{"id":441613,"date":"2026-02-23T18:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441613\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:37:11","slug":"keir-starmer-opens-investigation-into-josh-simons-over-targeting-of-reporters-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441613\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer opens investigation into Josh Simons over targeting of reporters | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer has opened a formal investigation into a Cabinet Office minister involved in falsely accusing journalists of having links to pro-Russian propaganda.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s decision follows revelations in the Guardian<\/a> that Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling British intelligence 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 prime minister has asked his independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, to examine Simons\u2019 conduct. Magnus\u2019s involvement was first reported<\/a> by the Observer.<\/p>\n

The investigation was announced by Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, during questions in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

Jones said Magnus would give his advice to the prime minister, who would then make a judgment. This would happen \u201cvery soon\u201d and Magnus\u2019s advice would be published, Jones added.<\/p>\n

Simons said he welcomed the decision to refer the matter to Magnus and that he would \u201ccooperate fully with this process\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before it was announced, Simons appears to have accidentally leaked the details of Magnus\u2019s inquiry in a message to a group of 2024-intake Labour MPs, Politico reported<\/a>. The message was later deleted.<\/p>\n

Simons is under growing pressure about his commissioning of an American PR company, Apco, to examine the \u201csourcing, funding and origin\u201d<\/a> behind a November 2023 story published by the Sunday Times that raised questions about \u00a3730,000 in undeclared donations to Labour Together.<\/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 story\u2019s journalists. But the emails show how, weeks after receiving the report, he was involved in naming the same journalist in an email to security officials.<\/p>\n

The emails show Simons pressing the officials to investigate the sourcing behind the article. But despite the accusations, the information was not obtained via a hack and the evidence of Russian involvement was nonexistent.<\/p>\n

Simons is already the subject of a departmental ethics inquiry by the Cabinet Office, and has faced calls from several politicians that he should be sacked or resign. One source has claimed Simons has already been cleared in the \u201cfact-finding\u201d inquiry by the Cabinet Office\u2019s propriety and ethics team, raising questions about what different information Magnus is likely to examine.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday a No 10 spokesperson said Starmer had full confidence in Simons.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team\u2019s inquiry has faced criticism due to Simons\u2019s role as a minister in that department.<\/p>\n

Kevin Hollinrake, the chair of the Conservative party, said Simons should be suspended from office and an independent inquiry should be carried out, adding: \u201cThe Cabinet Office cannot be left to mark its own homework.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrats\u2019 Cabinet Office spokesperson, said Simons should consider his position. \u201cWe were told this government would be cleaner than clean,\u201d she said. \u201cInstead, we\u2019re stuck with cabinet ministers whose previous spin tactics literally involved reporting journalists to the intelligence agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has opened a formal investigation into a Cabinet Office minister involved in falsely accusing journalists of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-441613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}