Starmer is indefensible but Labour peer Hodge tries to anyway

This week we learned that Keir Starmer pressured the Foreign Office to give Matthew Doyle a job, which looks very bad for Starmer because Doyle notoriously maintained a friendship with a convicted sex offender.

As you’d expect, most Labour politicians had the sense to not defend the prime minister. The exception to this was Baroness Margaret Hodge, who said “there’s nothing wrong with friends saying, ‘Are there any jobs around?'”

"There's nothing wrong with friends saying 'are there any jobs around?'"

Labour peer Baroness Hodge responds to reports that Downing Street considered giving a diplomatic role to the prime minister's then-director of communications Matthew Doyle.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/KEPlgR6nCV

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 21, 2026

Starmer and Hodge have more in common than we’d like

Hodge’s intervention is unsurprising given she’s linked to a historic paedophile scandal herself.

Here's an old ITV News report about how Margaret Hodge ignored reports of child sexual abuse when she was leader of Islington Council.

But despite this, Tony Blair made her Children's Minister.

It’s always jobs for their mates, no matter how dodgy they are. Nothing changes. pic.twitter.com/UppO8aHPZB

— Wokerati Marty (@WokeratiMarty) April 22, 2026

Labour links

Regarding Doyle, Skwawkbox reported the following for the Canary this week:

Keir Starmer’s pressure on the Foreign Office to ignore Israel-supporting paedophiles’ pals is not limited to Peter Mandelson. He did the same with ‘Labour’ peer Matthew Doyle, who has since been suspended for his support for convicted child sex offender Sean Morton.

Starmer knew about Doyle’s links to Morton when he appointed him. Which means he also knew when he pressured the Foreign Office to give Doyle a job.

Starmer put pressure on the FCDO to give Matthew Doyle a job and not tell the Foreign Secretary. Another person suspended because he was close to a paedophile.
That is stunning.

— David Maddox (@DavidPBMaddox) April 21, 2026

Labour’s unseemly links to the worst imaginable criminals don’t end with Doyle and Mandelson either as we’ve reported:

Anti-corruption champion? Oh please.

Back to Hodge, Victoria Derbyshire asked:

Can I ask you then, Margaret Hodge, as the anti-corruption champion, what you make of this Sir Olly Robbins revelation regarding Matthew Doyle

Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that she’s the anti-corruption champion.

Margaret Hodge is the Prime Minister's Anti-Corruption Champion.

Starmer made her a peer in 2024.

Amazing stuff. https://t.co/Yzb5vZz2LZ

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) April 22, 2026

As the ‘champion’, you’d expect her to take a hardline stance against any hint of impropriety, right?

Sadly, this is how she actually responded:

Well, let me say, the first thing is Matthew Doyle has said clearly to me, and I hope he has to you, that he didn’t know it was happening, he didn’t want a career in the department.

That’s great, but the scandal is Starmer trying to get him the job, not whether Doyle knew about it. This is what’s known as a ‘strawman argument’, in which someone presents an easier-to-argue point that sounds relevant but isn’t.

Hodge continued:

What I make of it… Matthew Doyle was about to lose his job. If somebody you’re working with is about to lose your job, there’s nothing wrong, I think, in saying, are there any other jobs available?

We’re sorry, Margaret, but we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t do this if our friend got sacked for continuing his dealings with a sex offender. We especially wouldn’t do it if we were the literal prime minister.

Next, Derbyshire noted:

He had no experience in foreign affairs.

Hodge hit back:

Well, it doesn’t matter.

Call us old fashioned but we think people working in government should have some understanding of the matters they’re governing. When that doesn’t happen, you end up with anti-corruption champions who publicly condone corruption.

https://t.co/EspLZhLtYG pic.twitter.com/CE7tyC2kVO

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) April 22, 2026

Cronyism

Derbyshire later asked:

Margaret Hodge, is that not cronyism?

For reference, this is the Cambridge dictionary definition of ‘cronyism’:

The situation in which someone important gives jobs to friends rather than to independent people who have the necessary skills and experience.

So yes, it’s the textbook definition of cronyism.

Hodge’s waffling response went on:

Just think about it in your own life. Think about it here at the BBC. If people lose their jobs in the BBC, you may say, have you thought of looking there for a job? Have you thought of looking there?

In other words, Hodge thinks it’s fine because she’d do the same thing. Good grief.

At this point, it seems corruption is so normalised in Labour Party politics that they don’t comprehend how bad they’ll sound when they open their mouths.

Featured image via BBC