Highlights
- Zarah Sultana suspended and fined for calling Keir Starmer a liar.
- Starmer admitted appointing Peter Mandelson was wrong and apologised to victims.
- Sultana was the second MP removed after Lee Anderson that day.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle asked her to withdraw the remark and leave the chamber. Sultana, MP for Coventry South, refused and said she had "a duty to the House to tell the truth."
Hoyle then formally named her, triggering a vote led by Government whip Gen Kitchen to suspend her.
The suspension means she is barred from the Commons and its precincts, and will lose five days' pay.
The flashpoint came during Commons questions over the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador.
Starmer told MPs he would not have appointed Mandelson had he known the former peer had failed Foreign Office security vetting, checks carried out between 23 December 2024 and 28 January 2025.
He said he was "frankly staggered" the information was never passed to him. Sultana challenged that directly, saying the PM was "gaslighting the nation."
Starmer apologised to victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying: "I take responsibility for that decision."
Senior civil servant Olly Robbins, who was effectively sacked last week, told a Commons foreign affairs committee that No 10 had a "dismissive" attitude to the vetting process.
Sultana was the second MP removed from the chamber that day. Reform UK's Lee Anderson was ejected earlier for also calling Starmer a liar. After leaving, Sultana posted on X calling for the prime minister to resign.
