Cabinet Office investigates report smearing journalists

The Cabinet Office is looking into a Labour think tank's investigation into journalists, a minister has said. The prime minister yesterday said the Cabinet Office will establish the facts about the probe carried out by PR firm Apco.

- KATE DEVLIN ATHENA STAVROU

Technology secretary Liz Kendall said the government will be "looking at the facts" of the report commissioned by Labour Together, which helped Sir Keir win the Labour leadership.

“It’s right that this issue is being investigated by the relevant body here, the regulatory body, which is looking at public affairs companies,” Ms Kendall told Times Radio yesterday.

“And the Cabinet Office will also be looking into this to make sure all the facts are established.”

It comes as the prime minister is facing calls to order an inquiry into the investigation, with Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty saying it would be “only right” to have a probe into the think tank.

Mr Doughty told Times Radio: “It's only right that if there is an investigation, that's able to run its course, and that we understand what happened. I want to see a country where journalists are able to do their job without fear or favour.”

The Sunday Times reported that the contents of an investigation by Apco were informally shared with Labour figures in 2024, including current cabinet ministers and special advisers. Apco was paid £36,000 to carry out the investigation in 2023.

The paper said it contained pages of “deeply personal and false claims” about one of the journalists, Gabriel Pogrund. It also discussed his Jewish background and included false claims about personal and professional relationships. It was also reported to have made “baseless claims” that the emails underpinning the journalists’ story were likely to have come from a hack of the Electoral Commission, suspected to have been carried out by the Kremlin.