Imogen James
Live reporter

Once again, Prime Minister's Questions saw a fiery exchange between Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

They largely clashed on Lord Doyle, Starmer's former comms director, being given a life peerage in 2025, despite Doyle's connections to convicted sex offender Sean Morton.

Starmer told the Commons earlier that Doyle - now known to have campaigned for Morton, a former Labour councillor, after he was charged with indecent images of children offences - had not given a full account of his actions. The whip, Starmer added, was removed on Tuesday as a result.

Badenoch, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey and the SNP's Stephen Flynn didn't accept this explanation, with the latter branding Starmer "the most gullible former director of public prosecutions in history".

The question - again - seems to be what questions were asked by No 10 before making the appointment, writes our political editor Chris Mason.

Remember, this comes in the same week Starmer faced calls to resign over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador in 2024. Mandelson was subsequently sacked over his links to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

What happens next for Starmer remains to be seen.

• If you'd like to keep reading about the political fallout from today, head to our main news story

Earlier, Downing Street defended having not stopped the appointment of Matthew Doyle to the House of Lords following reports about his links with a convicted sex offender.

The PM's spokesperson said "there is no established precedent for withdrawing a peerage nomination after the announcement stage".

Asked to respond, a House of Lords spokesperson said: "We cannot comment on specific confidential advice given by Parliamentary Officials.

"However our understanding is that under the Life Peerages Act 1958 a Peerage is created when the letters patent are sealed."

Doyle, Starmer's former director of communications, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party on Tuesday after it was revealed he campaigned for Sean Morton in 2017, after he was charged with child sex offences. Morton later admitted the offences. Doyle apologised, saying it was an "error of judgement".

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Labour MP Rachael Maskell says the prime minister has "the opportunity to prove he has understood the seriousness of the situation".

She is one of those who had called for the prime minister to stand down - saying his position was untenable. Those comments came before Morgan McSweeney quit as No 10 chief of staff.

Maskell has backed a more inclusive approach to government.

Nick Eardley & Joshua Nevett
Reporting from Westminster

The prime minister has told a meeting of the women’s Parliamentary Labour Party that he will consider appointing a female first secretary of state, following a call from senior female parliamentarians.

A source in the room said the meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes, had been positive and the PM had understood the need to end a "boys' club" mentality in No 10.

Starmer committed to meeting victims of sexual violence - including at Harrods, according to MP Natalie Fleet.

The recent controversies around Lord Doyle and Lord Mandelson were also brought up at the meeting.

Since PMQs, Keir Starmer's spokesperson has been answering reporters' questions in Westminster.

There's no "established precedent for withdrawing a peerage nomination" after it's been announced, the spokesperson says, following a Commons session filled with criticism of Starmer's appointment of Lord Doyle.

This is why Downing Street is "undertaking wider reform to both vetting and appointment processes", they add.

As we've been reporting, Doyle, Starmer's former director of communications, was suspended on Tuesday from Labour's parliamentary party over his links with convicted sex offender Sean Morton.

• In our last post, the BBC's Henry Zeffman looks at the timeframe of when reporting began on Doyle's links to Morton and when the former took up his peerage. Read that here.

In the Commons today, Keir Starmer said his former director of communications Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions when being vetted for a Labour peerage - and has had the whip removed as a result.

Doyle has apologised for his past association with Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Moray who admitted indecent child image offences in 2017.

But our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman points out that the Sunday Times had provided a fuller picture two weeks before Doyle took his seat in the House of Lords.

"I think the crucial point is that a full account was provided to the prime minister, not by Matthew Doyle, but by the Sunday Times," Zeffman explains on the BBC's Politics Live.

"There was two weeks between that full account of what Matthew Doyle had done and Doyle actually taking up his peerage. That is two weeks in which the prime minister could have stopped this happening. He didn't, and I expect this story is not over."

Joshua Nevett
Reporting from Westminster

The meeting seems to be well attended.

Before the PM arrived, we saw a number of senior female Labour MPs and ministers walk into the room.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell and School Standards Minister Georgia Gould were among those seen going in.

Joshua Nevett
Reporting from Westminster

A little earlier, the prime minister went into a meeting of the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party.

