

In his response, Sir Keir said: “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.”

Lord Doyle has had the Labour whip removed, but calls for him to lose his peerage altogether, including from Labour Party chair Anna Turley, continue.

He apologised for campaigning for Sean Morton in 2017 after he had been charged over indecent images of children.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also criticised Sir Keir, saying: “To appoint one paedophile supporter cannot be excused as ‘misfortune’. To appoint two shows a catastrophic lack of judgment.”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Sir Keir “appears to be the most gullible former director of public prosecutions in history”.

Earlier in the session, Mrs Badenoch had also said: “The Prime Minister sometimes likes to claim, as he just did, that he cares about violence against women. The truth is, he only cares about the victims when he’s trying to save his own skin.

“They can shake their heads. We saw it with grooming gangs, we saw it with Mandelson, and now we see it with Doyle. Isn’t that what a former prosecutor would call an established pattern of behaviour?”

Sir Keir said he would be taking “no lectures from the Tories” on standards in public life, pointing to partygate and former shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick’s comments “about not seeing enough white faces in Birmingham”.

Mrs Badenoch hit back saying: “How dare he criticise us. We weren’t the ones stuffing Government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists.

“He can’t build a team, he has no plan, he can’t even run his own office let alone the country. He is now dealing with a new scandal of appointing someone who campaigned for a man convicted of having indecent pictures of girls as young as 10, isn’t the Prime Minister ashamed that that would be his legacy?”

The Prime Minister replied: “My legacy is changing my party and winning a general election.”

Sir Keir was addressing a meeting of the women’s Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) after PMQs.

Downing Street rejected suggestions it had been run as a “boys’ club”, and the Prime Minister’s spokesman said he did not accept that he had failed to fulfil his promise to end sleaze.

Sir Keir has insisted his top team is “strong and united” after Cabinet ministers rallied around him with public messages of support.

At Tuesday’s political Cabinet meeting he said his Government should be “acting together” over the release of files on Peter Mandelson after Wes Streeting published his exchanges with the former ambassador.

He expressed his “100%” support for Mr Sarwar, who had cited concern that the “distraction” from Downing Street would harm his party’s chances of unseating the SNP in May’s Holyrood elections.

In Wales, Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan insisted Sir Keir had her “full confidence”, while Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, seen as a potential challenger for the Labour leadership, declared his support but said he had spoken to Sir Keir about the party needing a “strong sense of a stronger team again”.

Sir Keir is expected to continue efforts to shake up his No 10 operation, with the country’s top civil servant Sir Chris Wormald rumoured to be on his way out in the coming days.

His chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications chief Tim Allan have already departed as the Prime Minister seeks to revive his fortunes after a bruising start to 2026.