Media caption, Watch: 'I was naive,' says ex-minister who resigned over Labour Together claimsByAdam GoldsmithPublished28 March 2026 A Labour MP who resigned as a Cabinet Office minister has said he was "naive" and "so sorry" in his first full interview since leaving his role. Josh Simons quit on 28 February after facing claims that the think tank he used to run before he became an MP commissioned a report that looked into journalists' backgrounds. Labour Together paid APCO Worldwide at least £30,000 to "investigate the sourcing, funding and origins" of a Sunday Times story about undeclared donations at the think tank ahead of the 2024 election. Simons previously said he "never sought to smear" the journalists investigated, and has now told the BBC's Newscast that "there's a lot I've learned from it". Simons told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O'Connell that when the Sunday Times reported Labour Together had not declared its donations properly, he was "concerned that information that had been obtained was confidential information that might have come from a hack of the Electoral Commission".
Published: March 28, 2026 5:01 pm
Source: BBC — Read original