George Parker

They weren't under any pressure to ignore red flags being raised as part of the vetting process, which has always been Keir Starmer's contention.

Yeah, very nervous about this.

This is the kind of measure that the Labour Party, when they were in opposition under Keir Starmer's leadership, used to use against Boris Johnson.

The sleaze inquiry by the official parliamentary ethics watchdog.

They deployed it against Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal, and now the tables are being turned on Keir Starmer.

The Tories are trying to get this affair referred to something called the Privileges Committee.

There'll be a vote on that later on today.

The Liberal Democrats and other opposition party are also supporting it.

However, as you say, Starmer's office are very worried about it.

They've been pulling out all the stops.

Starmer went to meet the Parliamentary Labour Party last night to plead with them for their support.

Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister, has been wheeled out in defence of Keir Starmer.

My sense on this is that although it's going to be a difficult debate for the Prime Minister, I think he's going to win the vote eventually.

And I think this formal investigation won't be launched this afternoon.

Well, the context of all this is there's a very, very difficult set of elections coming up for the Labour Party on the 7th of May in Scotland, Wales, English councils.

We're expecting the Labour Party to get an absolute hammering

annihilated in some parts of the country.

Then the question arises, is the Labour Party going to say enough's enough and pull the plug on Keir Starmer?

The balance of the party is on what you would call the soft left side of the party and the two obvious candidates on that side of the party are Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham.

The problem is neither of them are ready to run for different reasons.