{"id":442870,"date":"2026-02-24T11:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442870\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:08:08","slug":"josh-simons-accidentally-sends-details-of-his-case-to-labour-mp-group-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442870\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Simons accidentally sends details of his case to Labour MP group chat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img width=\"1038\" height=\"778\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/54487358280_a859b37e80_o-1038x778.jpg\" class=\"attachment-4x3-large-crop size-4x3-large-crop wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><br \/>\n                Photo by House of Commons<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Josh Simons, the Labour minister facing calls to be sacked over his alleged role in a smear campaign against journalists, appears to have accidentally sent details of his case to a Labour MPs\u2019 group chat, including that he had been reassured by a senior Labour figure that the investigation into him has concluded he didn\u2019t break the ministerial code, and that Keir Starmer will ask his ethics adviser to conduct a \u201cfast\u201d further probe into the matter.<\/p>\n<p>A leaked message hastily deleted from a group chat showed Simons, a Cabinet Office minister and former director of Labour Together, apparently share details of the investigation into him. The message included the information that the Prime Minister will ask \u201cLaurie\u201d \u2013 Laurie Magnus, Starmer\u2019s\u00a0Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards \u2013 to \u201clook into\u201d his case, but that the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team \u201cdid find I had not broken the code\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The former Labour Together director is accused of paying a PR firm \u00a336,000 to investigate the personal, religious and political backgrounds of journalists reporting on the think tank\u2019s undeclared funding. Simons has in recent days said he was \u201cdisturbed\u201d to find the APCO report had delved into unnecessary information about one of the story\u2019s journalists. It has since emerged that, weeks after receiving the report, Simons also reportedly passed information on journalists to GCHQ, while\u00a0falsely claiming they had links to the Kremlin. Simons has not yet responded to the New Statesman\u2018s request for comment. <\/p>\n<p>Starmer has faced calls to sack him from opposition parties and some Labour backbenchers, while the Sunday Times has called on Simons to step aside for a full investigation to take place. The matter has been under investigation by the Cabinet Office\u2019s propriety and ethics team \u2013 the same government department in which Simons serves as a minister.<\/p>\n<p>                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/politics\/uk-politics\/2026\/02\/javascript(void);\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dl6pgk4f88hky.cloudfront.net\/2021\/09\/TNS_master_logo.svg\" class=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the New Statesman today for only \u00a31 a week.<\/p>\n<p>Simons appears to have been informed by the Labour chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds, that the Cabinet Office probe has found he did not breach the ministerial code. However, a person familiar with the matter said the Cabinet Office doesn\u2019t decide on whether or not the ministerial code has been breached.<\/p>\n<p>The full message, sent by Simons into a Labour MPs\u2019 WhatsApp chat, reads: \u201cJonny rang. PM will ask Laurie to look into it. Aim is to move fast. But PET did find I had not broken the code.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/politics\/uk-politics\/2026\/02\/can-bridget-phillipson-avoid-a-send-revolt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Can Bridget Phillipson avoid a Send revolt?<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>    Content from our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by House of Commons Josh Simons, the Labour minister facing calls to be sacked over his alleged&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442871,"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-442870","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\/442870","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=442870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}