Embattled UK leader Keir Starmer found himself under renewed pressure on Wednesday, this time for nominating a former aide to the House of Lords, despite his links to a convicted sex offender.
The Labour prime minister was forced to defend himself in parliament just days after facing down calls to resign for embroiling his government in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
The latest row centres on Starmer's ex-communications chief Matthew Doyle who was suspended from the Labour Party on Tuesday over his ties to former local councillor Sean Morton.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported in late December that Doyle had campaigned for Morton in 2017 after he had been charged over possessing indecent images of children.
Morton later admitted the offences and was convicted for a second time in 2025.
"Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions," Starmer said, referencing the period before he nominated him on December 10 to the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament.
But Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch questioned why Starmer allowed Doyle to be sworn in last month after the newspaper report was published.
She accused Starmer of "stuffing government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists".
Downing Street officials insisted "there is no established precedent for withdrawing a peerage nomination after the announcement stage".
The row is raising fresh questions about Starmer's acumen and comes after he admitted he had appointed Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite knowing he had maintained links to convicted sex offender Epstein.
"To appoint one paedophile supporter cannot be excused as 'misfortune'. To appoint two shows a catastrophic lack of judgement," said the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey.
Doyle has apologised "unreservedly" for supporting Morton and said he believed his claims of innocence at the time.
But Starmer is facing calls, including from his own party's chairwoman, Anna Turley, to strip Doyle of his peerage altogether.
Starmer's premiership looked precarious on Monday after he lost two of his closest aides over the Mandelson saga, and Labour's leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar called on him to quit.
But a co-ordinated show of support from senior ministers staved off any imminent rebellion.
Starmer is deeply unpopular with the public and trails Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK party in polls, although the next general election is likely three years away.
He faces a difficult by-election later this month and key local polls in May.