Labour minister falsely linked journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network in emails to GCHQ

A Labour minister who claimed to be “surprised” and “furious” at a PR agency’s work to investigate journalists on his behalf had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda, the Guardian can reveal.Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was “living with” the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons’ team that the former adviser was “suspected of links to Russian intelligence”.The extraordinary disclosures are contained in emails that Simons and his chief of staff at Labour Together sent to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of the spy agency GCHQ, in 2024. A spokesperson for Simons, a Cabinet Office minister, said: “These claims are untrue

UK reports record-breaking budget surplus of £30.4bn in surprise boost for Rachel Reeves

The UK government has posted the biggest ever budget surplus, official figures show, after a large increase in self-assessment and capital gains tax receipts.In a boost for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the run-up to her spring statement next month, public sector finances recorded a surplus of £30.4bn in January, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was double the surplus recorded in January 2025.The figure is the largest monthly total since records began in 1993 and much higher than the forecast of £24bn made by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government’s official forecaster, and a poll of City economists

Appointment of Antonia Romeo as head of civil service shows ‘poor judgment’, say former colleagues

Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint Antonia Romeo as the country’s most senior civil servant has prompted dismay among former colleagues who complained about what they considered bullying behaviour when she was a diplomat in New York.Several people who worked with Romeo at the New York consulate nearly 10 years ago have told the Guardian they are upset by the prime minister’s decision to make her cabinet secretary despite knowing about their complaints.The allegations from several colleagues were made as part of one formal complaint against Romeo in 2017. That complaint was investigated by a senior diplomat who found that she had a case to answer, but was then dismissed by her line managers at the Cabinet Office, who gave her the all clear.The complaint has resurfaced in recent days after Simon McDonald, the former lead civil servant at the Foreign Office, urged the prime minister to do more due diligence before making his decision

Starmer appoints Antonia Romeo as Britain’s first female cabinet secretary – UK politics live

The Times is reporting that Donald Trump issued his latest diatribe about the UK’s Chagos Islands deal (see 9.34am) because Keir Starmer is not letting the US use Diego Garcia to bomb Iran.In their story, Oliver Wright, George Grylls and Geraldine Scott say:double quotation markThe White House is drawing up detailed military plans for a strike against Iran involving the use of both Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which is home to America’s fleet of heavy bombers in Europe.Under the terms of long-standing agreements with Washington, these bases can only be used for military operations that have been agreed in advance with the government.The Times understands that the UK is yet to give permission for the US to use the bases in the event that Trump orders a strike on Iran, owing to concerns that it would be a breach of international law which makes no distinction between a state carrying out the attack and those in support if the latter have “knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act”

Spending even more on defence won’t buy us peace | Letters

We are told to spend even more, and more quickly, on the armed forces, whose current budget for this year is expected to amount to more than £60bn (‘Britain ‘needs to go faster’ on defence spending, Starmer says, 16 February). The Ministry of Defence must surely first show it can put its house in order.The government is considering whether to scrap Ajax, the army’s planned new armoured vehicle, even though more than £6bn of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on the project. Ajax is eight years late, its defects so serious that vibration and noise have made soldiers training on it sick, with some suffering hearing loss.It is the latest and most egregious example of the huge waste caused by the MoD’s incompetence and profligacy over recent years

Global Counsel calls in administrators, blaming Peter Mandelson ‘maelstrom’

Global Counsel, the advisory firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, is to collapse into administration, blaming the “maelstrom” caused by revelations about the former peer’s relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Companies including Barclays, Tesco and the Premier League have all deserted Global Counsel, despite the company’s efforts to sever ties with Mandelson and the company’s co-founder Benjamin Wegg-Prosser.The crisis engulfed Global Counsel after it emerged that Mandelson had sought Epstein’s advice on setting up the business in 2010, shortly after leaving office when Labour lost the general election.On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that staff at Global Counsel had been told that the “Peter Mandelson legacy” had effectively capsized the business.In a statement posted on the professional social networking site LinkedIn, Global Counsel confirmed that it had asked a court to appoint Interpath as administrator “to take control of and realise the assets of the company”