We heard polite applause a few minutes after he entered.

Meanwhile, there’s a pack of journalists waiting outside the committee room, trying to listen intently to what’s happening inside.

Joshua Nevett
Reporting from Westminster

I’m standing outside a committee room where the prime minister is due to attend a meeting of female Labour MPs.

Keir Starmer’s premiership came close to collapse a few days ago and this meeting appears to be another attempt to shore up support among the women MPs in his party.

It’s also an opportunity to address claims that his operation in No 10 has become a "boys' club".

It could be a tough crowd, given the simmering anger over the PM’s decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US, despite knowing about the peer’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer insists Lord Mandelson misled him about the extent of his friendship with Epstein during vetting.

The BBC understands Mandelson's view is that he answered questions about his relationship with Epstein in the vetting process accurately.

Starmer could also face awkward questions over the peerage given to Lord Doyle, who lost the Labour whip last night over his links with a convicted sex offender. Both issues came up at PMQs, and now Starmer may have to confront them again.

Punchy remarks from Badenoch and Davey, with Starmer displaying some rare finger-jabbing angerpublished at 13:01 GMT

13:01 GMT

Chris Mason
Political editor

The main exchanges were quite something today, with Starmer, Badenoch and Davey all punchy in their own way.

This was a sticky wicket for a prime minister in a week where his leadership was imperilled.

He was self deprecating about that from the very start - and enjoyed teasing the Conservatives about shrivelling the Tory parliamentary party at the general election and how it has shrivelled further given the defections to Reform UK.

Both Badenoch and Davey sought to home in on the prime minister’s judgement over the appointment of his former director of communications Matthew Doyle to the House of Lords.

Doyle has had the Labour whip removed and apologised for campaigning for a friend who had been charged over child sexual abuse images. The Labour peer said he believed the man’s insistence on his innocence at the time.

The question - again - is what questions were asked by No 10 before making the appointment.

What stood out today was Davey managing to get under the prime minister’s skin on this.

Starmer’s flash of finger-jabbing anger about what he called "austerity" during the years of the coalition government, in which Davey was a cabinet minister was quite something - I've never seen Starmer react so angrily to the Lib Dem leader.

Starmer was all smiles as his side cheered him to the dispatch box following a difficult week in Downing Street. Here's a look at the key exchanges from this week's Prime Minister's Questions:

• After interrogation from Badenoch on accusations of shifting the blame, Starmer said he's apologised for the "mistakes I made" in relation to Peter Mandelson's appointment
• Starmer also praised recently departed chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who he said helped Labour win a "landslide victory"
• Pressing on, Badenoch accused Stamer of "throwing everyone under the bus except himself" and asked the prime minister why he appointed Matthew Doyle to the Lords
• Starmer replied that his legacy is changing the Labour Party and winning a general election, but Badenoch accused him of filling Downing Street with "hypocrites and paedophile apologists"
• Ed Davey used one of his questions to criticise Starmer's "catastrophic lack of judgement" in appointing Peter Mandelson and Matthew Doyle, to which the PM angrily accused the Lib Dem leader of being responsibile for austerity

Doyle, Starmer's former director of communications, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party on Tuesday after it was revealed he campaigned for Sean Morton in 2017, after he was charged with child sex offences. Morton later admitted the offences. Doyle apologised, saying it was an "error of judgement".

Image source, House of Commons

The SNP's leader in Westminster, Stephen Flynn, accuses Starmer of being "the most gullible former director of public prosecutions in history" over the vetting of both Mandelson and Doyle.

He asks the prime minister if he will publish the vetting advice he was given over awarding Matthew Doyle a peerage.

Starmer says he has made his position clear, and instead turns to the politics in Scotland. He says next week the former SNP chief secretary goes on trial for embezzling money. The Speaker reminds him live cases shouldn't be discussed in Parliament.

The PM also takes aim at Flynn, and says his party should focus on public life as "families deserve accountability" over the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital failings.

Starmer calls this "one of the worst failures" in Scottish public life.

That's a wrap on our coverage of the exchanges in the Commons, but we've got more analysis and recaps of what we heard to come.

