Sir Keir Starmer has ordered his ethics watchdog to investigate a cabinet office minister, following claims a Labour think tank paid for an investigation into journalists.
Josh Simons has faced calls to resign from his ministerial post after reports that think tank Labour Together, which he ran before entering government, paid a PR firm to look into the personal background of a journalist in 2023.
The chief secretary to the prime minister, Darren Jones, told MPs on Monday that Mr Simons had now been referred to the independent standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, following an investigation by civil servants in the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team.
“As the prime minister confirmed last week, he asked civil servants in the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team to establish the facts... That work has now concluded, and the facts have now been reported to the prime minister,” Mr Jones told the Commons.
“The prime minister has been advised that the matter should be referred now to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, which the prime minister has done today.”
Mr Simons was director of the think tank at a time it is accused of paying PR firm Apco Worldwide £36,000 to look into journalists from The Sunday Times, The Guardian and other outlets who had covered the group’s failure to declare more than £700,000 in donations.
The PR firm’s probe is said to have resulted in a 58-page report, which included details designed to discredit reporters who had looked into campaign finance breaches by the think tank.
The think tank was fined £14,250 in September 2021 over late reporting of donations, totalling £730,000 between 2017 and 2020, after referring itself to the Electoral Commission.
Mr Jones told MPs that freedom of the press is a “cornerstone of our democracy”, and the government is committed to upholding and protecting that freedom.
“This is not a new process, but a continuation of the process the prime minister has started, and the prime minister will make a judgment when he has received the advice from the independent adviser.
“This will happen very soon, and his advice to the prime minister will be made public in the normal way.”
Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart has said it is “difficult to see” how Mr Simons’ position is tenable following the alleged “attempt to smear” journalists.
Mr Burghart told MPs that the report included “an allegation that those journalists in question had relied on Russian hacking”, which was “entirely spurious”.
He added: “That investigation included details of one journalist’s Jewish faith and made claims about his ideological upbringing and personal relationships.
“The report was then circulated to key members of the Labour Party and to GCHQ, who swiftly said there was no case to answer.
“This looks to all intents and purposes like a deliberate attempt to smear and intimidate journalists whose only crime had been to report that Labour Together had broken electoral law.
“As of today, it is very difficult to see how the minister’s position is tenable.”
From Labour ‘Prince’ to Epstein shame: How Lord Mandelson fell from grace
Mandelson arrest latest: Ex-peer released on bail as Virginia Giuffre’s family react
New Zealand says it would back removal of Andrew from line of succession
Reform will face down any ‘progressive outrage’ over mass deportations, Yusuf says
Who is Peter Mandelson and what do we know about his relationship with Epstein?
Starmer makes visit at Gorton and Denton by-election in bid to save his premiership
