Disgraced minister blames scandal on being ’30 years old’

Josh Simons is Labour’s ex-minister who was forced to resign from government. The scandal which led to his downfall revolved around Simons having private investigators look into journalists for the crime of doing journalism.

And while that sounds bad, have you considered that Simons may have been a tender, wee boy of just 30 when he did it?

sorry what? pic.twitter.com/hz1572zb97

— ollie cole (@ProducerOllie) April 5, 2026

Making of a scandal

We were reporting on Simons dubious activities back in September 2025. The following came from investigative journalist Paul Holden who wrote The Fraud – an exposé on Keir Starmer and Labour Together:

Paul Holden said he had been “pretty damn scared” when he found out that Labour Together had “set the hounds on me”. McSweeney is a chief architect of the antisemitism scam against Jeremy Corbyn and attempts to destroy the Canary.

Holden also claims that former Labour Together director Josh Simons, now a Cabinet Office Minister, was at the least aware of the group’s decision to set the investigators onto him, telling the Mail that:

“It was all very worrying. I was told these private detectives were looking into me, my family and my colleagues – all at the request of Labour Together.

“I could only assume they were digging dirt to discredit me or my research. The investigators were trying to find out how I was getting all my information – not challenge its accuracy.”

The Labour Together spying story wouldn’t become a national scandal until it was revealed they also spied on mainstream journalists – namely those at the Times.

Reporting on Simons resignation, Skwawkbox wrote the following for the Canary on 28 February:

From 2022 to 2024, Simons ran the sabotage outfit, Labour Togther. He took over after disgraced Morgan McSweeney moved on to become Keir Starmer’s (now former) chief of staff. However, Simons has not resigned his parliamentary seat.

All too typically, the resignation letter is full of self-exoneration and excuses. Instead of taking responsibility, the letter leans on Simons’s supposed vindication by Sir Laurie Magnus. Magnus is the supposedly ‘independent’ adviser on ministerial standards. This is farcical, when Simons’s own leaked WhatsApp messages revealed that Starmer had told Magnus to conduct only a fast (i.e cursory) investigation.

With a complete failure of self-awareness, Simons frames his departure in terms of the public’s justified low trust in politicians. And, like any good Israel apologist, he had to slip in a spurious reference to so-called ‘Labour antisemitism’ to smear the diligent, professional, independent authors, and journalists who exposed Labour Together.

It was far from the only time Simons blamed his mistakes on alleged antisemitism:

Again, this is not the first time Simons has lied about antisemitism being the reason he's behaved badly. https://t.co/Zwbtb5WXEV pic.twitter.com/0srZhnLAno

— Rivkah Brown (@rivkahbrown) March 30, 2026

Obviously receiving diminishing returns from the antisemitism card, Simons is now blaming his mistakes on his age.

Disgraced Labour minister — A boy of just 30

The post at the top about Simons being a mere 30 years old is from Times Radio producer Ollie Cole. Seemingly, the text hasn’t been published online yet, because a verbatim google search produces no results.

It reads in full:

Former labour minister Josh Simons has told Times Radio that “I was 30 years old, I didn’t read the contract very carefully,” when asked about commissioning a report into the background of two Sunday Times journalists while working for Labour Together.

Ah yes, the famous stereotype about 30-year-olds being unable to read somewhat complicated documents.

A year later – when Simons was 31 – he would be in government and deciding on legislation. Presumably, at some point between 30 and 31, the text-understanding cortex of his brain developed, and he was able to read important documents as needed.

It really is farcical, isn’t it?

Featured image via Amazon