Mick Hartley

Can he put a foot right? Starmer again:

Sir Keir Starmer nominated a former adviser for a peerage despite knowing he campaigned for a councillor who had been charged with child sex offences.

Matthew Doyle, who was the Downing Street director of communications until March, is due to take a seat in the Lords early next year. When he left No 10, the prime minister said it was a “privilege” to have worked with Doyle, who had been “by my side every day”.

It can now be revealed that No 10 nominated Doyle, 50, for a peerage after investigating his continued support for Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Moray, northeast Scotland, after the candidate was charged with possessing and distributing indecent images of children in December 2016.

Morton was immediately suspended by Labour after appearing in court.

He later admitted crimes including possession of several pictures of naked girls as young as ten.

Despite the charges, Doyle, a former spokesman for Sir Tony Blair, campaigned for Morton when he ran as an independent in May 2017, knocking on doors wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Re-elect Sean Morton”.

It’s not a good look.