Josh Simons Quits After Explosive Labour Together Row
Josh Simons resigns after a Cabinet Office ethics probe into Labour Together’s report on journalists. Fallout deepens despite no ministerial code breach.
Labour MP Josh Simmons has resigned as Cabinet Office minister. This resignation comes just days after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer asked his ethics adviser to investigate him.
Simons faced allegations that the think tank he ran before becoming an MP commissioned a report investigating the backgrounds of journalists.
Confirming his resignation on X, the Labour MP said he had become "a distraction from the important work of this government."
Sir Keir said he accepted the resignation "with sadness," and added that ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus found that Simmons had not violated the ministerial code.
Sir Keir added, "I want to thank you for your commitment, focus, and energy at the Ministerial Office."
In his letter, Simmons stated that he "never sought to discredit" the Guardian and Sunday Times journalists investigated by APCO Worldwide and praised their work. Labour Together paid APCO Worldwide at least £30,000 to "investigate the sourcing, funding, and origins" of a Sunday Times story about undisclosed donations to a think tank ahead of the 2024 election.
The US public affairs firm's report included information about journalist Gabriel Pogrund's Jewish beliefs and claims about his ideological position.
Sources said it also claimed that Pogrund's previous reporting, including on the Royal Family, "could be seen as destabilizing to the UK and in the interest of Russia's strategic foreign policy goals."
A contract awarded to Simmons also agreed to investigate journalist Paul Holden and Matt Taibbi, an American reporter.
Holden said on Saturday that "Josh Simmons is unfit to be an MP, let alone a Cabinet Minister," and added: "I will now work to ensure that parliamentary authorities hold him accountable if our weak and lazy Prime Minister won't."
He claimed that Simmons' actions threatened his livelihood and reputation, and had caused him "significant distress."
Simmons, 32, the MP for Makerfield, had previously said that the company that conducted research for Labour Together "exceeded" what it was asked to do.
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In a letter to the Prime Minister, ethics adviser Sir Laurie said that Simmons now accepted that the terms he had agreed with APCO Worldwide were "greater than he understood" and that he had been "too hasty in confirming his appointment."
Sir Lawrie said Simmons had acted "in good faith," but added that the MP acknowledged that "the discrepancy between his public statements and what he now believes in a broader context has been damaging."
More than 20 Labour MPs have called for a "fully independent investigation" into Simmons and the report.
Labour Together is credited with helping Sir Keir Starmer be elected Labour leader.
Simmons' colleagues have said they regret what happened, but APCO should take responsibility for its actions and has not done so yet.
They said he put his party first by resigning, but never tried to discredit journalists.
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of using the attacks in the Middle East to "secretly force another ministerial resignation."
He said, "Josh Simmons was in charge of a group that deliberately maligned journalists, even using one journalist's Jewish religion to question them. The Labour Party has not changed."
Badenoch also called on the PM to "tell us immediately whether he will now sever Labour Together's relationship with his government and return the tainted money donated by them."
Alison Phillips, who became Chief Executive of Labour Together in 2025, said that the "scope of work" carried out by APCO was "indefensible."
She said the organization was now under new leadership and would "learn the necessary lessons from the past."
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