Sir Keir Starmer’s fightback against an attempted Labour leadership coup has been overshadowed by a fresh scandal involving one of his closest former aides.

Labour announced on Tuesday evening that it had suspended Sir Keir’s former communications chief Matthew Doyle, whom the prime minister elevated to the House of Lords in December, over his links to a convicted paedophile, former councillor Sean Morton.

The latest development will raise fresh questions over Sir Keir’s integrity and judgement, with echoes of the Peter Mandelson scandal, which has already cost him his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and brought his premiership to the brink of collapse.

Lord Mandelson was made ambassador to the US – the UK’s most important diplomatic role – despite the prime minister knowing of his ongoing relationship with the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

And now, Lord Doyle, who retains his peerage despite being stripped of the party whip, has revealed that he, too, had kept in contact with Morton, even after he was convicted.