LONDON — Keir Starmer insisted Wednesday “there will be change” as he faced fresh questions over his judgment in elevating an under-fire ally to the House of Lords.

Starmer is coming under renewed scrutiny for appointing his ex-Director of Communications, Matthew Doyle, to the upper chamber late last year.

The nomination came despite Doyle having continued to campaign for a Labour councilor, Sean Morton, after Morton was charged with possessing and distributing indecent images of children. Morton was later convicted.

Doyle — who has apologized “unreservedly” for campaigning for Morton — was suspended from the Labour Party Tuesday evening after fresh scrutiny of the appointment.

The controversy comes at a time when Starmer’s authority has already been weakened by his decision in December 2024 to make Peter Mandelson ambassador to Washington, despite Mandelson’s links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking in the House of Commons Wednesday, Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of failing to take responsibility for appointing Doyle.

“He cannot explain why he gave this man a peerage … he hasn’t apologized for appointing Matthew Doyle because he won’t take responsibility,” she said.

Starmer told MPs: “Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions.”

But Starmer said he had “promised my party and my country there will be change,” and had removed the whip from Doyle on Tuesday — an action which deprives an MP or Lord of their party label.

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.

“At the point of my campaigning support, Morton repeatedly asserted to all those who knew him his innocence, including initially in court. He later changed his plea in court to guilty,” Doyle said. “To have not ceased support ahead of a judicial conclusion was a clear error of judgment for which I apologize unreservedly.”

He also said Morton’s offenses “were vile and my only concerns are for his victims.”