Kuenssberg failed to mention guest spied on journalists

Kuenssberg — Josh Simons is the now-ex-Labour MP who was found to have spied on journalists. As we’re supposed to live in a liberal democracy, this sort of behaviour should be frowned upon. Instead, the national broadcaster just treated Simons like a normal politician:

Josh Simons is on #bbclaurak this morning.

Will Laura Kuenssberg ask him about his role as the head of Labour Together, when he organised a smear campaign against a journalist investigating the organisation, and for which he had to subsequently resign as a minister? pic.twitter.com/KzN5p1EQ41

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 17, 2026

Kuenssberg — Josh Simons

On 14 May, the Canary’s Skwawkbox reported:

Simons was in charge of LT when it paid a firm to spy on independent journalist and author Paul Holden, who was writing a book about LT’s secret activities and its sabotage of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The firm also spied on a couple of ‘mainstream’ hacks who were prying a bit too closely. He quit when he was found out but remains a full-throated amplifier of antisemitism smears and turned on Starmer this week, at least publicly.

It’s clear why Simons would use antisemitism smears to discredit Israel critics, as Jody McIntyre reported for the Canary:

Last June, Simons received £5,000 from Mike Craven, a former press officer for Tony Blair. Craven, still listed as a director of Labour Together Limited on Companies House, has previously attacked Jeremy Corbyn “and the far left” for not recognising the Israeli state’s “right to exist”.

Additionally:

In February, it was revealed that he had failed to properly declare a donation from Trevor Chinn, the former Labour Together director and funder who, after being nominated by Labour Friends of Israel, received an Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor for “skills and work to the benefit of the State of Israel”.

And:

At the 2024 conference of the Jewish Labour Movement, Simons spoke alongside former Israeli spy Assaf Kaplan at an event that promised to teach the audience “how to run a good campaign”.

A more curious journalist than Kuenssberg might have asked Simons why he:

Spied on British journalists.
Has links to the security apparatus of a foreign country.
Takes money from wealthy individuals whose sole interest seems to be promoting Israel.

Instead:

narrator: she did not. https://t.co/oKvTOlgOzw

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 17, 2026

Unsaid

The BBC had Simons on because he’s stepped down as an MP to allow Andy Burnham to run for parliament. This is a big story, obviously, but that doesn’t mean Simons’ history doesn’t matter. If anything, it makes his disgraceful actions more interesting.

Allowing a man who ran a factional org that broke the law when it channelled secret cash to fund Starmers rise, & which then ran a smear campaign against journalists investigating its role, to opine on whats gone wrong for Labour & the need to come together, is frankly absurd. pic.twitter.com/LmedXZ8HFT

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 17, 2026

In the clip above, Simons says this by-election is about whether Labour can win back working class voters. There’s no reflection on the fact that the right-wing faction he was a part of pushed away such voters by pursuing endless privatisation and corporatisation — a political ideology which made us all poorer (especially those of us in the North).

The endless Labour infighting also didn’t help, and most of it was driven by politicians like Simons:

Simons taking the moral high ground

Was it in the best interests of Lab & the country when you ran a smear campaign against journalists investigating the factional org you were running (which had played a key role in bringing Keir to power & broke electoral law in the process!) pic.twitter.com/VuCrvpVKza

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 17, 2026

Simons also called for an end to online anonymity:

The man who ran a secret campaign to target and smear journalists says anonymous accounts on social media are polluting our public conversation. pic.twitter.com/rkKajGy4y2

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 17, 2026

This is a bit rich from a guy who spied on journalists from the shadows!

When is a journalist not a journalist?

BBC journalism doesn’t exist to uncover the truth; it exists to obscure it. And as Saul Staniforth highlighted, this is far from the first time this has happened: