A newly released document says senior advisers to Keir Starmer were briefed about an investigation into journalists who wrote critical pieces about the Labour Together thinktank. The probe was commissioned by Labour Together director Josh Simons and run by Apco Worldwide, a US-owned PR firm. Morgan McSweeney, former chief of staff to the prime minister, received updates, and the investigation focused on the sources of stories about 740,000 undeclared donations made to the thinktank when it was previously run by McSweeney. Apco’s work identified journalists including Gabriel Pogrund, Harry Yorke, and Henry Dyer as persons of interest. The final report included claims about Pogrund’s faith and relationships and suggested his reporting could be destabilising.
"Keir Starmer's most senior advisers were briefed about an indefensible investigation into journalists writing critical pieces about the Labour Together thinktank, according to a newly released document. Among the aides who received updates on the probe, commissioned by the thinktank's director, Josh Simons, were Morgan McSweeney, the former chief of staff to the prime minister. McSweeney declined to comment on the revelation, but the disclosure has raised questions about Starmer's own knowledge about the affair, which is the subject of a review by the Cabinet Office's propriety and ethics team."
"Josh Simons, later a minister, was Labour Together's director when he commissioned an investigation in 2023 into the source of stories about 740,000 undeclared donations made to the thinktank when it was previously run by McSweeney. The thinktank was fined 14,250 in September 2021. Six months before Labour won the 2024 general election, Simons wrote to McSweeney and Paul Ovenden, who was Starmer's director of political strategy, to update them on investigation run by Apco Worldwide, a US-owned PR firm."
"Simons wrote in an email on 14 January 2024: 'Could we find a time for Tom, Morgan, Paul and me to zoom or meet in HQ sometime after that next week?' Internal reports prepared by Apco who were paid more than 30,000 by Labour Together named the Sunday Times journalists Gabriel Pogrund and Harry Yorke, as well as Dyer, Declassified UK's John McEvoy and journalists from other outlets as significant persons of interest. The final report delivered by Harper included claims about the faith and relationships of Pogrund, who co-authored a Sunday Times investigation."
#labour-together #journalist-investigations #apco-worldwide #political-strategy #uk-propriety-and-ethics
Read at www.theguardian.com
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