(Alamy)
2 min read
Keir Starmer has asked his independent ethics adviser to investigate whether minister Josh Simons breached the ministerial code over his role in allegations surrounding the think tank that he used to head.
Earlier on Monday, PoliticsHome reported that the Prime Minister was considering asking Sir Laurie Magnus to assess whether rules had been breached by Cabinet Office minister Simons.
In a WhatsApp message to Labour MPs on Monday, seen by PoliticsHome, Simons said he had been informed by “Jonny”, seemingly a reference to Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, that Starmer had asked Magnus “to look into it” and that the “aim is to move fast”.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Darren Jones, later confirmed in the House of Commons that Starmer had “been advised that the matter should be referred now to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, which the Prime Minister has done today”.
Magnus is expected to look at whether the Labour minister has been truthful in recent statements about his actions while at Labour-aligned think tank, Labour Together.
The Cabinet Office had carried out its own investigation into Simons, led by the government’s propriety and ethics team. Its conclusions prompted Starmer to refer the case to Magnus, according to Downing Street.
Simons, elected at the 2024 general election, is accused of asking a public affairs firm to investigate journalists writing about Labour Together while he was head of the think tank.
Simons has said APCO Worldwide had “gone beyond” what it had been asked to do when it pursued “unnecessary” personal information about Sunday Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund.
The PR company had agreed to look at “the sourcing, funding and origins” of reporting by the newspaper about the think tank’s failure to declare political donations.
The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK have all called for Simons to resign from his ministerial position while he is being investigated.
Kevin Hollinrake, chair of the Tories, has said a Cabinet Office investigation into Simons is not sufficient because the department “cannot be left to mark its own homework”.
A group of Labour backbenchers had called on Downing Street to launch an independent investigation into the allegations.
When he ordered the Cabinet Office investigation, which was led by the government’s propriety and ethics team, Starmer said he “didn’t know anything” about the APCO Worldwide report.
The Guardian later reported that Simons named Pogrund and fellow journalist Paul Holden to British security officials and falsely linked them to pro-Russia propaganda.
