Labour Together and APCO Worldwide: Cabinet Office Review

Commons Urgent Question

The following Answer to an Urgent Question was given in the House of Commons on Monday 23 February.

“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy, and the Government are committed to upholding and protecting that freedom. Journalists must be able to do their job without fear or favour, including holding politicians of all political parties to account on behalf of the public whom we all serve.

In the past week, there have been a number of media reports about the actions of the think tank Labour Together in 2023 and 2024. Some of those media reports have included allegations about the conduct of the joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, my honourable friend the Member for Makerfield, Josh Simons, who was previously the director of Labour Together.

As the Prime Minister confirmed last week, he asked civil servants in the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team to establish the facts. As Members across the House will know, all civil servants are bound by the Civil Service Code, which dictates that they act with integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. The exercise to establish the facts around the allegations was bound by those principles.

That work has now concluded and the facts have been reported to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has been advised that the matter should now be referred to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, and the Prime Minister has done so today. This is not a new process, but a continuation of the process that the Prime Minister has started. The Prime Minister will make a judgment when he has received the advice from the independent adviser. That will happen very soon, and the independent adviser’s advice to the Prime Minister will be made public in the normal way.

The independent adviser is appointed to provide impartial, independent advice to the Prime Minister, in line with his published terms of reference. The current independent adviser was appointed under the last Administration by the Prime Minister’s predecessor and is independent of the Government. He will provide his independent advice directly to the Prime Minister.

I reiterate that a free and independent press is an absolutely essential part of a free, open and democratic society and is one of the things that make our country great. Representing the public as a Minister is a privilege and a duty, and public scrutiny is rightly part of that. The Government are committed to protecting freedom of the press, and no journalist should ever be intimidated for trying to hold those in power to account”.

My Lords, the Prime Minister promised to clean up politics, yet we have had the Cabinet Office investigating one of its own Ministers before belatedly referring the matter to the independent adviser. The process has been conflicted from the outset. The Cabinet Office investigation was conducted by the propriety and ethics team, PET—a team to which a former Labour Together staffer was appointed. Does the Minister agree that such an appointment to PET was plainly unwise, and is the person in question still in that position?

We are told that the Minister in question must remain in post while the independent investigation takes place. Can the Minister here cite where within the remit of the independent adviser it says that he cannot be investigated while suspended as a Minister? Will she set out to the House the precise terms of the referral to the independent adviser and whether the investigation extends beyond Mr Simons’s tenure as a Minister?

Good afternoon. I thank the noble Baroness for her questions, of which there were several. Let me see whether I can assist her with some of her concerns.

First, I place on record my thanks and the thanks of the Government to the civil servants who have so diligently undertaken their work. The noble Baroness will be aware that civil servants are bound by the Civil Service Code, and that therefore all their actions are impartial. Given some of the questions, it is important that we do not cast aspersions on their impartiality or their ability to do their roles without fear or favour.

On the appointment on a former member of staff from Labour Together to the team, I would like to clarify that the post in question sits within the wider propriety and constitution group, not in the propriety and ethics team. That member of staff had nothing to do with the fact-finding exercise that was undertaken by the Cabinet Office.

To confirm the process, what has happened is a fact-finding mission by the propriety and ethics team, the findings of which were discussed with the Prime Minister, with the recommendation that the independent adviser on ethics undertake a process. Sir Laurie Magnus is now undertaking that process, and I would expect him to report soon. Noble Lords will be aware that all his publications are placed in the public domain, so we will all be able to read his recommendations.

On the role of the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, I hate to say it but the clue may be in the name: it is on ministerial standards. Sir Laurie Magnus can investigate only Ministers, as has always been the case. There is no such thing as a suspended Minister; there is a Minister or not a Minister. Therefore, he is undertaking an investigation into the Member in the other place as a Minister.

My Lords, the serious questions about the behaviour of Josh Simons, who is now a Minister, and the inappropriateness of his pursuit of particular journalists are now under investigation, and we support that investigation. I want to ask a wider question about the transparency of funding for third-party campaigns. Why on earth was Labour Together so protective about its funding and will we now be told where its funding was coming from? Will the Government take the opportunity of the elections Bill, now published, to ensure that third-party campaigns are caught by the requirement for transparency of funding? This is a question across the spectrum, as the Minister will remember. The Free Speech Union, for example, recently took out an emergency injunction to prevent its funding being leaked. In a democratic society, we should be told where these third-party campaigns are getting their money from.

The noble Lord raises a genuinely important point that we have discussed in recent weeks. He will be aware that the elections Bill has now been published. I should declare that I have, historically, been responsible for a third-party campaign, HOPE not hate, and that, until the general election, I used to run Index on Censorship. The noble Lord will appreciate some of my concern about recent events. To be clear, the questions pertaining to the actions of Labour Together are a matter for Labour Together, not a matter for the Government. It is an independent organisation, subject to its own governance structures, and noble Lords will be aware that it has its own reporting arrangements. On the wider point, it is something that Members of your Lordships’ House will be discussing in great detail when the elections Bill is in front of us.

My Lords, I cannot begin to express how appalled I am that attacks should have been made upon independent journalists investigating a matter which was a legitimate matter to be investigated by the media. I should declare immediately that I am on the high-level legal panel that advises the Media Freedom Coalition, a global coalition of 51 countries that are seeking to protect journalists. It is quite shocking that any person holding a leadership position should be attacking journalists, when we know that independent journalism is fundamental to democracy and our security, and absolutely something that this Government and any Government should be protecting. I really am concerned at how thin this investigation might have been—it did not go deep enough. The funding has been raised, and what the funding is about, but I am asking the representative on the Front Bench to explain to us how deep this investigation was. This goes to the heart of our democracy. Attacking journalists—good journalists—should never take place.

My noble friend and I worked together when I was the chief executive of Index on Censorship, and in fact I was a member of the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists under the previous Government, which, under the current Government, is co-chaired by Jess Phillips MP and Steph Peacock MP. My noble friend will be aware that we announced yesterday that the Media Freedom Coalition will be co-chaired by the UK for the next two years. I appreciate and share many of her concerns. The investigation that is currently under way is about the actions of Josh Simons as a Minister. My noble friend will be aware that there are other investigations ongoing, outside government, related to the actions of APCO, and Labour Together obviously has its own governance issues to deal with.

My Lords, I point out that the Minister has just highlighted the flaw in this process. When the Prime Minister makes a decision about the continuation of Mr Simons as a Minister, will he have just the information provided by the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, or will he look at Mr Simon’s behaviour when he was at Labour Together? As the noble Baroness has just said, his actions in that organisation appear to have been an attempt to smear journalists. If it is found that he did that, that is what would make him not fit to be a Minister. Is the Prime Minister going to look at that when he makes his decision?

My Lords, I would hope that the Prime Minister will use both the recommendations from Sir Laurie Magnus as well as every other form of information available to him.

My Lords, this House does not question the Minister’s commitment to press freedom, but, clearly, we must judge the Government on actions rather than words. Although in this case the threat of legal action does not appear to have been deployed, she will know that the anti-SLAPP legislation is critical to the protection of press freedom. In opposition, her party were very much committed to this legislation, and they have said that they are committed to it, but there are reports that we will not see it in the next King’s Speech. Can she give us an update on that?

The noble Baroness is even more aware than I am that it is well above my pay grade to comment on the contents of the next King’s Speech. But she will be aware that I actively campaigned on the issue of anti-SLAPP legislation alongside many other Members of your Lordships’ House, and I know that my colleagues in the department share similar commitments.