KEIR Starmer’s inner circle were informed that Labour Together were spying on journalists, it has emerged.
The Prime Minister’s former top aide Morgan McSweeney was told about the think tank’s investigation into journalist and author Paul Holden two years ago, the Democracy for Sale newsletter reports.
Also included in an email from Labour Together’s then-director Josh Simons, later a minister, was Paul Ovenden, who went on to become Starmer’s director of political strategy. The email requested a meeting with the two members of Starmer’s top team as well as Tom Harper, who prepared a report on Holden.
In an email ahead of a proposed meeting with Harper, then at the PR company Apco, in January 2024, Simons wrote: “Tom will be delivering his report on Paul Holden on Monday. Can we find a time for Tom, Morgan, Paul and me to meet or zoom in HQ sometime after next week?”
Labour figures reportedly told Democracy for Sale that a meeting subsequently took place, though it is not known what was discussed. They told the investigative news site that the material presented was heavily redacted but that McSweeney and Ovenden knew about the report and approved of it but had no role in commissioning or writing it.
Starmer was said to have been unaware of the matter.
One source told the site: “At the time Josh was concerned about where this stuff had come from and was looking into it.”
They added that McSweeney and Ovenden took Simons at his word that he believed that there had been a hack of sensitive Labour Together materials.
But Holden, in a joint statement with campaigner Andrew Feinstein said the revelations showed that "the operation to investigate us, our families and associates was effectively a joint operation run by the Labour Party, Labour Together and Apco".
They added: "We are calling for a full inquiry into Labour Together. We also call on Sir Keir Starmer to clarify his role in this scandal.
"Considering the documents that have been disclosed to date, we find it nearly inconceivable that Sir Keir Starmer did not know about this despicable project that included Labour Together reporting us to the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, based on utterly false and highly defamatory allegations."
The think tank snooped on journalists who had written stories about Labour Together’s failure to properly declare donations to the Electoral Commission.
Harper’s report spuriously claimed that Labour Together had been the victim of a Russian hack which fed information to journalists. It cast aspersions about the religious and political backgrounds of journalists including Holden and the Sunday Times’s Gabriel Pogrund.
Simons wrote to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), on the urging of Harper, saying that he believed sensitive personal information had been obtained as a result of a hack of the Electoral Commission.
He suggested that Holden was “part of a far-left network […] which disseminates pro-Russian propaganda, including questioning of the Russian attacks on Sergei Skripal” and claimed that the author’s coverage was part of a “co-ordinated effort to discredit Keir Starmer and Labour ahead of the General Election”.
Holden said the documents obtained via a subject access request to Labour Together, showed “that the deeply invasive investigation into me, my family, colleagues and associates was, in effect, a joint project on the part of Labour Together, Apco and the highest levels of the Labour Party, including Morgan McSweeney”.
He added: “It is clear that only a part of this story has yet emerged. There is an urgent need for a full parliamentary inquiry into the history and conduct of Labour Together.”
A Labour Party Spokesperson said: “The freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. The Labour Party remains firmly committed to upholding and protecting that freedom, which is vital in ensuring journalists are able to rightly hold public figures to account.
“Any suggestion that the Labour Party had any role in the commissioning of this report would be incorrect. Labour Together have themselves acknowledged that the scope of the work carried out through this report was indefensible.”
Labour Together has recently rebranded as ThinkLabour and Simons quit his Cabinet Office ministerial role after his role in the scandal came to light.
Alison Phillips, CEO of ThinkLabour said: “ThinkLabour is a very different organisation today compared to Labour Together then and what was done does not reflect and represent what we stand for and how we operate today under my leadership.”
Simons had commissioned PR company Apco, for which Harper was at the time head of media relations in Europe.
Democracy for Sale reported that he has since left the organisation after it emerged he had sought to “get rid” of documents relating to the Labour Together investigation.
McSweeney quit the UK Government in February amid the furore of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.
Ovenden is also out, having quit last year after it emerged he had sent inappropriate text messages about Labour MP Diane Abbott.