Image source, House of Commons

Here's a bit more on that back and forth from Starmer and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey in the Commons - mentioned in our last post.

Referring to Peter Mandelson and Matthew Doyle, Davey tells the prime minister that appointing a "paedophile supporter" cannot be excused as misfortune, but to appoint two shows a "catastrophic lack of judgement".

He then quotes Starmer previously stating that when a prime minister refuses to take responsibly, it only serves to convince people that things cannot get better.

"That is exactly what is happening now," says Davey.

Starmer fires back that "millions of people" have been let down for "years and years and years", partly due to austerity that Davey's party supported.

"He should take accountability and take responsibility for what he has inflicted on this country," says Starmer.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

It’s not often Keir Starmer directly attacks Ed Davey as he did there, angrily accusing the Lib Dem leader of being responsible for austerity.

Davey was a member of the coalition government between 2010 and 2015 that cut public spending.

Davey seems taken aback, before saying: “I think I touched a nerve there.”

Badenoch says Starmer has not apologised for appointing Doyle and says he does not take responsibility.

She says his claims that he has never lost a fight are because "he won't step into the ring".

She then says he won't stand up to China, Mauritius or the unions and adds that Starmer has rattled through aides and is now facing another scandal with Doyle.

Starmer responds by pointing to Labour's "landslide" election victory and how the Tories have had several chancellors, home secretaries, foreign secretaries and housing secretaries.

He adds that he is the prime minister clearing up the mess while Badenoch is "fighting to save her dying party".

"Nobody buys it Mr Speaker," Badenoch says, accusing Starmer of always putting "the Downing Street boys club first" and filling Downing Street with "hypocrites and paedophile apologists".

The Commons jeers at this.

She criticises the PM for failing to build a team and being unable to run the country.

She continues to discuss Matthew Doyle. Isn't Starmer ashamed that his legacy is appointing a man who campaigned for Sean Morton, she asks.

"My legacy is changing my party and winning a general election," Starmer says. He adds that Badenoch was too weak to kick Liz Truss out of her party after she "broke" the economy.

Badenoch accuses Starmer of pretending not to know about Matthew Doyle.

"He cannot explain why he gave this man a peerage," she says.

The Tory leader then says the PM pretends to care about violence against women, but in reality only cares about victims when he is "trying to save his own skin", as she references the grooming gangs scandal and Mandelson's appointment.

Starmer says he will "take no lectures" from the Tories on standards in public life, after Badenoch defended "partygate" for "months and months and months".

He then rifles through accusations of misconduct against Conservative figures including Boris Johnson and Priti Patel.

Badenoch then says the PM is "demonstrating stratospheric levels of delusion" if he thinks the problem is on the Conservative benches.

She says Starmer is throwing "everyone under the bus except himself".

She then asks about Matthew Doyle, Starmer's former director of communications who has been suspended from Labour's parliamentary party over his links with a convicted sex offender, and asks why Starmer appointed him to the Lords.

Starmer says Doyle did not give a full account of his actions, and says he therefore has had the whip removed.

Doyle, Starmer's former director of communications, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party on Tuesday after it was revealed he campaigned for Sean Morton in 2017, after he was charged with child sex offences. Morton later admitted the offences. Doyle apologised, saying it was an "error of judgement".

Badenoch again asks what has changed and says that last week Starmer defended Morgan McSweeney.

She says he then sacked him and is met with jeers as MPs say McSweeney resigned.

Badenoch gestures air quotes as she says McSweeney resigned, and adds that last week Starmer also defended the cabinet secretary but is now sacking him too.

Starmer responds by saying that Badenoch said there would be no more defections from her party in January but then the shadow foreign minister resigned 48 hours later, and then the former home secretary later followed suit.

He says Badenoch "needs to wake up. Her party is dying".

Remember: Andrew Rosindell quit the Tory party and as shadow foreign minister to join Nigel Farage's Reform UK last month, as did ex-home secretary Suella Braverman.

Image source, House of Commons

Chris Mason
Political editor

A self-deprecating line from the prime minister at the end of his opening words - it is convention for him to say he had "meetings with ministerial colleagues and others" - there he was nodding to having rather more this week as his team desperately sought to ensure he had the support to stay in office.