Doyle served as Starmer’s first director of communications in Downing Street. His life peerage in the House of Lords was announced in December, and he joined the unelected chamber last month.
“I think No. 10 did not know before they made the decision to give him the peerage,” one of Starmer’s ministers, Georgia Gould, told Sky News earlier on Wednesday morning when challenged on whether Downing Street knew Doyle had campaigned for Morton before giving him a peerage.
“But I think the prime minister has looked at this afresh, given the commitment that he has made to ensure the highest standards in public life,” she said.
Labour Party Chair Anna Turley told Sky on Tuesday evening that Doyle should not remain in the Lords as there is no place for people who “have not been clear and transparent.”
“What we’d been told was not the truth when that decision was made,” she said.
In a statement to journalists Tuesday, Doyle said he would no longer take the Labour whip. He admitted he had continued to campaign for Morton in 2017 after he was charged, but before Morton had been convicted.