Josh Simons

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