No 10 ducks questions about whether Doyle controversy could result in his peerage being removed – UK politics live

Female Labour MPs have told Keir Starmer to appoint a woman as first secretary of state – a de factor deputy PM serving alongside the actual deputy PM, David Lammy – to oversee a “complete culture change” in Downing Street, Alexandra Topping reports.

At the Tory post-PMQs briefing, a spokesperson for Kemi Badenoch said that Matthew Doyle should never have been offered a peerage in the first place. The spokesperson also said it would have been possible to withdraw Doyle’s peerage after it was announced but before he was sworn in (given that, by the time he took his seat, it was known that he had campaign for a friend facing paedophile charges, because the Sunday Times had published a story about that).

Asked why Doyle’s peerage was not withdrawn before he was sworn in, No 10 just said there was no precedent for this. (See 2.04pm.)

The Badenoch spokesperson would not say whether the party would like to Doyle to lose his peerage.

(Some senior Tories are worried about the proposed bill to deprive Peter Mandelson of his peerage because they are not comfortable with the principle for a government using legislation to punish individuals viewed as political opponents.)

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, No 10 ducked questions about whether Matthew Doyle could lose his peerage over allegations that he did not disclose having campaigned for someone charged with sex offences before his peerage was announced.

The government has said it will legislate to allow peerages to be removed in cases of misconduct – something which cannot happen under current rules. The bill is designed to ensure Peter Mandelson’s peerage can be taken away, but it is likely that it will set up a general mechanism to be apply in these cases.

Asked about Doyle possibly losing his peerage, a No 10 spokesperson said they would not comment because they did not want “to get ahead of” the internal Labour investigatiaton into this case.

Asked why the government did not block Doyle’s peerage after the Sunday Times story was published saying he had campaigned for a council candidate accused of possessing indecent images of children (this was after Doyle’s peerage was announced, but before he had taken his seat in the Lords), No 10 said:

There’s no established precedent for withdrawing a peerage nomination after the announcement stage.

That’s why we’re undertaking wider reform to both vetting and appointment processes.

After Keir Starmer’s political near-death experience on Monday, there have been suggestions that, with Morgan McSweeney out of the way, the public might get to see the “real”, more passionate and more persuasive Starmer that has been buried until now beneath a mound of McSweeney-inspired, missions-orientated verbiage. These ‘Let Barlet be Bartlet’ strategies never really work out quite was well as they did on the West Wing, but we did see a bit of that today. Starmer was definitely more angry and combative than he normally is. (You need to read the quotes in full, which is why I’ve fleshed them out – see 1.04pm.) He was a bit more ruthless; normally he is quite cordial with Ed Davey, but today he was in full Labour tribalism mode as he savaged the Lib Dems. (See 12.15pm.) And he a bit more egotistical too. “Only four people have ever led the Labour party to victory in a general election. I am one of them,” he told Badenoch (rightly). He sounded like a man who has spent a bit of time in recent days thinking about whether he is the right man to lead the country (and also someone who has concluded the answer is – yes).

All of this was enough to mean that, for Starmer, this was one of those PMQs where it could have been a lot worse.

At the very start, he was even ahead. He won the first exchange with Kemi Badenoch with his “what’s her great achievement? To make [the Tory party] even smaller” riposte. He was holding his own with the second one. But when Badenoch raised the Matthew Doyle case in her third question, Starmer was thrown fully on to the defensive. After a brief line about Doyle not giving a “full account”, Starmer reverted to distraction mode, which is where he stayed for the rest of these exchanges. As a display of whataboutery, it was fine – in fact, rather good. But Starmer could not conceal the fact that Badenoch was winning the argument; on Doyle, she was making points to which he didn’t have a good answer

She was effective. But Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, and Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, both raised the Doyle case too, and their soundbites (particularly Flynn’s – see 12.18pm) were probably better.

(But the prize for the best put-down of the day probably went to Ayoub Khan. See 12.38pm.)

I have beefed up the earlier posts, covering the Starmer/Badenoch and Starmer/Davey exchanges, with direct quotes (from PA Media). You may need to refresh the page to get them to appear.

Ayoub Khan (ind) says rubbish is building up “right beneath my very nose”. He is a Birmingham MP, and he is talking about the bin strike. But he has Nigel Farage and the other Reform UK MPs sitting in the row directly in front of him. His joke prompts loud laughted. Richard Tice seems to see the funny side too, but Sarah Pochin looks horribly offended.

Starmer says he hopes the strike gets resolved.

Bob Blackman (Con) asks about the school stabbing in Brent, and asks what the government is doing to remove knife crime.

Starmer thanks Blackman for raising this, and says the government agrees on the need to tackle this.

Tom Tugendhat (Con) says some civil servants are having to take out bridging loans to help them in their retirement.

Starmer says he will look at this.

Daniel Zeichner (Lab) says he agrees with the ambition to make Cambridge the most livable city in Europe. He asks what more the government will do to help this.

Starmer says the government has a growth plan for Cambridge.

James Wild (Con) asks about a foreign offender, sentenced to 10 years in jail for killing three people in a driving incident, who may be released after three years because he is being deported. He says it is wrong for the offender to be released this early.

Starmer says he will look into this.

Preet Kaur Gill (Lab) asks about the Pride in Place programme, and how politics can be a force for good.

Starmer says he has always thought “those with skin in the game make the best decisions about their community”.

Caroline Voaden (Lib Dem) asks if the government will help address the problem of coastal erosion in Devon.

Starmer says Voaden has a meeting with the floods minister on this. The government is investing in flood defences.

Munira Wilson (Lib Dem) asks if the government will back mandatory CCTV in nurseries, and mandatory registers for staff.

Starmer says the government is considering whether CCTV should be mandatory in nursery settings.