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Stand-in Steve gets mauling from MPs over Mandy
The Guardian
|September 17, 2025
Just what has Stephen Doughty done to upset Keir Starmer? Are there no limits to the prime minister’s contempt?
Not that Steve is a total nobody. He’s not a run of the mill backbencher. But he has risen as high as he is likely to go as a junior minister in the Foreign Office.
Put simply, Steve is a dependable plodder. And yet for Keir he is just collateral damage. Expendable.
On Thursday it was Doughty who was sent out to fend off the hospital pass of replying for the government on behalf of an urgent question on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.
So you’d have thought that someone might have taken pity on poor Steve. And it’s not just the prime minister who has it in for Steve. Yvette Cooper also takes a very relaxed view of the health and wellbeing of her team.
This story is from the September 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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