Laurie Magnus will investigate whether Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons breached ethics rules.
LONDON — Keir Starmer’s independent ethics adviser will investigate Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons following claims he commissioned a lobbying firm to investigate journalists before becoming an MP.
Laurie Magnus will probe whether Simons breached the ministerial code in a row over Labour Together, which tasked the American PR firm APCO Worldwide in 2023 with investigating the “sourcing, funding and origin” of stories that had been published about the group’s finances. Simons was running the think tank at the time.
The U.K. prime minister requested the probe after receiving a “fact finding” report conducted by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones told MPs.
The ministerial code imposes a duty on ministers to comply with a set of ethical standards including upholding principles around openness and honesty.
The crux of Magnus’ investigation into Simons — and particularly any decision about whether he has broken the ministerial code — is likely to focus on Simons’ behavior while he has been a serving minister.
This indicates that Magnus’ decision will be based on Simons’ statements in recent weeks, and whether they were misleading, rather than the events of 2023. However, Magnus could compile evidence about what happened in 2023 in order to support his decision.
When the allegations first surfaced, Simons initially said APCO Worldwide was asked to investigate whether stories about the group were based on emails obtained in a hack of the U.K. political finance watchdog, the Electoral Commission. He later said the firm had “gone beyond” what it had been asked to do by including “unnecessary” personal information about journalists.
A copy of the contract, seen by POLITICO, which was signed between APCO Worldwide and Labour Together makes no mention of the hack. The lobbying firm was tasked with producing “a body of evidence that could be packaged up for use in the media in order to create narratives that would proactively undermine any future attacks on Labour Together.”
Simons accidentally revealed the investigation by the PM’s ethics adviser shortly before it was announced Monday, by mistakenly sending a message to more than 200 Labour MPs who entered parliament in 2024.
His message revealed that Simons had been phoned by Jonathan Reynolds, Starmer’s chief whip, and told that the prime minister would ask his independent advisor to investigate the case.
According to three people who saw the message in a WhatsApp group — which was swiftly deleted — Simons wrote: “Jonny rang, PM will ask Laurie to look in to it. Aim is to move fast. But PET [the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team] did find I had not broken the code.”
Officials later clarified that despite Simons’ message, the role of the propriety and ethics team would not be to clear anyone, but merely to set out the facts to help Magnus reach a decision.
A government official, who asked for anonymity to speak frankly, said: “This was an accidental post and clearly meant for a more private conversation. It’s right that the independent adviser takes this away now.”