On the evening of December 10th, 2025, former Downing Street communications director Matthew Doyle strolled in to the ballroom of Ireland\u2019s embassy in Belgravia.<\/p>\n
It was the embassy\u2019s Christmas press and political reception, but Doyle had his own reason to celebrate. Two hours earlier, UK<\/a> prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a> announced he was making Doyle (50) a peer, giving him a seat for life in the House of Lords<\/a>.<\/p>\n A stream of people crossed the embassy ballroom to shake his hand. Doyle, whose grandparents hailed from Sligo, beamed as he took the plaudits.<\/p>\n Two months on, Doyle\u2019s Lords appointment is the latest crisis to drain Starmer\u2019s political authority. If his at-risk premiership ends up being killed by a thousand cuts, the Doyle saga will be seen as one that drew blood.<\/p>\n Unknown to Doyle\u2019s embassy wellwishers, six days earlier Kate Watson, general secretary of Scottish Labour, had approached Irishman Morgan McSweeney<\/a>, then Starmer\u2019s chief of staff, at a fundraising event in Glasgow.<\/p>\n It had already been rumoured Doyle would get a peerage. Watson warned McSweeney that Doyle had personal links to Sean Morton, a former Scottish Labour councillor convicted of possessing child sex abuse images.<\/p>\n Downing Street questioned Doyle about his friendship with Morton. It was potentially explosive because another member of the Lords, Peter Mandelson, was sacked as the UK\u2019s ambassador in Washington three months earlier for links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n Starmer now says that, when questioned, the \u201cfull facts were not given\u201d by Doyle about his links to Morton. His peerage was allowed to proceed.<\/p>\n Two days after Christmas, the Sunday Times splashed with a startling story: \u201cMatthew Doyle: aide given peerage by PM campaigned for paedophile.\u201d<\/p>\n It revealed Doyle had actively campaigned in local elections for Morton, by then already kicked out of Labour and running as an independent, despite knowing he was charged with child sex offences.<\/p>\n Labour sources say the news story was the first time that Starmer learned Doyle had helped Morton politically, despite knowing he had been charged. Morton lied that he was innocent to friends, including Doyle, who posed with him in a \u201cRe-elect Sean Morton\u201d T-shirt. Later, however, Morton would admit his guilt in court.<\/p>\n Yet, despite learning the full truth of Doyle\u2019s links to Morton, which implies he also knew Doyle had not given him \u201cthe full facts\u201d, Starmer did not stop his peerage. Doyle was ennobled on January 8th.<\/p>\n The Doyle incident blew up on Tuesday, the day after Starmer was almost ousted over Mandelson. Doyle has apologised for his association with Morton, and condemned his crimes. He said he relinquished the Labour whip in the Lords, although Downing Street said it was removed. Doyle is suspended by Labour pending an investigation.<\/p>\n With the Mandelson stink still hanging in the air, the Tories eviscerated Starmer over Doyle\u2019s appointment. The prime minister also faced the wrath of his own MPs. Emma Lewell, the Labour MP for South Shields, told the prime minister at a party meeting on Monday night that, after the Mandelson and Doyle scandals, \u201cpeople are screaming at me in the street that I am a member of the paedo protectors party\u201d.<\/p>\n Tories say they won\u2019t let the Doyle issue go. It will dog Starmer further.<\/p>\n