Josh Simons

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Josh Simons MP
Official portrait, 2024
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital Government
In office 9 January 2026 – 28 February 2026
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	James Frith
Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office
In office 7 September 2025 – 28 February 2026
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Georgia Gould Abena Oppong-Asare
Succeeded by	The Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent
Member of Parliament for Makerfield
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 July 2024
Preceded by	Yvonne Fovargue
Majority	5,399 (13.4%)
Personal details
Born	Joshua Cameron Simons (1993-07-24) 24 July 1993 (age 32)
Party	Labour
Children	2
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge (BA) Harvard University (PhD)

Josh Simons (born 24 July 1993) is a British Labour Party politician who was elected Member of Parliament for Makerfield in 2024. He was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office in 2025, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital Government at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 9 January 2026.

He was under investigation in early 2026, with calls for his resignation, for identifying journalists who had published an article unfavourable to Labour Together, a thinktank he ran, naming them to British intelligence, and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda.^[1] He resigned as a Cabinet Office minister on 28 February 2026.^[2]

Josh Simons was born on 24 July 1993.^[3][4] His father was Jewish and from Bury, Greater Manchester.^[4] He was educated at The Perse School in Cambridge.^[5]

Simons was an undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied for a Bachelor of Arts in Social and Political Sciences, supervised by Helen Thompson.^[6] He was an editor of the student newspapers Varsity and The Tab.^{[citation needed]}

Simons worked at Cambridge University as a research assistant to Amartya Sen from 2014 until 2015, when he moved to the Institute of Public Policy Research.^{[citation needed]}

He became a policy adviser to the Leader of the Opposition in 2015, following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour Leader. Simons moved from the Leader's Office to London Labour in 2016, and returned to Cambridge as a research assistant to Helen Thompson later in the year.^{[citation needed]}

Simons has cited "persistent failure" to tackle antisemitism for his resignation from Corbyn's office.^[6][7] He later contributed to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's investigation into Labour antisemitism.^{[citation needed]}

Simons studied for a doctorate in Government, Political Theory and Political Science at Harvard University from 2016 to 2021. His doctorate was supervised by academics Michael Sandel, Danielle Allen, Richard Tuck and Cynthia Dwork.^{[citation needed]} It was adapted into his book Algorithms for the People: Democracy in the Age of AI.^[8][9] Simons continued at Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow.^{[citation needed]}

Simons worked for Meta in its artificial intelligence program.^[10] In 2019 he worked for Civic Power Fund as a fundraiser.^[5]

Simons has been a fellow at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, the Institute for the Future of Work, and New America. He has also been a trustee of the New Economics Foundation and Engage Britain, and a governor of the NHS Northern Care Alliance.^{[citation needed]}

Simons stood as a Labour and Co-operative candidate in the 2021 Bury Council election, finishing second-place to the Conservative candidate in Church ward.^[11]

In 2022 Simons became the director of the think tank Labour Together^[12] which he led until his Parliamentary selection in 2024.^[13]

He provoked strong criticism in February 2024 when, during an interview with LBC, he suggested that Channel smuggling gangs should be put on a barge and sent to Scotland. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, condemned the comments as "stupid" and "cringe". Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: "There should be no place in the Labour Party for these disgraceful comments." Simons apologised, saying the remarks were made "in jest".^[14]

In February 2026 it was reported that PR firm APCO Worldwide had investigated the private affairs of several journalists when commissioned by Labour Together, whilst Simons was director, to ascertain the source of reports about Labour Together's late declaration of certain donations.^[15] The Sunday Times reported that the APCO report, named "Operation Cannon", was written by a former Sunday Times employee and was shown to Labour shadow cabinet members, falsely suggesting that two Sunday Times journalists were part of a Russian campaign to politically harm Starmer. Labour Together sent a shorter version of the APCO report to GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which declined to investigate.^[16]

The prime minister Keir Starmer subsequently asked the Independent Advisor on Ministerial Standards to investigate whether Simons' conduct had breached the Ministerial Code.^[17] Simons claimed that by including this information in its report APCO Worldwide had gone beyond what had been asked of them. He welcomed the launch of an investigation into APCO Worldwide's conduct by the Public Relations and Communications Association.^[16][18] The Guardian newspaper on 20 February 2026 reported that it had seen the emails to NCSC and disclosed some of their contents, and that there were calls for Simons to resign or be sacked.^[1][19]

Simons was elected as MP for Makerfield at the 2024 general election.^[20] He was selected by Labour's National Executive Committee several weeks before the election, after Yvonne Fovargue announced that she wouldn't seek re-election.^[21]

Simons is a co-founder and co-chair of the Labour Growth Group.^[22]

In November 2024, Simons was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). He subsequently became a PPS for the Ministry of Justice.^[23]

In the 2025 British cabinet reshuffle, Simons was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, covering the maternity leave of Satvir Kaur under the standing orders of Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Act 2021.^[24] On 9 January 2026 Simons was additionally appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology,^[25] responsible for supporting and providing assurance to the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Cabinet Office and the Secretary of State for DSIT on the design and cross-government delivery of digital ID, data transformation and digital public services.^[26]

Simons resigned from his ministerial positions on 28 February 2026 due to his role in the smear campaign against journalists but having been cleared of any breach of the Ministerial Code.^[2][27]

Simons met his wife at Harvard University. They have two children.^[5]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Josh Simons.

• Official website

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou