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February 21, 2026 – UK –
In a developing political controversy in the United Kingdom, Labour minister Josh Simons is facing growing calls to resign after disclosures that he wrongly accused journalists of being connected to Russian intelligence in communications with a British intelligence body. Leaked emails and investigations reported by The Guardian have intensified scrutiny over the actions of Simons, who currently serves in the Cabinet Office, and raised wider concerns about press freedom and political ethics.
The controversy centres on emails Simons, formerly director of the influential think tank Labour Together, sent in early 2024 to officials at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). In these messages, he allegedly asserted that two Sunday Times journalists and their reporting might be part of a “pro-Kremlin propaganda network” linked to Russia — claims that internal reviews have found to be baseless. The journalists had published an exposé in 2023 detailing undeclared political donations by Labour Together.
Simons’s outreach to intelligence officials was partly founded on a £36,000 report commissioned from US public affairs firm APCO Worldwide. That dossier speculated — without verifiable evidence — that the story’s sourcing could involve a Russian cyberattack, a theory subsequently rejected by intelligence agencies, which determined a separate hack was linked to Chinese actors, not Russian ones. Critics argue the attempt to involve intelligence authorities represented an effort to discredit critical reporting rather than address the substance of the journalists’ findings.
Opposition politicians and media observers have condemned Simons’s conduct, with calls for his dismissal or resignation coming from both Conservative figures and commentators within his own Labour Party. Critics have described the episode as reminiscent of discredited political tactics involving the targeting of journalists, and have labelled the effort to associate reporters with foreign influence as a “McCarthyite smear.” Simons’s spokesperson has denied that the allegations against the journalists were founded, defending the steps taken as part of a broader inquiry into the origins of the published material.
The situation has prompted a formal ethics investigation by the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics team into Simons’s actions, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been pressed to clarify his position on the matter. The controversy arrives at a sensitive time for the UK government’s stance on transparency, press freedom, and democratic accountability, especially given the central role of the press in scrutinising political organisations.
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