A Cabinet Office minister is facing mounting cross-party pressure to be dismissed after an investigation found he falsely linked journalists to a “pro-Kremlin” network in emails to Britain’s cyber security officials.
Josh Simons, who holds a junior ministerial post in the Cabinet Office, is under investigation by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team after the Guardian disclosed messages sent to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, during his time running the thinktank Labour Together.
According to the Guardian, Simons and his then chief of staff passed on allegations suggesting journalists who had reported on Labour Together’s funding were connected to Russian propaganda networks. The NCSC reviewed the material but declined to take action.
The claims centred on reporting into Labour Together’s failure to properly declare donations totalling more than £730,000. The Electoral Commission later fined the organisation £14,250 for breaches of electoral law, after concluding the donations between 2017 and 2020 had not been correctly reported.
The journalists named in the material included Sunday Times reporters Gabriel Pogrund and Harry Yorke, who published an investigation in November 2023 into the thinktank’s finances and links to figures close to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as freelance journalist Paul Holden, according to reporting by the Times.
The Guardian said the allegations sent to GCHQ were based on a dossier produced by APCO Worldwide, a US lobbying and public affairs firm. The report, commissioned while Simons was director of Labour Together, was intended to examine the “sourcing, funding and origins” of the Sunday Times story, the Guardian reported. The Times said APCO was paid £36,000 to compile a 58-page dossier and that it was authored by former Sunday Times journalist Tom Harper.
The Guardian reported that the dossier suggested, without evidence, that the reporting may have stemmed from a hack linked to Russia or China. The newspaper said there was no evidence tying the journalists to Russian intelligence and that the information underpinning the reporting had come from a whistleblower.
The controversy has prompted criticism from politicians across the spectrum, with opponents arguing the episode raises questions about the use of national security channels in response to political scrutiny and reporting. The Guardian reported that Conservative Party chair Kevin Hollinrake was among those calling for Simons to be sacked, and that Labour MP Jon Trickett had also criticised the conduct.
Critics have described the approach as a “McCarthyite smear campaign”, a characterisation reported by the Guardian in its coverage of the story.
Simons has denied wrongdoing. The Guardian reported that he said the allegations about the journalists were untrue. The Cabinet Office has confirmed an investigation is under way by its propriety and ethics team into the circumstances surrounding the communications.
The case has revived wider scrutiny of Labour Together, a thinktank with close ties to Labour’s leadership operation. Labour Together has previously attributed the late reporting of donations to “administrative error”, according to earlier reporting referenced by the Guardian.
It has also raised questions about the role of private intelligence and corporate investigations firms in political disputes, after the commissioning of the APCO report and the subsequent decision to share elements of the material with cyber security officials.
The NCSC’s decision not to pursue the allegations is likely to be central to the political fallout. The Guardian reported that officials declined to investigate after considering the claims. The Times reported separately that a cyberattack cited in the dossier had been attributed to China, not Russia.
Downing Street has not set out a timetable for the ethics inquiry or said whether its findings will be published. The outcome will determine whether Simons faces further action under the ministerial code, amid continuing demands from opposition figures and some within Labour for him to step aside or be removed.
The story is continuing.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!