Photo by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street The Prime Minister faced a moment of peril yesterday after the Conservatives secured a vote on whether to refer Starmer to the Privileges Committee following accusations he misled parliament over the Mandelson affair. In the end, the Labour benches backed him: only 223 MPs voted for the Tory motion with 335 voting against. The debate ahead of the vote was long and arduous. I popped in to watch it from the Press Gallery yesterday afternoon. Though the Labour benches were sparse, the government had called its MPs back to parliament urgently, demanding they vote against the motion under a three-line whip. During the day, No 10 called in back up. Ahead of the vote, cabinet ministers rang round backbench MPs, urging them to vote down the motion, and on Monday night, Gordon Brown put out a statement backing the PM. In the end, only 15 Labour MPs rebelled, many of whom are members of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group (SCG).…