Labour MP Josh Simons has resigned as a Cabinet Office minister, saying he had “become a distraction from this Government’s important work”.

The former Cabinet Office minister had faced mounting scrutiny over allegations that Labour Together, a think tank he led prior to joining Government, paid PR firm Apco Worldwide at least £30,000 to investigate journalists, including those from the Sunday Times, the Guardian and other publications.

Mr Simons had consistently denied requesting the firm to examine the backgrounds of British journalists. Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM's independent adviser on ministerial standards, has now exonerated him of breaching the ministerial code.

Apco was instructed to examine the "sourcing, funding and origins" of reporting in 2023 concerning Labour Together's failure to declare over £700,000 in donations. The think tank was fined £14,250 in September 2021 for late reporting of donations between 2017 and 2020, following a self-referral to the Electoral Commission.

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