KEIR Starmer has been urged to "come clean" over how and why a now suspended paedo-linked Labour peer was spotted in attendance at an event attended by several senior party figures.
The Times first reported that Matthew Doyle, who worked in Tony Blair and Keir Starmer’s UK governments before being handed a peerage in late 2025, had gone to the event which was also attended by former health secretary Wes Streeting and Jill Cuthbertson, the acting Downing Street chief of staff.
After being given a seat in the Lords, Doyle was suspended from Labour after it emerged that he had campaigned for an ally, Scottish former councillor Sean Morton, to be re-elected despite child sex offence charges for which he would later be convicted.
Despite this, he was welcomed to a drinks event to mark the exit of Marianna McFadden from the role of Labour deputy general-secretary.
McFadden is married to Works and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, one of Starmer’s closest allies.
Politico reported that Doyle's welcome had "p***ed off" some Labour MPs.
Now, the SNP have called on Labour to explain why the peer was invited to the event and who made and approved the decision.
SNP MSP George Adam said: “It is absolutely disgraceful that the Labour Party invited Lord Doyle, a man who has a close relationship with a convicted paedophile, to drinks with senior party and government staff at Labour Party HQ.
“Keir Starmer must now come clean as a matter of urgency about who exactly invited Lord Doyle to the Labour Party events, whether he signed off on this move, whether he attended the party, and who Doyle spoke to.
“Surely now The Prime Minister must hurry up and remove Doyle from the Lords and publish all correspondence and documentation.
"There cannot be another Labour government cover-up – the public deserves the truth and maximum transparency.”
Labour have maintained that neither the event nor the invites were organised by the party, but confirmed that Doyle had attended.
McFadden's exit from the top of Labour comes just days after her husband’s messages with former US ambassador Peter Mandelson – who was sacked from the role in part over his own links to a convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
MPs voted earlier this year to force the disclosure of documents relating to Mandelson’s time as ambassador, and more than 1000 pages of documents in a second tranche were released last week.
The files included records of WhatsApp exchanges between Mandelson and Pat McFadden that revealed the latter’s frustration with his Labour colleagues.
In May 2025, in the wake of local election setbacks and the Runcorn by-election defeat, McFadden said: “Lot of manoeuvring here this week. Angela [Rayner], Gordon [Brown]. Doesn’t feel good for Keir.”
He also complained that Labour MPs were “asking the wrong questions”.
“Every meeting I have is ‘who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others’,” he said.
In June, shortly before the Government caved in to provide a series of concessions to rebel MPs, McFadden said: “I think it’s very bad. Defeat, pull bill or gut it all destroys his authority.”
Mandelson was highly critical of Starmer’s operation in messages, saying the Prime Minister “lacks verve” and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could not explain where economic growth would come from.
In a message to McFadden in July 2025, he said: “I went into No 10 after I saw you. It is beleaguered and bereft. It requires complete revamp and infusion of purpose and confidence to get anywhere.”
In the same month, he said the Government “doesn’t do policy, generally speaking, well enough”, in a message to pensions minister Torsten Bell.
Bell told him: “That is definitely true – everyone seems to think it’s someone else’s job to get the policy right … Which is very odd.”
Mandelson replied: “As the saying goes, rubbish in rubbish out … ”
Labour declined to comment.
