"A Labour minister who claimed to be surprised and furious at a PR agency's work to investigate journalists on his behalf had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda, the Guardian can reveal. Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was living with the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn."
"The emails, seen by the Guardian, lay out in detail what Simons and his team wrote to intelligence officials in an effort to get them to investigate the sourcing behind a story in the Sunday Times about Labour Together's failure to disclose political donations. When informed by the Guardian about what had been communicated about them to intelligence officials, some of those named in the emails accused Simons of orchestrating a McCarthyite smear campaign that left them feeling violated."
"Simons commissioned an American lobbying and public affairs agency, APCO Worldwide, in late 2023 to investigate the sourcing, funding and origin behind the story. He has in recent days claimed he was disturbed to find the APCO report had delved into unnecessary information about one of the Sunday Times journalists. But the emails show how, weeks after receiving the report, he was involved in naming the same journalist in an email to intelligence officials."
Emails show a Labour minister named journalists to British intelligence and falsely linked them to pro‑Russian propaganda while running the thinktank Labour Together. Josh Simons and his chief of staff told the National Cyber Security Centre that a journalist lived with the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, and that the adviser was suspected of links to Russian intelligence. Simons hired APCO Worldwide in late 2023 to investigate Sunday Times reporting on undisclosed donations. People named in the emails called the actions a McCarthyite smear. A spokesperson for Simons denied the claims.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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