Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Beleaguered British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suffered a fresh setback on February 28 after another Minister in his Government resigned.
It came hot on the heels of Labour finishing a humiliating third in a crunch byelection on February 26. Josh Simons, Labour MP, resigned as a Cabinet Office Minister, just days after Starmer asked his ethics adviser to investigate him.
Simons faced claims the think tank he used to run before he became an MP commissioned a report that looked into the background of journalists, reported BBC. Confirming his resignation on X, Simons said that he had “become a distraction from this Government’s important work”.
Starmer said he had accepted the resignation “with sadness”, adding that ethics adviser Laurie Magnus found Simons had not breached the ministerial code. “I want to express my thanks for the commitment, focus, and energy you have brought to ministerial office,” the PM added.
Simons said in his letter that he “never sought to smear” the Guardian and Sunday Times journalists investigated by APCO Worldwide, and paid tribute to their work.
Labour Together paid APCO Worldwide at least £30,000 to “investigate the sourcing, funding and origins” of a Sunday Times story about undeclared donations at the 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. The BBC has not seen APCO Worldwide’s report in full, but sources familiar with its contents have confirmed the details, which were reported by the Sunday Times.
It also claimed, the sources said, that Pogrund’s previous reporting, including on the Royal Family, “could be seen as destabilising to the UK and also in the interests of Russia’s strategic foreign policy objectives”.
A contract addressed to Simons, seen by the BBC, also agreed to investigate journalist Paul Holden and Matt Taibbi, an American reporter.
Simons, 32, had previously said the company which did the research for Labour Together had “gone beyond” what it had been asked to do. Magnus said Simons had acted “in good faith” but added that the MP acknowledged the “perceived gap between his public statements and what he now accepts appears to be a more extensive scope has been damaging”.
More than 20 Labour MPs had called for a “fully independent investigation” into Simons and the report. Labour Together has been widely credited with helping Starmer get elected as Labour leader.
