A Labour minister who claimed to be \u201csurprised\u201d and \u201cfurious\u201d at a PR agency\u2019s work to investigate journalists on his behalf had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda, the Guardian can reveal.<\/p>\n
Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour<\/a> Together at the time, was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was \u201cliving with\u201d the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons\u2019 team that the former adviser was \u201csuspected of links to Russian intelligence\u201d.<\/p>\n The extraordinary disclosures are contained in emails that Simons and his chief of staff at Labour Together sent to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of the spy agency GCHQ<\/a>, in 2024. A spokesperson for Simons, a Cabinet Office minister, said: \u201cThese claims are untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n The emails, seen by the Guardian, lay out in detail what Simons and his team wrote to intelligence officials in an effort to get them to investigate the sourcing behind a story in the Sunday Times<\/a> about Labour Together\u2019s failure to disclose political donations.<\/p>\n When informed by the Guardian about what had been communicated about them to intelligence officials, some of those named in the emails accused Simons of orchestrating a \u201cMcCarthyite smear\u201d campaign that left them feeling \u201cviolated\u201d.<\/p>\n Simons commissioned an American lobbying and public affairs agency, APCO Worldwide, in late 2023 to investigate the \u201csourcing, funding and origin\u201d<\/a> behind the story.<\/p>\n He has in recent days claimed he was disturbed to find the APCO report had delved into unnecessary information about one of the Sunday Times journalists. But the emails show how, weeks after receiving the report, he was involved in naming the same journalist in an email to intelligence officials.<\/p>\n Simons and his chief of staff at the thinktank, Ben Szreter, told the NCSC they suspected the Sunday Times article may be linked to a wider \u201ccoordinated effort to discredit\u201d Labour Together in order to undermine Keir Starmer and his then chief adviser, Morgan McSweeney.<\/p>\n McSweeney at the Labour party conference in 2025. Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson\/Ryan Jenkinson\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Simons has been facing calls to resign over his decision to commission the APCO report into the story, which revealed fresh details about the \u00a3730,000 of undeclared donations to Labour Together.<\/p>\n The Electoral Commission had fined the thinktank more than \u00a314,000 for failing to declare the donations. At the time of the undeclared donations, Labour Together was run by McSweeney. He used it in an effort to defeat Corbyn\u2019s leftwing faction of the party and propel Starmer to power<\/a>.<\/p>\n Simons is under investigation by the Cabinet Office\u2019s propriety and ethics team, which is looking into his role in commissioning and disseminating the APCO report. His spokesperson declined to say whether Simons had disclosed his emails with intelligence officials, which cover a two-week period in January and February 2024, to the Cabinet Office team investigating him.<\/p>\n Facing growing pressure in recent days, Simons has said in statements to the press that he was \u201csurprised\u201d, \u201cshocked\u201d, \u201cdistressed\u201d and \u201cfurious\u201d to discover the report he commissioned had \u201cextended beyond the contract by including unnecessary information about Gabriel Pogrund\u201d, a journalist at the Sunday Times. He added that the information relating to Pogrund had been \u201cimmediately removed\u201d by Labour Together before the report was passed on to intelligence officials.<\/p>\n However, the emails seen by the Guardian show that when Simons and Szreter passed the report to intelligence officials, they named Pogrund and his Sunday Times colleague Harry Yorke and suggested their story could be linked to a Russian disinformation campaign.<\/p>\n Gabriel Pogrund of the Sunday Times. Photograph: Aidan Synnott\/ASV Photography Ltd<\/p>\n They also passed on highly personal information about Paul Holden, a freelance reporter who was credited in the Sunday Times report<\/a>. In one email, Simons told officials that material published by the Sunday Times may be linked to \u201cpeople known to be operating in a pro-Kremlin propaganda network with links to Russian intelligence\u201d.<\/p>\n There is no credible evidence any of the journalists were involved in a pro-Russian campaign, or that their story, published in November 2023, was anything other than a public interest report on the prominent thinktank\u2019s breach of electoral law.<\/p>\n \u2018Likeliest culprit is the Russian state\u2019<\/p>\n The emails show Simons approached the spy agency in January 2024 in an apparent attempt to persuade it to investigate the sourcing behind the Sunday Times story.<\/p>\n Earlier that month, Simons had received the 58-page dossier he had commissioned<\/a> from APCO. The contract stipulated that APCO would, for \u00a336,000, provide \u201ca body of evidence that could be packaged up for use in the media in order to create narratives that would proactively undermine any future attacks on Labour Together\u201d.<\/p>\n As the investigative news site Democracy for Sale revealed earlier this month<\/a>, APCO\u2019s report suggested \u2013 without evidence \u2013 that the Sunday Times story was based on data hacked from the Electoral Commission, which it linked to Russia.<\/p>\n On 23 January 2024, Simons contacted the NCSC with information. A source close to Simons told the Guardian the approach was \u201cto report concerns\u201d that information in Holden\u2019s book may have been obtained following an illegal hack.<\/p>\n When officials requested further information, the emails show, Simons replied: \u201cI will review your questions with my team immediately and come back to you as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later, his chief of staff, Szreter, emailed the intelligence officials a response to their questions, attaching a truncated version of the APCO report and copying Simons into the thread.<\/p>\n Szreter\u2019s email to the NCSC was written under the direction of Simons, according to a source close to the Labour minister. The chief of staff was \u201cbasically a PA\u201d, the source said, and his emails to the NCSC paraphrased and quoted excerpts of the APCO report. A second source confirmed Szreter\u2019s email was \u201cdrawn directly\u201d from the report.<\/p>\n The email sketched a theory about the origins of the Sunday Times\u2019s story on Labour Together, which he wrote was a \u201cthinktank close to senior Labour party figures including Sir Keir Starmer and his adviser, Morgan McSweeney\u201d.