When stories first emerged about a new tell-all book on Keir Starmer’s ruthless rise to power, Corbynites got predictably excited. The work by Paul Holden – titled The Fraud – has not quite proved to be the thing which finally does for this besieged No. 10 team. But it does, however, contain some interesting details on Morgan McSweeney’s role in Starmer’s rise. The all-powerful Downing Street chief of staff has enjoyed a 25-year career in progressive politics – including helping to set up the grandly-titled ‘Centre for Countering Digital Hate’ (CCDH) back in 2018.
Last October, Steerpike covered how the CCDH had threatened to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’, pointing out the extensive links between CCDH and the Labour party. At that time, Mr Steerpike sent a press request to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) asking how many meetings the organisation had with the Centre for Countering Digital Hate in the past five years. DSIT responded asking Mr S to send a Freedom of Information request. Why rush to respond, eh?
Now, new documents seen by Steerpike show email chains between officials in DSIT discussing the request. An email chain showing discussions between Special Advisers and the Secretary of State, Peter Kyle, ends with a final email by Francesca Hill, a senior civil servant in the department, agreeing on an internal line, that there has been ‘no ministerial engagement with CCDH’ since Labour came to power – but noted that there ‘have been a small handful of official-level engagements in the contest of post-Southport follow-up and the Data Bill’.
The emails also stated that CCDH would be part of a ministerial roundtable alongside the Molly Rose Foundation, which included the Secretary of State. An attendee list for this roundtable included Labour MPs Josh Simons, Josh MacAlister, Alex Sobel, and Lucy Rigby alongside Baroness Jones – the-then Minister for Online Safety. A briefing note for the roundtable shows that Talitha Rowland, the Cabinet Office Deputy Director, and Daniel Okubo, a deputy director of Online Safety at DSIT met with Imran Ahmed, the centre’s director, in November of 2024.
Other documents seen by The Spectator show other engagement between Labour and the CCDH. A letter from Baroness Jones, dated September 2024, thanked Imran for writing in about social media usage following the Southport riots – saying ‘DSIT officials would welcome the opportunity to discuss your policy proposals further’. The closeness of Labour and the CCDH is especially important given other claims made by Holden in his book – including an alleged campaign against the Brexit Party candidate Michael Heaver in 2019.
Steerpike looks forward to keeping an eye on the relationship between CCDH and Labour ministers in future. Who will watch the watchmen eh?
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