Labour Together, the shadowy faction that propelled Keir Starmer to power, is still making the headlines. Its director, Josh Simons resigned from the Government after an investigation by the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards into his role in commissioning a PR agency to examine the background of journalists who had written about £730,000 in undeclared donations the group received.

But where did that money then go? Labour Together itself donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to over 100 Labour candidates. Many received a standard £10,000. But some received significantly more, as a report published by Labour Right Watch details.

Yvette Cooper got £112,000. Cooper, having lost a leadership contest to Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, supported Owen Smith’s campaign in 2016. As Home Secretary in Keir Starmer’s government, her immigration crackdown was criticised by Amnesty International as “reheating the Conservative government’s rhetoric”. A member of Labour Friends of Israel, she proposed that Palestine Action be a proscribed terrorist organisation.

John Healey received £52,900 from Labour Together. Despite being a member of Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet, he too supported Owen Smith’s leadership bid in 2016. Under Starmer, he became Shadow Defence Secretary, arguing for higher military spending and strong support for Britain’s nuclear deterrent. As Defence Secretary after 2024, he says that Britain will be the “leading European nation” in defence spending. He too is a strong supporter of the now challenged ban on Palestine Action.

Darren Jones received £77,000. Jones is less known, having entered Parliament only in 2017. As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he was forced to apologise in 2025 after comparing government cuts to disability benefits to reducing his children’s pocket money. Now Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Jones is firmly on the Party’s right and says Tony Blair is one of his political heroes.

David Lammy got £67,600 from Labour Together. In 2016, Lammy was the first politician to be fined for authorising nuisance calls – 35,000 automatic phone calls urging members to back his failed London mayoral campaign, without gaining advance permission. As Starmer’s Foreign Secretary, he was frequently out of his depth, calling Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh a “liberation” and refusing to say whether US strikes on Iran were legal or not. He also said that describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide – as the United Nations later confirmed they were – “undermines the seriousness of that term.”

Rachel Reeves is believed to have received over £100,000. Reeves caused controversy in 2013 when she announced that Labour in power would be tougher than the Tories in slashing the benefits bill. She faced a further backlash in 2015 when she said, “We don’t want to be seen, and we’re not, the party to represent those who are out of work.” She has served as Vice Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, but is also a big fan of pioneering woman MP Nancy Astor, who became notorious for her anti-Semitism and sympathy for the policies of Adolf Hitler. In an interview in 2022, Reeves welcomed the drop in Labour’s membership – by an estimated 200,000 members – since 2019, saying it was a “good thing” that members had left who “never shared our values.” Her failure as Chancellor since 2024 to solve the cost of living crisis, prolonging the two-child benefit cap and other austerity policies, helps explain her dire approval ratings, with 71% of voters – and over half her Party – viewing her unfavourably.

But top of the pile is Shabana Mahmood with donations of £137,168. Mahmood, a socially conservative opponent of the left in the Party, took over from Angela Rayner as National Campaigns Coordinator in 2021 and worked closely with the now discredited Morgan McSweeney. Unlike most Labour MPs, her vote share fell in 2024 after she was challenged by a pro-Palestine independent candidate who came second. As Home Secretary from September 2025, she is responsible for the Reform-aping tough stand on migration, the much-criticised changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain, widely slated by her own backbenchers as cruel and unfair, and a proposed crackdown on the right to protest, including empowering the police to ban “repeat protests”, which has been slammed by Amnesty International and Liberty.

Other recipients of significant sums include former Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray on £21,000, former Deputy Leader Angela Rayner on £31,800 and Paymaster General, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations Nick Thomas-Symonds on £35,400.

According to Politico, Labour Together’s three biggest donors after Starmer became leader in April 2020 were the hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, financier Trevor Chinn and car glass repair tycoon Gary Lubner.

Led by Josh Simons, Labour Together’s key architects included Bridget Phillipson, Rachel Reeves, Pat McFadden, Steve Reed, Wes Streeting, Lisa Nandy, Shabana Mahmood and Lucy Powell, all of whom have played a key role in Keir Starmer’s Government since 2024.

A fuller history of Labour Together is detailed in Paul Holden’s The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy, and in his recent interview with Labour Hub.

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