The Times’ Labour Together scoop is actually six months old

The big scoop on Sunday 15 February has been that Labour Together paid investigators to spy on journalists. The problem is that this ‘scoop’ actually came out months ago:

If you've seen the Sunday Times today you'll know Labour Together were secretly hiring people to investigate journalists. Sadly you won't know that The National exclusively broke this story six months ago, since our work is not credited at all. https://t.co/cbvK1Di18Z

— Laura Webster (@LauraEWebsterr) February 15, 2026

Labour Together

In the National article highlighted above, Peter Oborne and Richard Sanders wrote:

Labour Together, the Labour Party grouping that helped propel Starmer to power, hired the individuals to find information on Paul Holden, the journalist whose book The Fraud was the source for revelations that resulted in the downfall of Paul Ovenden earlier this month.

It also explored Holden’s personal life, sought points of “leverage” that could be used against him and tried to place stories in the media that would damage his reputation.

Reporting on the Times’ story for the Canary, Skwawkbox reported:

‘Labour Together’ — the sabotage outfit that brought down Jeremy Corbyn and conned Labour members into choosing Keir Starmer — paid investigators to spy on, and smear two Times journalists. Unsurprisingly, the pair — Harry Yorke and Gabriel Pogrund — have publicised their experience as unique.

@Gabriel_Pogrund and I were the subject of a disgraceful smear campaign — just for doing our jobs

I’m proud that The Sunday Times is calling it out on the front page tomorrow

Labour activists paid for smear campaign against journalistshttps://t.co/Uw9UjNJtzm

— Harry Yorke (@HarryYorke1) February 14, 2026

Labour Together is a pressure group within the broader Labour Party. Morgan McSweeney is the man who used to run this operation; he’s also the guy who recently resigned in disgrace as Starmer’s chief-of-staff.

It’s been known for years that Labour Together target journalists. McSweeney actually went after the Canary, and the mainstream media cheered him on, because these people are scum:

‼️The man pulling Starmer's strings has resigned in disgrace

McSweeney said the Labour right needed to "Kill the Canary – before the Canary kills us".

Guess we're the last bird standing.https://t.co/G3YuBIYAnM

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) February 8, 2026

This is how we reported McSweeney’s downfall:

As journalist Paul Holden covered in The Fraud, the Labour Together schemer Morgan McSweeney was the man who spent the last decade manoeuvring to:

• Bring down Jeremy Corbyn.
• Position the Labour right as the leaders of the Labour Party.
• Return to government.

To ‘bring down Corbyn’, McSweeney worked to ensure that Labour lost the 2017 and 2019 elections. Because we have more than two brain cells, we understood that a group which will work against their own party will work against anyone.

For whatever reason, proper journalists like Yorke and Pogrund didn’t think the vicious Labour Together would target them. What a shock it must have been to find out they’re not special:

Let me be more explicit about this: Gabriel Pogrund is scum who should be hounded and pelted with rotting fruit through the streets like Cersei Lannister for reading out the shite he was sent by Morgan McSweeney as a national emergency. He knew exactly what he was doing then. https://t.co/qBhdlsyYLb

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) February 15, 2026

Yorke literally engaged in the same sort of smears as Labour Together:

Journalist Harry Yorke was "smeared" by the Labour Right as "part of a Russian conspiracy".

Now, where have I seen such "disgraceful" tactics before?🤔 https://t.co/ro4KdkDlqi pic.twitter.com/6ZlW1cw47i

— JamieSW (@jsternweiner) February 14, 2026

Going mainstream

Journalist Richard Sanders noted the same thing as our Skwawkbox:

Paul Holden spoke about it to @DoubleDownNews at the same time as our piece in @ScotNationalhttps://t.co/ELRDpo7dr8

— Richard Sanders (@PulaRJS) February 14, 2026

If you want to get the news of the future today, be sure to follow all the non-Murdoch outlets listed in this article.

Featured image via the Canary