Tom Harper, a senior director at the US public affairs firm Apco, has been accused of recently investigating Henry Dyer, an investigations correspondent at the Guardian. Harper reportedly made inquiries about Dyer as recently as last week, suggesting without evidence that Dyer could be part of a pro-Russia campaign.
Harper previously authored a 58-page report for the thinktank Labour Together, examining journalists behind a 2023 Sunday Times story about undisclosed donations. That report claimed, without evidence, that the story was based on hacked data from the Electoral Commission and linked to Russia. It also examined the religious and ideological positions of journalists and sources.
Apco is already under investigation by the Public Relations and Communications Association's standards committee over its research into journalists. The political fallout continues, with calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to sack Josh Simons, now a Cabinet Office minister, who was Labour Together's director when it paid Apco £36,000 for the investigation.
Simons is subject to a Whitehall ethics inquiry after a Guardian report revealed he accused journalists of links to Russian intelligence. Emails show Simons and his chief of staff sent disclosures to the National Cyber Security Centre in 2024. A spokesperson for Simons said: 'These claims are untrue.'
The thinktank commissioned the research after a 2023 Sunday Times story about £730,000 of undeclared donations. The Electoral Commission fined Labour Together over £14,000 for failing to declare the funding. Paul Holden, a freelance journalist who provided documents for the original story, later showed the Guardian that the story was based on files leaked from the Labour party by whistleblowers.
