British PM Starmer refers minister to ethics adviser over smear claims
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Josh Simons was accused of telling Britain’s security services that critical journalists were linked to a pro-Russian network, a charge he has denied.
PHOTO: JOSH SIMONS MP/FACEBOOK
LONDON – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has referred a government minister accused of smearing journalists to his ethics adviser.
Mr Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s independent adviser on standards, will investigate whether Mr Josh Simons, a junior minister in the Cabinet Office, behaved improperly, following media allegations that a think tank he ran paid for a probe into the background of critical journalists.
The move was announced by Cabinet Office Minister Darren Jones in the House of Commons on Feb 23, after it was recommended by an investigation carried out by his department.
Mr Simons was the director of Labour Together, a group which was instrumental in Mr Starmer’s rise to the Labour leadership and the party’s 2024 election victory, and is also a close ally of the premier’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
Mr Magnus will examine claims that when Mr Simons was in charge, Labour Together employed the advisory firm APCO Worldwide to investigate the sources of a Sunday Times article about the think-tank’s funding in 2023.
He is also accused of telling Britain’s security services that critical journalists were linked to a pro-Russian network, a charge he has denied.
Ms Alison Phillips, the current head of Labour Together, said in an all-staff email seen by Bloomberg News that the allegations about the APCO report were “shocking” and that “I was horrified that investigators hired by Labour Together would look into the background and sources of reporters even if I am assured that this was not the intention.”
Mr Simons, for his part, said in a Feb 6 post on X. that APCO had been asked to look into a “suspected illegal hack, which had nothing to do with UK journalists.” BLOOMBERG
