A BLAIRITE think tank reportedly paid at least £30,000 for private investigations into journalists who exposed its failure to declare £740,000 said to have supported Sir Keir Starmer’s rise to power.

Labour Together was run by the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney when it did not register the donations between 2017 and 2020. 

Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons took the helm when Mr McSweeney left Labour Together in 2020 and joined Sir Keir’s team.

Under Mr Simons’s leadership in 2023, Labour Together hired APCO Worldwide to investigate journalists from the Guardian, the Sunday Times and other outlets and to identify their sources of stories about its funding, according to Democracy for Sale.

The late filings led to a £14,250 fine by the Electoral Commission in September 2021.

One of the APCO’s reports for Labour Together was reportedly an investigation into the London-based investigative outlet run by the South African journalists Paul Holden and Andrew Feinstein, Shadow World Investigations.

Mr Feinstein said: “Labour Together, led by Starmer’s Chief of Staff, tried to dig dirt on me, my colleague Paul Holden and our organisation. 

“It was already known I was likely to stand in the election against Starmer. Their contempt for British democracy must lead to their removal from office and investigation by law enforcement.”

Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East Andy McDonald said that Labour Together’s reported hiring of “private investigations into legitimate journalists is sinister and has no place in the labour movement.

“MPs who received their donations should ask questions. Those who were aware, including McSweeney, must address this.”

Fellow backbencher Kim Johnson said: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant – and what’s been exposed shows McSweeney’s operation is rotten to the core.

“We’re told the adults are in the room. If this is their idea of leadership, No. 10 needs gutting from top to bottom.”

A spokeswoman for Momentum said: “More damaging news like this is just further proof that the corrupt and politically inept Starmer project has run out of road. 

“The erosion of trust in the Labour leadership can no longer be ignored. It’s time for a change in direction. We need a real Labour alternative.”

As the Star was going to print, a Guardian investigation had found that Labour minister Josh Simons was given intelligence files on journalists who had exposed funding irregularities at Labour Together while he chaired the group.

The Labour Party, Labour Together, APCO and Mr Simons have been contacted for comment.