Informed 09


it was quite an involved story even before publication”) Geoghegan and Sharife laid the groundwork for publishing their article. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 2026 McSweeney came to wider public atention over advising Starmer to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the United States. Democracy for Sale broke their


story on 5 February, revealing how APCO Worldwide had been paid at least £30,000 “to investigate journalists that were digging into how its undeclared funding bankrolled Keir Starmer’s successful Labour leadership campaign.” Tey included Pogrund, Yorke, the


Guardian’s Henry Dyer, Declassified’s John McAvoy, plus other journalists classed as “significant persons of interest”. It was also revealed that in 2023, APCO’s reports discussed potential “leverage” over other reporters and that the work was led by former Times journalist turned APCO head of European media relations Tom Harper. As Democracy for Sale put it, “APCO’s briefings suggested – without providing any evidence – that one possible source of the Sunday Times story about Labour Together’s funding was a Russian or Chinese hack of the Electoral Commission. It is understood that the contents of some of the documents were shared with other journalists on Fleet Street, seemingly in an atempt to discredit the initial story.” APCO also looked into Holden’s outlet, Shadow World Investigations, a London- based outlet run by him and fellow South African Andrew Feinstein, who stood as an independent against Starmer for his seat in the 2024 general election. Te PR firm’s December 2023 report “plays up Feinstein’s support for Jeremy Corbyn and his appearances on Russia Today,” said Democracy for Sale - more on the relevance of that later. McSweeney resigned on 8 February. Simons stepped down as an MP in May, which Geoghegan argues is now even


“more significant” as he made way for Andy Burnham to run. Questions still remain. Te Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) said it would launch an investigation into APCO but Geoghegan is still awaiting an update from them.


He points out how the surveillance of journalists has a chilling effect: “Tis has definitely made me think, given the work I do, and given that this behaviour goes on [...] I think at the very least we need to find out what actually happened. Te scales have really been tipped awfully in the wrong direction. It still needs a proper inquiry into what happened.” John McDonnell, the NUJ’s parliamentary group secretary, agrees. As Geoghegan has done, McDonnell, Corbyn and other MPs have put in subject access requests to find out what data APCO has on them. Corbyn has around 500 references and McDonnell 115 references, with about 14 pages of redactions. “Te redactions are prety appalling. You’ll have reference to a report of some sort, but you don’t know what the details are. You think well why are they collecting that information?” McDonnell notes. He raised the issue of an independent inquiry under Starmer’s tenure and is doing the same to Burnham, aiming to bring the mater to the floor of the House of Commons again this month. “I’m hoping under the Burnham regime we’ll get that inquiry.”


Te NUJ has long campaigned for the cessation of – and consequences paid over – the surveillance of reporters. High-profile cases recently include the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Metropolitan Police unlawfully monitoring journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. MI5 and the PSNI used surveillance on Vincent Kearney for over a decade – for which they had to pay him £20,000 damages. As McDonnell says: “How can we stand


by and witness the atempts to smear journalists and not at least have an independent investigation? Because one


of the things we’d like to come out [of this] is what further protections journalists need; particularly when you’ve got an organisation that specifically targeted them.” If there is an objection to a Labour


Together investigation then McDonnell says it should go back to the Commons to be debated because, “we might be looking at legislative mechanisms in the future to protect people.” Te NUJ has called for “stricter legislation to prohibit private entities from gathering or purchasing data on journalists for the purpose of identifying sources.” He points to the new Public Office


(Accountability) Bill, known as the Hillsborough Law – which introduced a new professional and legal duty of candour – meaning “public officials must act with honesty and integrity at all times” and a new offence for “misleading the public.”


With the list of organisations it


covers yet to be unveiled as it goes to commitee stage, McDonnell argues: “Tat duty of candour shouldn’t just be state institutions. It should also be those organisations that are seeking to, in any way, influence government practice or policy [...] like lobbying bodies, agencies like APCO and organisations associated with political parties like Labour Together.” Journalists are targeted by people who


are “trying to manipulate the system”, he says, because the “last thing they want is sunlight and transparency” but journalism “is one of the foundations of a democracy.” McDonnell concludes the Labour


Together issue “strikes at the heart of everything we want [for] a true democracy: openness, transparency and [those with] the agency to deliver that are investigative journalists. “We’re seeing, I think, an assault on that


very basis of democratic practice – which is that openness and transparency – and the ability for journalists to be able to investigate and report without threat of sanction or smearing.”


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