The SNP has written to Keir Starmer demanding the publication of all documents, vetting and correspondence relating to Matthew Doyle’s appointment to the House of Lords, after the Prime Minister claimed he didn’t know Doyle retained links to a man charged with child sex offences, despite it being a matter of public record.
In an echo of the Mandelson scandal, Starmer claims Downing Street didn’t know about Doyle’s links to the convicted paedophile Sean Morton, despite it being on the front page of the Sunday Times in December before Doyle took his job for life in the Lords.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster Leader, revealed during today’s Prime Minister’s Questions that following the Sunday Times revelations he had written to, and subsequently received, correspondence from the House of Lords Appointment Commission on the 30th December last year a full 2 weeks before Matthew Doyle entered the Lords.
That official correspondence confirmed that a vetting process was undertaken at the time of Doyle’s nomination and that the Prime Minister would have received that confidential vetting advice.
Flynn raised the issue at PMQs and called on Keir Starmer to publish the full vetting documents the Prime Minister failed to respond.
In a letter following PMQs, SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn MP wrote:
“Dear Prime Minister,
The scandal in relation to your appointment of Matthew Doyle isn’t going away, in fact it is only going to grow.
It is far from lost on a disgusted public that the process and the appointment of Matthew Doyle is almost identical to that of Peter Mandelson, you are giving the same answers and hiding behind the same excuses.
Earlier, at PMQs, I revealed to you that the House of Lords Appointment Commission on the 30th December last year, a full 2 weeks before Matthew Doyle entered the Lords, officially confirmed to me in writing that a vetting process was undertaken at the time of Doyle’s nomination and that you, as Prime Minister, were handed over this confidential advice.
Given what we now know about Doyle’s connection to the convicted paedophile Sean Morton and the fact that this relationship was revealed on the front page of the Sunday Times on the 27th December 2025, I asked you the direct question as to whether you will now immediately release the vetting advice you received concerning Matthew Doyle. You failed to respond to my direct question earlier, but these questions aren’t going away, and I am now renewing that call to publish all of these documents.
It took a parliamentary motion and a backbench rebellion for you to commit to the eventual publication of the vetting on Peter Mandelson, I hope your government won’t attempt the same tactics of obstruction and cover up in this case.
It is all the more important that these documents are now released given that the House of Lords clerks have now confirmed that there was nothing stopping the reversal of Doyle’s appointment once new, damning information about his association with this convicted paedophile became public.
Given the Mandelson scandal and the damage that has already been done to public confidence, I hope your approach this week will be different.
I hope and expect that you will order the full publication of these vetting documents today and remove the peerage from Matthew Doyle.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Flynn MP.
SNP Westminster Leader”
