BBCThe prime minister has asked his ethics adviser to investigate minister Josh Simons, following claims the think tank he used to run commissioned a report which looked into the background of journalists.Labour Together, which helped Sir Keir Starmer get elected as Labour leader, paid APCO Worldwide at least £30,000 to "investigate the sourcing, funding and origins" of a Sunday Times story about undeclared donations at the think tank ahead of the 2024 election.Simons has previously said the company had "gone beyond" what it had been asked to do by including "unnecessary information".Sir Keir had already asked the Cabinet Office to investigate Simons last week.However, more than 20 Labour MPs had called for a "fully independent investigation", pointing out that Simons is a minister in the Cabinet Office.PM orders investigation into Labour Together claimsLabour think tank commissioned firm that ended up investigating journalistThe BBC has not seen APCO Worldwide's report in full but sources familiar with its contents have confirmed the details, which were reported by the Sunday Times.Sources told the BBC the US public affairs firm's report included information about journalist Gabriel Pogrund's Jewish beliefs and claims about his ideological position.It also claimed, the sources said, that Pogrund's previous reporting, including on the royal family, "could be seen as destabilising to the UK and also in the interests of Russia's strategic foreign policy objectives".In a contract addressed to Simons, seen by BBC News, APCO Worldwide agreed to investigate "the sourcing, funding and origins" of the Sunday Times reporting, as well as the journalist, Paul Holden and Matt Taibbi, an American reporter.Responding to an urgent question over the issue in Parliament, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said the Cabinet Office investigation had "established the facts" around the allegations and reported them to Sir Keir, who had now referred the issue to his independent adviser on ministerial standards."The government is committed to protecting freedom of the press and no journalist should ever be intimidated for trying to hold those in power to account," he told MPs.Simons has previously said he had asked APCO Worldwide to look into "a suspected illegal hack" and claims he wanted to investigate journalists were "nonsense".Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.