❓WHAT HAPPENED: Labour Together, led by British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, is facing investigation for hiring U.S. lobbyists to do opposition research on journalists behind a critical Sunday Times article.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Labour Together, U.S. lobbying firm APCO, journalists Gabriel Pogrund and Harry Yorke, and leading Labour Party figures including Morgan McSweeney and Keir Starmer.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The investigation occurred in late 2023 and early 2024, following a Sunday Times report on undeclared donations by Labour Together.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The freedom of the press and the ability of journalists to work free from harassment and intimidation is a vital foundation of our free society.” – Nick Timothy, Member of Parliament (MP)
🎯IMPACT: The revelations have sparked calls for investigations into APCO and Labour Together, and raise questions about Labour Together’s role in Starmer’s leadership campaign.
Labour Together, which played a key role in helping Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer win the leadership of Britain’s governing Labour Party, brought in the U.S. lobbying firm APCO Worldwide to look into the personal, political, and religious backgrounds of reporters who wrote a critical article about them in The Sunday Times. That article revealed that £730,000 (~$1m) in donations made between 2017 and 2020 had not been properly declared—an issue later found by the Electoral Commission to be in violation of Britain’s campaign finance rules.
APCO’s findings, compiled under the codename “Operation Cannon,” reportedly contained unfounded and highly personal allegations about Sunday Times journalists Gabriel Pogrund and Harry Yorke. The document attempted to undermine their reporting by suggesting that the information on the unlawful donations had been obtained through Russian hacking of the Electoral Commission, and asserting without evidence that the “likeliest culprit is the Russian state, or proxies of the Russian state.”
According to reports, the document was circulated informally among Labour figures, including cabinet ministers and special advisers, and was used to fuel a whispering campaign targeting the journalists. Member of Parliament (MP) Nick Timothy called the report an “appalling” act of “harassment and intimidation” against the press. Notably, similar unfounded claims of Russian collusion have been circulated against Brexit leader Nigel Farage, U.S. President Donald J. Trump, and other anti-establishment figures across the West for many years.
Josh Simons, now serving as a Cabinet Office minister, acknowledged that he had commissioned APCO’s work. He said he asked for that material to be removed before passing the report to the National Cyber Security Centre, which ultimately decided not to pursue a full investigation.
The disclosures have led to calls for an investigation into Labour Together and ACPO’s conduct. Starmer has claimed he has no knowledge of ACPO’s activities and that he would support an investigation. Notably, Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was the leader of Labour Together. His resignation was forced over his role in the elevation of Jeffrey Epstein-linked Lord Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., which has caused huge embarrassment for Starmer’s government over recent weeks.
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