British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has initiated an inquiry into an anti-censorship advocacy group following allegations that it attempted to discredit journalists by falsely associating them with Russia.
The Cabinet Office is set to probe Labour Together, a think tank established by Morgan McSweeney, who previously served as Starmer’s chief of staff. This group played a pivotal role in Starmer’s ascent by forming entities that targeted supporters of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and conservative American outlets, including unspecified media.
Amid growing concerns regarding McSweeney’s role in appointing Jeffrey Epstein-linked Lord Peter Mandelson as the U.S. ambassador, new claims have surfaced against Labour Together. These include allegations of paying at least £30,000 to the American PR firm APCO Worldwide to scrutinize journalists from the Sunday Times and Guardian.
The allegations followed a report by the Times revealing that McSweeney had not declared £730,000 in donations to Labour Together. According to Democracy for Sale, an independent outlet, APCO allegedly falsely accused journalists of sourcing their information from Russian or Chinese hackers involved with Britain’s Electoral Commission. The firm reportedly also delved into the journalists’ “backgrounds and motivations.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Starmer stated that he was unaware of the activities involving APCO Worldwide and emphasized, according to the BBC, “This absolutely needs to be looked into.”
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall informed Times Radio that the investigation will address the involvement of Josh Simons, the former director of Labour Together. Simons, now serving as the digital minister in Starmer’s administration, was at the helm of the think tank when APCO was engaged.
“The Cabinet Office will be investigating the facts of what has happened. There’s already an investigation going on by the regulatory body that covers public affairs agencies, and that is absolutely right, too,” she said.
Simons has claimed that APCO Worldwide went beyond its brief and said that he was “shocked” that its report included “unnecessary information” on Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund, which he said he asked to be removed before passing the report to the intelligence services.
Nevertheless, Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake said that the behaviour of Labour Together demonstrated a ” worrying contempt for the free press”.
“With its close and widely known links to the heart of government, serious questions must be answered about who was aware of these actions, including whether senior figures around the prime minister knew.”
Labour Together came under increased scrutiny late last year after it was claimed by South African investigative journalist Paul Holden that the McSweeney-founded group had created multiple leftist cutout groups, including Stop Funding Fake News (SFFN) and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), to wage censorship campaigns against the far-left in Britain and conservatives in the United States, including – News.
For example, in 2020, the CCDH had reportedly lobbied Google to ban conservative sites, including -, from its advertising programme. The NGO had also previously defined its core mission as “Kill Musk’s Twitter”.
In December, Centre for Countering Digital Hate director Imran Ahmed was sanctioned by the Trump administration for his role in the “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”
