Keir Starmer opens investigation into Josh Simons over targeting of reporters

Keir Starmer has opened a formal investigation into a Cabinet Office minister involved in falsely accusing journalists of having links to pro-Russian propaganda.The prime minister’s decision follows revelations in the Guardian 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 “living with” the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons’s team that the former adviser was “suspected of links to Russian intelligence”.The prime minister has asked his independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, to examine Simons’s conduct. Magnus’s involvement was first reported by the Observer.Simons is under growing pressure about his commissioning of an American PR company, Apco, to examine the “sourcing, funding and origin” behind a November 2023 story published by the Sunday Times that raised questions about £730,000 in undeclared donations to Labour Together.He has in recent days claimed he was disturbed to find the Apco report had delved into unnecessary information about one of the story’s 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.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.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 “fact-finding” inquiry by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, raising questions about what different information Magnus is likely to examine.Earlier on Monday a No 10 spokesperson said Starmer had full confidence in Simons.The Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team’s inquiry has faced criticism due to Simons’s role as a minister in that department.Kevin Hollinrake, the chair of the Conservative party, said Simons should be suspended from office and an independent inquiry should be carried out, adding: “The Cabinet Office cannot be left to mark its own homework.”Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrats’ Cabinet Office spokesperson, said Simons should consider his position. “We were told this government would be cleaner than clean,” she said. “Instead, we’re stuck with cabinet ministers whose previous spin tactics literally involved reporting journalists to the intelligence agencies.”