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A Labour minister was provided with intelligence files gathered on journalists investigating the thinktank that helped propel Keir Starmer<\/a> to power, the Guardian has learned.<\/p>\n The documents were personally given to Josh Simons, now a minister in the Cabinet Office, when he was chair of Labour<\/a> Together, according to sources.<\/p>\n Simons is close to the prime minister\u2019s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who had previously run Labour Together and whose own role in the operation to gather material on journalists is under scrutiny<\/a>.<\/p>\n The files contained reports produced by the PR firm APCO Worldwide on journalists at outlets including the Guardian and the Sunday Times who had reported on irregularities in the thinktank\u2019s funding. APCO also sought to identify the journalists\u2019 sources.<\/p>\n Simons received a briefing from APCO on its final report, sources said, which included findings drawn from examination of the journalists who had investigated Labour Together.<\/p>\n The disclosures about Simons\u2019 personal knowledge of the private investigation present another major challenge to Starmer and McSweeney, his most senior aide, after a week in which both have faced calls for their resignation<\/a> over Peter Mandelson\u2019s links to Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under McSweeney, Labour Together played a key role in Starmer\u2019s victory in the battle to succeed Jeremy Corbyn and remained closely allied to the Labour leader after Simons took charge.<\/p>\n APCO\u2019s work to investigate the journalists was first reported by<\/a> the Substack publication Democracy for Sale. Downing Street has refused to say whether McSweeney also knew about the hiring of APCO.<\/p>\n Two sources told the Guardian he was intimately involved with the strategy of the organisation even after leaving. One said: \u201cThere was never any distance between Labour Together and Morgan, even after he left. I never quite understood what the point of it was.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier on Friday, there were calls from Labour MPs for an investigation and a \u201cclearout\u201d in Downing Street after news of the thinktank\u2019s relationship with APCO emerged. The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell called the investigation into journalists \u201ctruly shocking\u201d in a letter to Hollie Ridley, the Labour party\u2019s general secretary.<\/p>\n McDonnell said: \u201cIf the reports of [Labour Together\u2019s] activities in surveilling journalists are accurate it is clear that this organisation and its operators and controllers are bringing our party into disrepute.\u201d<\/p>\n The Labour MP Kim Johnson said that \u201cwhat\u2019s been exposed shows McSweeney\u2019s operation is rotten to the core\u201d. She added: \u201cWe\u2019re told the adults are in the room. If this is their idea of leadership, No 10 needs gutting from top to bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions over Labour Together\u2019s funding first emerged in February 2021<\/a> after its interim leadership reported itself to the Electoral Commission for the late reporting of \u00a3740,000 in donations. The thinktank was later fined \u00a314,250 in September 2021.<\/p>\n