Labour Minister Under Investigation Over Alleged Journalist Smear Campaign | #NovaraLIVE

Quick Overview

The investigation into a smear campaign allegedly authorized by current Cabinet Minister Josh Simons, then chief executive of Labour Together, against journalists digging into the group's funding, has been exposed by The Sunday Times, revealing a 58-page report codenamed 'Operation Cannon' that baselessly accused journalists of being part of a Russian campaign.

Key Points: Josh Simons, while chief executive of Labour Together in 2023, allegedly authorized a US PR firm, APCO, to run a smear campaign against journalists at a cost of £36,000, just after a Sunday Times investigation into Labour Together's undeclared donations. APCO's report, 'Operation Cannon,' written by Tom Harper, sought to betray journalists Gabriel Pogrand and Harry York as part of a Russian campaign, alleging without evidence that their story's underpinning emails came from a Kremlin hack of the Electoral Commission. The APCO report included baseless personal attacks on journalist Gabriel Pogrand, referencing his Jewish faith and suggesting his reporting was destabilizing and in the interests of Russia's strategic foreign policy objectives. A version of the APCO report, stripped of personal claims but containing the section on the Sunday Times article, was shared with GCHQ's National Cyber Security Center, which declined to launch a full investigation, a referral Labour Together then used to discredit the journalists. Labour MP John Macdonald expressed shock over the allegations, writing four times to the Labour Party general secretary and Keir Starmer asking for an investigation, but was referred to the complaints department, highlighting the Labour Party's initial reluctance to act. Former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended her decision to proscribe Palestine Action as unlawful by the High Court, claiming she followed clear advice regarding risks of violence and public safety, which the court found did not meet the threshold for proscription. The Scottish paper The National had previously broken stories in September detailing Labour Together targeting journalists Paul Holden and Andrew Feinstein with similar smear tactics, including attempts to leverage funding sources, but these reports were largely ignored by the national press.