<\/p>\n The email noted the Sunday Times story had been \u201cwritten by Gabriel Pogrund and Harry Yorke\u201d and pointed out it had credited Holden as having provided documents, which were also going to form the basis of a book by Holden and articles to be published by an American journalist.<\/p>\n \u201cWe suspect that the articles may be a coordinated effort to discredit Labour Together in order to undermine Mr McSweeney and, by extension, Mr Starmer in the run-up to next year\u2019s general election,\u201d wrote Szreter, who is now a Labour special adviser.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not believe that any of the sensitive and closely guarded Labour Together information was leaked by an insider. We believe we have been the victim of a hack by \u2018hostile actors\u2019. As the information was disseminated to pro-Russian journalists linked to other \u2018hack and leak\u2019 operations, we believe that the likeliest culprit is the Russian state, or proxies of the Russian state.\u201d<\/p>\n By then, GCHQ had identified China \u2013 rather than Russia \u2013 as being behind the hack of the Electoral Commission<\/a>. In their emails, Simons and Szreter made other spurious connections to Russia, based on Holden\u2019s private life.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand that Paul Holden, the pro-Corbyn investigative journalist who obtained the documents, is currently living with Jessica Murray,\u201d Szreter wrote. \u201cJessica Murray is daughter of Andrew Murray, a political adviser to Corbyn during his leadership of the Labour party. Andrew Murray is a highly controversial figure who is suspected of links to Russian intelligence by MI5.\u201d<\/p>\n In the author\u2019s note of his recently published book, Holden discloses \u201cin the interests of transparency\u201d that he has a family relationship with Andrew Murray, who is his partner\u2019s father.<\/p>\n Andrew Murray (right) with Corbyn at a pro-Palestine march in 2025. Photograph: Matthew Chattle\/Future Publishing\/Getty Images<\/p>\n However, at the time of Labour Together\u2019s emails to the NCSC, Holden\u2019s relationship with Murray\u2019s daughter was not publicly known. Contacted by the Guardian, Holden said that due to his role working on sensitive investigations, he had taken steps to protect the identity of his home address.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hugely disturbing [that] this investigation even found out where I lived and with whom,\u201d Holden said. He accused Simons of seeking to smear him in an \u201cabsurd and chilling\u201d episode that \u201ccould have had real material consequences for ongoing sensitive work\u201d.<\/p>\n A source familiar with APCO\u2019s investigation said that Trace IQ, a fraud investigation tool, had been used to identify Holden\u2019s home address and the names of other residents living there. APCO has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n In his emails with the intelligence officials, Simons also alleged that Holden, who is a member of the National Union of Journalists, was \u201cpart of a far-left network \u2026 which disseminates pro-Russian propaganda\u201d.<\/p>\n Holden told the Guardian the claims were absurd, saying he and his colleagues had \u201cfaced legal and extra-legal threats\u201d as a result of their investigations into Russian oligarchs. He added: \u201c[I think] it shows just how scared Labour Together were about my investigations into what really mattered: the deeply suspect circumstances around the failure to declare \u00a3730k in donations in violation of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Holden\u2019s partner, Jessica Murray, said she was a \u201cprivate person\u201d and felt \u201cdeeply violated and vulnerable\u201d after learning of the efforts to find where she, Holden and their young family lived. \u201cTo then connect it to false allegations about Russian criminality, which are then relayed to the security services, is disturbing, creepy and deplorable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Andrew Murray said: \u201cThe allegation that I have or have ever had any links with Russian intelligence is a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis appears to be a McCarthyite smear by Josh Simons, who is clearly unfit to hold any form of government or public office, to attempt to divert attention from the failures of Labour Together to comply with electoral law and to prompt a spurious security service investigation based on nothing more than innuendo and falsehoods.\u201d<\/p>\n Allegations briefed to papers<\/p>\n After a brief assessment, the NCSC decided not to investigate the allegations made by Labour Together about the origins of the Sunday Times story. In the emails, Simons appeared frustrated when intelligence officials did not address his concerns.<\/p>\n In an email on 31 January 2024, he told security officials: \u201cOur evidence suggests that sensitive personal and political information obtained in this hack that was only held by the Electoral Commission and our lawyers has been disseminated to people known to be operating in a pro-Kremlin propaganda network with links to Russian intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has serious implications for British democracy and national security. The information obtained, we believe, could be used to destabilise and disrupt the UK electoral process.\u201d He implored the officials to take action, adding that Labour Together\u2019s information revealed the risk of \u201can attack on the UK political realm ahead of a general election\u201d.<\/p>\n Simons added: \u201cIf NCSC do not wish to engage further, could you advise on the appropriate public body who can help to ensure Labour Together has not been caught up in a hack by a hostile actor on the regulator of UK election.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian understands that the NCSC had a meeting with Simons, but ultimately advised him they would not investigate his report. They also pointed out that information leaked to journalists could have been obtained in various ways.<\/p>\n Simons appears to have been undeterred. In the following days, Labour Together and its representatives are understood to have briefed national newspapers \u2013 including the Guardian \u2013 with allegations about Holden, hacked material and Russia.<\/p>\n At the time, Holden was approached for comment. None of the allegations Labour Together was circulating about him were published by any news organisation. Holden recently showed the Guardian his source materials, which indicate the story was based on files leaked from the Labour party by whistleblowers.<\/p>\n Get in touch<\/p>\n Contact Henry Dyer about this story<\/p>\n If you have something to share about this story, you can contact Henry using one of the following methods:<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. 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