The 15 Labour MPs who rebelled against Keir Starmer and voted in favour of Lord Mandelson vetting investigation

Alice Tomlinson
Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:06:06 +0000

Fifteen Labour MPs have rebelled against Sir Keir Starmer and voted in favour of launching an investigation into whether he misled Parliament.

MPs voted 223 to 335 against referring the Prime Minister to the Privileges Committee, over the appointment of the now-disgraced Lord Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the US.

Fifteen of those in favour came from Sir Keir's own party, who are as follows:

Apsana Begum - Poplar and Limehouse

Richard Burgon - Leeds East

Ian Bryne - Liverpool West Derby

Mary Kelly Foy - City of Durham

Imran Hussain - Bradford East

Brian Leishman - Alloa and Grangemouth

Emma Lewell - South Shields

Rebecca Long Bailey - Salford

Andy McDonald - Middlesborough and Thornaby East

John McDonnell - Hayes and Harlington

Graham Morris - Easington

Luke Myer - Middlesborough South and East Cleveland

Kate Osbourne - Jarrow and Gateshead East

Cat Smith - Lancaster and Wyre

Nadia Whittome - Nottingham East

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Labour MP Jonathan Brash, who previously called for Keir Starmer to go live on GB News, released a statement saying he would have voted in favour of the motion today, but was otherwise engaged.

The MP for Hartlepool called the use of the whip on MPs for today's vote was "unfair" on politicians, describing it as a "serious misjudgement".

He said: "I feel compelled to set out my position on this evening's vote. To whip colleagues on a matter of this nature is, in my view, a serious misjudgement and deeply unfair on them.

"Regardless of the motives of the opposition parties, the sensible course would have been for the Prime Minister to refer himself to the Privileges Committee."

He concluded that he, therefore, stands with other Labour MPs who voted in favour of the sleaze probe.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, also weighed in, saying she would be "voting for the motion" if she'd been in Parliament today, concluding Sir Keir should be referring himself to the Privileges Committee to "save us all the drama".

She said on X: "I am not in Parliament for today's vote on referring Keir Starmer. If I was, I would be voting for the motion.

"Transparency is a cornerstone of our democracy.

"The best thing for the PM to do would be to simply refer himself on this matter and save us all the drama."

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The vote came after MPs from both opposition parties and Labour wrote to the Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, requesting a Privileges Committee investigation into whether Sir Keir misled the House over the appointment of Lord Mandelson.

The Privileges Committee is the same body whose investigation into Boris Johnson's "partygate" effectively ended his time in office.

There were also roughly 50 Labour abstentions for the vote.

Following the vote, opposition leaders came out strongly against Starmer.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Labour MPs of complicity, warning they would "rue the day" they voted against the motion.

She claimed the Prime Minister had threatened his MPs with job losses to avoid scrutiny, calling it "a disgrace that 333 Labour MPs chose to be complicit in that cover-up".

She added that it was "a Government coming apart at the seams" and that people had now seen that Labour believed in "one rule for Labour and another for everyone else".

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said Sir Keir had "ducked the scrutiny he should have faced by forcing Labour MPs to defend him", calling it "a cowardly way to govern".

He added that if the Prime Minister "truly felt his conduct over the Mandelson scandal was up to scratch, he should have undergone investigation by the Privileges Committee".

Alex Burghart, Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland, said the vote was the "biggest rebellion" of Sir Keir's premiership and "major cracks" were opening up in the Labour Party.

Speaking on GB News, Alex Burghart said: "The Prime Minister has misled Parliament and he needs to be held to account. That's why the Conservatives are doing our absolute best to make sure that he takes responsibility for the lies he's told.

"We have been leading on this. And no surprise that when it came down to it, the Labour whips turned all the thumbs crews to try and get their people in.

"But this was the biggest rebellion of Keir Starmer's premiership, and we are seeing major cracks open up in the Labour Party tonight. And that's what good opposition is."