Minister under investigation over targeting of reporters makes late donation declaration
A Cabinet Office minister under investigation over his role in allegedly smearing journalists has made a late declaration of personal donations.Josh Simons is facing an investigation from the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards over his role in commissioning a PR agency to examine journalists who had written about £730,000 in undeclared donations to Labour Together, a thinktank he led at the time.The money came from a donor whose undeclared gifts to Labour Together were a subject of the stories that prompted Simons to commission the firm’s investigation into the journalists.Newly released data shows Simons received gifts of £1,250 on 21 October and 4 December 2025 from Trevor Chinn, a longstanding Labour donor.House of Commons rules require MPs to publicly declare cumulative donations of more than £1,500 within 28 days of receiving them.
Simons did not declare the gifts until early February – 32 days after he ought to have told Commons authorities.The late declaration of donations may prove particularly embarrassing for Simons, already under mounting pressure, because of earlier questions about donations by Chinn to Labour Together, before Simons ran the thinktank.In February 2021, the Electoral Commission revealed it was investigating Labour Together over a failure to declare £730,000 in donations within the required period.Some donations had been declared years after they were made – including more than £120,000 given by Chinn to the thinktank between 2017 and 2020.The gifts had been made while Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, ran Labour Together.
The failure to declare the donations was attributed at the time by Labour Together to an “admin error”, but the Electoral Commission later fined the group £14,250 for repeated breaches of political financing laws.A November 2023 story in the Sunday Times raised fresh questions about the late declarations.The article noted how McSweeney had used Labour Together to support Starmer’s campaign for the Labour leadership contest in 2020.The story prompted Simons, by now running Labour Together, to commission Apco, an American public affairs agency, to investigate two Sunday Times journalists and the sources of their story.After Apco completed its report early in 2024, Simons told intelligence officials at the National Cyber Security Centre that he believed the information came from a hack of the Electoral Commission.
He told them that “our evidence” showed it had been “disseminated to people known to be operating in a pro-Kremlin propaganda network with links to Russian intelligence”.At Simons’ direction, his chief of staff at Labour Together told the security officials that because the information “was disseminated to pro-Russian journalists linked to other ‘hack and leak’ operations, we believe that the likeliest culprit is the Russian state, or proxies of the Russian state”.However, Paul Holden, a freelance journalist who provided the Sunday Times with documents for their original report, recently showed the Guardian his source materials.They indicate the story was based on files leaked from the Labour party by whistleblowers.A spokesperson for Simons said: “Labour Together commissioned Apco to investigate the information Paul Holden obtained for his book, as has repeatedly been made clear.
”Simons was contacted for comment about the late declaration of donations from Chinn.A Labour party spokesperson said: “This donation was declared slightly late due to an administrative error.As soon as this error was identified, action was taken to contact the parliamentary registrar to ensure the declaration could be made.All declarations have now been made.”The latest data also reveals Chinn has given £2,500 to Angela Rayner “to assist in campaign activities”.
The donation was declared on time.
Government accused of caving in to building lobby amid plans to shake up housing sector in England
The government has been accused of bowing to lobbying by housebuilders, in proposals that would prevent English local authorities from pursuing improvements to low-carbon homes standards.Under a consultation on planning rules, councils would be issued with guidance that would effectively limit their scope to demand builders construct new homes within their areas to the highest possible standards.These changes to the National Planning Policy Framework would benefit housebuilders, which could be assured of the same standards across England, but would bind the hands of councils, some of which have declared a “climate emergency”.Ministers have yet to publish separate much-delayed rules for the future homes standard (FHS), which requires new homes to be built with low-carbon equipment such as heat pumps, high-grade insulation and solar panels. But there are fears that the FHS will not go far enough
Tell us your experience living with Tourette syndrome
Controversy erupted at the Baftas award ceremony after the BBC initially failed to edit out the N-word spoken involuntarily by John Davidson, who has Tourette syndrome (TS).In a statement Davidson said he was “deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning”. He added: “I have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette’s community and to teach empathy, kindness and understanding from others and I will continue to do so. I chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing.”We would like to hear from people who are affected by Tourette syndrome (TS), and in particular those who have vocal tics involving swearing (coprolalia)
Baby boy born to UK mother after womb transplant from dead donor
A baby boy named Hugo is the first child to be born in the UK to a mother with a womb transplant from a dead donor.Hugo Powell was delivered at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital in London weighing 3.09kg (6lb 13oz), after his mother, Grace Bell, received a transplanted womb from someone who had died.It is the first birth in the UK using a womb from a deceased donor, with only two previous cases reported in Europe.Bell, an IT programme manager, was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare condition resulting in an underdeveloped or missing womb
My maddening battle with chronic fatigue syndrome: ‘On my worst days, it feels almost demonic’
At the Croydon secondary school I attended in the late 1990s, the deputy headmistress was a stocky woman with a military haircut who patrolled the corridors in voluminous outfits patterned in shades of brown. The outfits were much discussed, not charitably, by the teenage girls in her charge – as was her voice, which made you think of a blunt knife being drawn across a rough surface. Thirty years later, I can still hear that terrible voice refer to my “mystery illness”. In truth, the deputy headmistress never actually spoke those words – they were included in a typed letter she sent to my parents concerning my prolonged absence from school. Still, the indicting force of five syllables is as distinct in my ear as if she were looming over me
Unlicensed gambling firms could be barred from sponsoring Premier League clubs
Unlicensed gambling firms could be barred from sponsoring Premier League football clubs, after a string of controversies involving pornographic videos, failures in anti-money laundering rules and concerns about links to organised crime.Shirts worn by players for several major English football teams, including Everton, Fulham and Burnley, feature the logos of unlicensed online casinos or bookmakers.Premier League clubs have pledged to end all front-of-shirt gambling deals from the end of this season, including those with large operators with a licence.But the voluntary measure will not apply to shirt sleeves or other commercial tie-ups. This leaves the door open to gambling firms who do not hold a British licence to continue hitching themselves to the popularity of the Premier League, as long as they promise not to offer their services to UK consumers
What is Tourette syndrome, what are tics and what happened at the Baftas?
Controversy has erupted over the Baftas after the BBC initially failed to edit out a racial slur shouted by John Davidson, who has Tourette syndrome (TS). Here we explore what vocal tics are, and how they should be understood.One of the films up for awards was I Swear – a movie inspired by the real-life story of the TS campaigner Davidson, who was present at the event on Sunday.Davidson shouted several times during the ceremony. In one case, he used the N-word while the actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were presenting a prize on stage
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