LONDON: Two British Members of Parliament were suspended and ejected from the House of Commons on Monday after refusing to withdraw remarks accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of lying over his handling of the Peter Mandelson ambassadorial controversy, in a dramatic escalation of a scandal that has gripped Westminster.
Zarah Sultana, independent MP for Coventry South, and Lee Anderson, Reform UK MP for Ashfield, were both removed from the chamber after defying Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s demand that they retract accusations of dishonesty directed at the Prime Minister — a breach of longstanding parliamentary convention.
The confrontation erupted during a Commons statement on Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s ambassador to the United States. Sultana described Starmer as a “bare-faced liar” and accused him of “gaslighting the nation,” alleging that the Prime Minister had knowingly appointed Mandelson despite his documented ties to convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein.
When Speaker Hoyle ordered her to withdraw the remark, Sultana refused. MPs subsequently passed a motion to suspend her, and she was escorted from the chamber. Under Commons rules, which bar members from accusing one another of lying, the refusal to retract triggered a five-day suspension.
Anderson, a former Conservative MP who defected to Reform UK in 2024 and now serves as the party’s chief whip, was ejected on the same day after similarly refusing to withdraw comparable remarks about the Prime Minister.
The Mandelson controversy
The flashpoint centres on Mandelson’s subsequent removal from his ambassadorial post after United States court-released documents linked to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein shed new light on Mandelson’s close association with him. The disclosures prompted sharp questions over the rigour of the government’s vetting process and why Starmer had initially appeared to stand by the appointment.
The affair has rapidly become one of the most politically charged episodes of Starmer’s premiership, drawing cross-party criticism over transparency and ministerial accountability.
Sultana, who withdrew from the Labour Party in 2024 over disagreements on welfare policy and the government’s stance on Gaza, now sits with Your Party and has emerged as one of the most prominent left-wing critics of the Starmer administration.
Following her ejection, she took to social media to reiterate her accusation, calling Starmer a “bare-faced liar” and demanding his resignation. The posts drew an outpouring of support from her backers, while government loyalists condemned what they described as a deliberate breach of parliamentary decorum.
The dual ejections on a single day — from opposite ends of the political spectrum — underscored the breadth and intensity of parliamentary anger over the affair.
