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.”
Speaking to Adam Boulton on Times Radio about kicking the Golders Green suspect, Heidi Alexander said:
“I thought that if I was in the shoes of that police officer, then if I’m honest, given the situation, and the fact that he had a backpack on his back, and they were worried about whether that might go off, I could, if I was a police officer, frankly, I could see myself having taken similar action.”