Starmer’s day of reckoning: PM ready to order Labour backbenchers to vote against Mandelson sleaze probe that could force him from office

Kemi Badenoch is calling on Labor MPs to put country before party and support a shoddy inquiry into Keir Starmer’s Mandelson ‘lies’.

MPs will vote on Tuesday evening amid opposition calls for an investigation into whether the Prime Minister lied to Parliament about his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

Sir Keir’s defeat would bog down his floundering government and eventually lead to his removal from office.

Downing Street launched a massive arm-twisting operation on Monday night to save him; This included warning Labor MPs they would likely face a three-row whip to get in line.

But writing in the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Ms Badenoch said MPs from all walks of life had a duty to hold Sir Keir to account for his ‘insulting’ treatment of Parliament.

He tells Labor supporters that they ‘are not in the House of Commons just to protect the Prime Minister from embarrassment’.

‘Labour MPs now face a test of their own,’ the Conservative Party leader said.

‘They can drive around in wagons, obey the Whips and tell themselves it’s just politics. Or they may remember that they were MPs before they became members of the Labor Party.’

The rogue inquiry will examine whether Starmer knowingly gave false information to Parliament when he said Peter Mandelson (left) had passed Foreign Office scrutiny for the post of US Ambassador.

Kemi Badenoch calls on Labor MPs to put country before party and support a shoddy investigation

Sir Keir faces a day of torture over his handling of the Mandelson scandal.

He is accused of misleading Parliament by repeatedly claiming that “full legal process” was followed at all times, even though Mandelson was given the job before the vetting was carried out.

Ms Badenoch also questioned Sir Keir’s claim to MPs that there was ‘no pressure’ on officials to delay Mandelson’s appointment.

Former Foreign Office chief Sir Philip Barton is expected to confirm that he warned Mandelson not to be sent to Washington when he appears before MPs on Tuesday morning.

He is also expected to back his successor, Sir Olly Robbins, who said officials were under ‘constant pressure’ from No 10 to sign the appointment.

In last night’s bombshell intervention, former Foreign Office security chief Ian Collard accepted Sir Olly’s claim that there was pressure from Downing Street for Mandelson’s review to be carried out as soon as possible.

No 10 is also set for the Prime Minister’s former private secretary, Morgan McSweeney, to give evidence about the scandal this morning.

Opposition MPs are today calling for an investigation by the House of Commons Privileges Committee into whether Sir Keir misled Parliament.

In a rare move, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, allowed an urgent debate on the issue, saying it was supported by ‘a large number of MPs across the House’.

It’s the same process Sir Keir used to ban Boris Johnson from parliament over Partygate, but the Prime Minister insisted his case was ‘completely different’.

House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has authorized an urgent debate on whether to launch an investigation.

Former Foreign Office chief Sir Philip Barton (pictured), appearing before MPs on Tuesday morning, is expected to confirm Sir Olly Robbins’ statement that the Foreign Office was under ‘constant pressure’ from No 10 to sign off on Mandelson’s appointment.

He told Sky News the Government ‘has a huge amount of transparency’ and described today’s House of Commons vote as a ‘political spectacle’.

He asked rebel MPs to support him in his speech to the Labor Party in Parliament last night. ‘Tomorrow is pure politics and we must stand together against it,’ he said. ‘It is important to see the big picture here. They want to stop this Labor government. We are much stronger when we stand together and fight together.’

Sir Keir has struggled to escape backlash for going ahead with Mandelson’s appointment, despite being warned in writing that he had a ‘particularly close’ relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and questionable business contacts in Russia and China.

The Prime Minister sought to blame officials by sacking Sir Olly this month after learning the appointment was made without his knowledge, against the advice of the UK Security Review. But he struggled to convince MPs and even Cabinet members of his story.

Angela Rayner appeared to throw a lifesaver at the Prime Minister last night as her allies suggested she would not vote for the inquiry.

Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart said last night: ‘Labour MPs should put their principles before the party and vote to direct Keir Starmer to the Privileges Committee.’

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy yesterday became the latest senior figure to confirm that he had warned the Prime Minister not to appoint Mandelson.

“There were concerns at the time,” he told LBC. ‘And there was a debate within the government.’

MPs are generally given a free vote on matters relating to whether the truth has been told to Parliament.

Conservative ambassador Sir Desmond Swayne said it would be ‘disgusting’ if Labor MPs were ordered to line up over the question of whether the Prime Minister was telling the truth.

But panicked Labor Whips are expected to warn MPs today that they risk being suspended from the party if they do not support Sir Keir.

And No 10 took the unusual step of selectively publishing a letter from the Mandelson files that they believed strengthened the Prime Minister’s claim that he was telling the truth.

Former permanent secretary Sir Chris Wormald’s letter stated that it was determined that ‘appropriate processes were followed’ in the investigation into Mandelson’s appointment. But Ms Badenoch said it was ‘irrelevant’ because it was already clear that Sir Chris’s predecessor, Simon Case, had advised the Prime Minister not to announce the appointment until he had been vetted for security reasons; this advice was ignored.

MPs were told that tens of thousands of files on Mandelson, which Parliament requested in February, would not be released until after local elections.