Starmer urged to investigate links between Government and ‘creepy spy scandal’

Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to investigate whether there are links between his Government and a prominent think tank which has been accused of paying a PR firm to investigate journalists reporting on its funding.

Labour Together is said to have hired APCO Worldwide to investigate reporters from The Sunday Times, The Guardian and other outlets to identify their sources after stories about the think tank’s failure to declare more than £700,000 in donations.

The Sunday Times said APCO was paid £36,000 to carry out the investigation in 2023, when the think tank was run by Josh Simons, now Labour MP for Makerfield and a Cabinet Office minister.

The Democracy For Sale newsletter previously published similar allegations.

Before Mr Simons, Labour Together was run by Morgan McSweeney, who recently quit as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff because of his part in the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington DC.

The Conservative Party has written to Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley, urging her to investigate Mr Simons’ role in the decision to hire APCO.

It also urged Labour to investigate the role of other Labour Together directors, who include “serving Cabinet ministers”, and to set out whether the party still considers it appropriate for Labour MPs to receive cash from the think tank.

The Labour Party should suspend all engagement with Labour Together “until all allegations have been independently investigated”, the Tories said.

The letter, from Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake, concluded: “Once again, the Government is distracted from the serious challenges facing our country.

“The public deserve the full, unredacted facts about this latest scandal to engulf the top of the Labour Party. Nothing less will suffice.”

In a statement, Mr Hollinrake said: “Labour Together’s behaviour shows a worrying contempt for the free press, a fundamental foundation of our democracy.

“With its close and widely known links to the heart of Government, serious questions must be answered about who was aware of these actions, including whether senior figures around the Prime Minister knew.

“After Starmer’s attempts to deflect from the Mandelson-Epstein affair, the public will accept nothing less than full transparency.”

The Sunday Times reported that a 58-page report resulted from APCO’s investigation, which included details aimed at discrediting its reporters who had investigated campaign finance breaches by Labour Together.

The think tank was fined £14,250 in September 2021 over late reporting of donations, totalling £730,000 between 2017 and 2020, after referring itself to the Electoral Commission.

Labour backbenchers and Reform UK also called for an investigation into the matter, the Telegraph reported.

Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, told the paper that Labour and the Prime Minister “should now commit to full co-operation with an independent inquiry to establish the facts: what was commissioned, who authorised it, who knew about it, and how far it went”.

Reform’s Nadhim Zahawi, a former Tory minister, told the Telegraph: “This is a huge story. If this was any other party, the calls for an investigation would be deafening. We need to know who knew about this inside Labour. Did the PM know?”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said the Prime Minister should sack Mr Simons as a minister, as he is “at the centre of this creepy spy scandal”.

He added: “The Labour Government is consumed by chaos and failing to deliver on the issues that matter – like helping families with the cost of living, which has soared under Keir Starmer.

“It’s not good enough. The UK can’t go on with a lame duck Prime Minister limping on from one crisis to the next.”

The Labour Party and APCO have been contacted for comment.