# The Conspiracy To SILENCE Labour Critics Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5kxl09eOvk Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/R5kxl09eOvk Generated: 2026-02-21T11:33:05.048+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Labour Together, the organization linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and founded by the recently resigned Morgan Mweeny, hired the US PR firm APCO to discredit journalists Gabriel Pogrand and Harry York, after they reported Labour Together failed to declare £700,000 in funding, with the smear campaign including false claims that reporting was based on Russian hacks and targeting Pogrand's Jewish faith. **Key Points:** - Labour Together commissioned APCO, a US-based PR firm, to investigate the sourcing and funding of a Sunday Times article that exposed their failure to declare £700,000 in donations between 2017 and 2020, a period when Morgan Mweeny was company secretary. - The APCO report falsely claimed the Sunday Times reporting was based on Russian hacks and personally attacked journalist Gabriel Pogrand, suggesting his reporting on the Royal Family was "in the interests of Russia's strategic foreign policy objectives." - Josh Simons, then head of Labour Together and now a minister in Starmer's government, commissioned the APCO report, which included open-source and human intelligence investigation specifically tasked to proactively undermine future attacks. - Investigative journalist Paul Holden, who provided evidence to the Sunday Times and authored 'The Fraud of Keir Starmer, Morgan Mweeny and the Crisis of British Democracy,' experienced shocking and upsetting material probing into his private life as part of this campaign. - Simons also pressed UK intelligence (NCSC) to investigate Paul Holden, falsely alleging he was handling Russian hacks, based partly on Holden's partner's father, Andrew Murray, being an adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. - The undeclared £730,000 in donations to Labour Together was allegedly used to wage an undeclared war against the Labour Party's left wing and to pay for polling that helped construct Keir Starmer's leadership pitch. - Holden revealed that Labour Together, under Josh Simons, reawakened to fund campaigns for nearly 100 incoming Labour MPs, including Mweeny's wife, linking the organization's current government preparation to past financial wrongdoing. **Context:** The discussion centers on revelations concerning Labour Together, a powerful pro-Starmer organization founded by Morgan Mweeny, which played a key role in securing Starmer's leadership and preparing Labour for government by funding supportive MPs. The context is set by a 2023 Sunday Times article, based on evidence from investigative journalist Paul Holden, detailing how Labour Together failed to declare £700,000 in donations, which the organization allegedly used to influence internal Labour politics and promote Starmer while attempting to purge left-wing influence. ## Detailed Analysis The core issue exposed is Labour Together's aggressive, high-level campaign to silence critical journalism regarding its finances and activities, culminating in hiring the international reputation management firm APCO. APCO was contracted by then-director Josh Simons to investigate journalists Paul Holden, Gabriel Pogrand, and Harry York, not just for sourcing the initial story about undeclared funds, but also to develop preemptive media narratives to undermine future reporting, including Holden's forthcoming book. The investigation into Holden included deeply personal data gathering, leading to false complaints to the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) alleging links to Russian intelligence, based on tenuous family connections to left-wing figures like Jeremy Corbyn. Paul Holden emphasized that this scrutiny is particularly toxic because Labour Together is now deeply embedded in the incoming government, with key cabinet members like Steve Reed, Rachel Reeves, and Wes Streeting having long-term associations with the group, making the entire administration vulnerable to scandals linked to financial impropriety and the hiring of firms to attack the press. ### Financial Misconduct of Labour Together - Failure to report £730,000 in donations between 2017-2020 when Mweeny was secretary - Money allegedly funded an internal war against the Labour left and curated Starmer's leadership pitch - The Electoral Commission investigation resulted only in a 'slap on the wrist' fine of £14,000. ### The APCO Smear Campaign - Josh Simons commissioned APCO to investigate reporters and develop media narratives to undermine future attacks, explicitly ignoring the claim of a Russian hack in the contract - APCO investigated Holden, using OSINT and financial investigations to map his family, including his partner Jessica Murray, daughter of Andrew Murray. ### False Intelligence Allegations - APCO/Simons reported to the NCSC that Holden was handling Russian hacks and connected to Russian operations via his partner's father, which Holden asserts is based on lies and misinterpretation of ANC links. ### Journalistic Response and Evidence - Paul Holden provided evidence to the Sunday Times showing Labour Together was explicitly told by the Electoral Commission in 2017 that they must report donations, undermining claims it was an oversight or misunderstanding of membership status. ### Labour Together's Political Entrenchment - Under Josh Simons, Labour Together relaunched to fund nearly 100 incoming Labour MPs, positioning itself as the policy incubator for the government - Simons, parachuted into a safe seat by the NEC, is now a minister overseeing Digital ID, creating irony given his use of sophisticated data tracking against a journalist. ### Critique of Tactics - Holden argues that while scrutinizing journalists' biases is appropriate for book reviews, proactively creating narratives to undermine true reporting before publication, especially using security services based on falsehoods, is fundamentally different from public interest journalism.