Labour Together's smear campaign
The Times newspaper did some excellent investigative work into Labour Together exposing that they had failed to disclose £750k in donations to the Electoral Commission. This was published 12th November 2023. Rather than accept that fact - Labour Together decided to engage the services of APCO Worldwide (a USA lobbying company with UK offices) to gather information in order to run a smear campaign against the journalists. The activity codenamed "Operation Cannon" targetted journalists Gabriel Pogrund and Paul Holden.
This smear campaign has now been exposed.
APCO Worldwide LLC is registered in Washington DC however it's actually hiding behind a complex corporate structure where the real company is based in Delaware. The officers of APCO Worldwide are Bradley Staples, Bradley Staples, Margery Kraus and Jonathan Friedman. None of these have direct links to the Labour party.
However the UK subsidiary of APCO Worldwide does have links to Labour. Darren Murphy, Director of APCO UK is a former adviser to the Blair government. APCO 'Senior Counsellor' David Clark was part of former Labour MP Robin Cook's team. John Hutton is a former Labour Cabinet minister.
It seems that APCO Worldwide - a PR firm which also provides Crisis Management, is now having it's own Crisis. Other than providing the "tainted" information it is not clear what the role of APCO Worldwide was in disseminating the information.
Labour Together's engagement of services from APCO Worldwide was done by Josh Simons in November 2023. Josh Simons is now a Labour MP for the Makerfield constituency. He resigned from Labour Together 12th Nov 2024 (elected 4th July 2024).
Current directors of Labour Together Ltd are:
Alison Phillips - CEO of Labour Together and former Daily Mirror editor
Michael Craven - chair of Lexington - a leading independent strategic consultancy
Baron Jonathan Kestenbaum - a Director of JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust plc and member of house of Lords
Baroness Sally Morgan - House of Lords Labour member
Francesca Perrin - Sainsbury's heiress.
William Somerville - policy advisor
Notable former directors of Labour Together who resigned before this expose and engagement of APCO Worldwide are:
Morgan McSweeny - resigned 4th April 2020
Lisa Nandy - resigned 6th Feb 2023
"City" Steve Reed - resigned 16th March 2023
Baroness Sharon Taylor - resigned 21st July 2023
Baroness Deborah Wilcox - resigned 21st July 2023
It looks like Josh Simons needs to investigated.
Looking at the Register of Interests for Josh Simon there are some things which need to investigated.
On the 6th October 2025 he received a £30,000 donation from Francesca Perrin (a current director of Labour Together and Sainsbury heiress). On the 4th June 2025 he received a £5,000 donation from Michael Craven (a current director of Labour Together).
He held 15% of the share capital of Labour together until 11th December 2024 (he was elected to office 4th July 2024). Labour Together has not filed any register of Shareholders with Companies House so it's not possible to see who current shareholders are or validate Josh Simon's holdings.
He did not disclose he remained a director of Labour Together until 12th Nov 2024 - he was elected 4th July 2024 so should have disclosed this directorship. MPs are required to disclose directorships - regardless whether they are paid on the register.
Further investigation is needed as there's a complex web of relationships. For example Will Somerville sits on the Future Governance Forum with William Perrin (Francesca Perrin's husband).
I strongly suspect there is more to come from this story.
U-turn Squirmer has promised that the government's propriety and ethics team will investigate Josh Simons and Labour Together. The propriety and ethics team is part of the Cabinet Office.
The propriety and ethics committee is made up of
1/ Darren Jones MP (Labour) - received £44,400 from David Sainsbury 26th Sept 2025 (link to Francesca Perrin and Labour Together). He received a donation from Labour Together of £29,756.39 in April 2024 before he was elected.
2/ Nick Thomas–Symonds MP (Labour) - received £14,000 from Labour Together in March 2024 prior to being elected.
3/ Anna Turley MP (Labour) - received £10,000 from Labour Together 2nd August 2024 (after she was elected). This has not been disclosed on the Register of Interests. She also recieived £10,000 from Fran Perrin (Labour Together) 1st August 2024 (again not disclosed on the Register of Interests).
4/ Chris Ward MP (Labour) - doesnt seem to be linked to Labour Together
5/ Josh Simons MP (Labour) - not quite sure how Josh Simons can impartially investigate himself
6/ Dan Jarvis MBE MP (Labour) - no connection to Labour Together however he has received significant donations from MPM Connect Ltd and OPD Group Ltd - both companies with Peter Hearn as a director who was appointed Chief Operating Officer for the Office of the Traffic Commissioner in October 2024.
So I would say that the majority of people who will investigate Josh Simons and Labour Together Ltd have a conflict of interest as they are beneficiaries.
I suspect Squirmer will say something like "the report never crossed my desk".
This story looks set to continue rumbling on....
Here's a list of donations made by Labour Together to various Labour MPs. The shear scale of the donations means it's highly questionable whether there's anyone in the Labour party who is impartial. Pretty much everyone is linked back to Labour Together :
Shabana Mahmood £52,112 [30/4/2024] + £11,056 [30/4/2024] + £68,000 [8/11/2023]
Yvette Cooper £33,750 [30/1/2024] + £47,842 [22/12/2023]. She has also received money from MPM and OPD (Peter Hearn) - £17,000 [19/12/2023] + £34,000 [11/3/2024] + £17,000 [21/12/2023] + £15,847 [6/3/2023]
Rachel Reeves £14,870 [28/8/2024] + £14,719 [15/4/2024] + £3,680 [1/3/2024] + £31,698 [7/6/2023]
Louise Haigh £38,330 [9/4/2024] + £11,979 [27/2/2024]
David Lammy £40,441 [17/4/2024] + £27,233 [8/12/2023]
Zubir Ahmed £10,000 [4/8/2024]
Yuan Yang £10,000 [29/7/2024]
Wes Streeting - received from OPD and MPM Connect (Peter Hearn) £53,000 [5/2/2025 + £48,000 [6/2/2024] + £12,000 [22/12/2023] + £35,475 [2/3/2023]
Tracy Gilbert - £10,000 [29/7/2024]
Torcuil Crichton - £10,000 [31/7/2024]
Tom Rutland - £10,000 [30/7/2024]
Tom Hayes - £5,000 [24/7/2024]
Tim Roca - £10,000 [31/7/2024]
Sureena Brackenridge - £10,000 [26/7/2024]
Steve Yemm £5,000 [29/7/2024]
Sarah Sackman £5,000 [3/8/2024]
Sarah Edwards £5,000 [13/7/2024]
Samantha Niblett £10,000 [3/8/2024]
Sam Rushworth £5,000 [31/7/2024]
Rosie Wrighting £5,000 [24/7/2024]
Rachel Blake £10,000 [31/7/2024]
Polly Billington £10,000 [30/7/2024]
Perran Moon £5,000 [2/8/2024]
Paul Foster £10,000 [25/7/2024]
Patrick Hurley £10,000 [29/7/2024]
Pamela Nash £10,000 [2/8/2024]
Natalie Fleet £5,000 [19/8/2024]
Mike Tapp £10,000 [25/7/2024]
Michelle Scrogham £10,000 [25/7/2024]
Michael Shanks £10,000 [17/4/2024]
Michael Payne £5,000 [2/8/2024]
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