It’s the month from hell for Josh Simons – former head of Starmerite operation Labour Together and now a minister – who has texted crucial details of the government’s investigation into him to every Labour MP elected in 2024. He wrote in a deleted mass text reported by Politico:
“Jonny rang, PM will ask Laurie to look in to it. Aim is to move fast. But PET did find I had not broken the code.”
That’s chief whip Jonathan Reynolds, the PM’s Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests Laurie Magnus, and the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team. Simons is a Cabinet Office minister…
Downing Street and the Cabinet Office have so far kept shtum when it comes to details of any investigation. Take it from the horse’s mouth…
UPDATE: Chief Secretary to the PM Darren Jones tells the Commons: “The Prime Minister has been advised that the matter should be referred now to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, which the Prime Minister has done today.”
Starmer was read out a list of his 13 U-turns on BBC Radio 2, to which he responded:
“Well, I am a common sense merchant.”