A LABOUR MP who shot to prominence after saying people smugglers should be sent to Scotland has been given a leg up in his political career – just months after Scottish Labour dismissed him as a “fringe” figure.
Josh Simons has been appointed a private parliamentary secretary to Environment Secretary Steve Reed, in a promotion from the backbenches which could help him land a Government job later.
He caused controversy in February, while was director of the influential Labour Together think tank, when he said that the Government should put people smuggling gangs on a barge and “then ship the barge up to the north of Scotland, for all I care”.
'Why don't you put the smuggler gangs on the barge and ship it to Scotland for all I care?' Criticising the government's Rwanda plan, @joshsimonstweet has a solution for the 'small boats crisis' if Labour win the next election.@IainDale pic.twitter.com/rZrGJmaoSB
— LBC (@LBC) February 12, 2024
His comments were condemned as “ludicrous” by Scottish Labour at the time and Anas Sarwar attempted to dismiss him as a figure of the party’s “fringe”, despite his links with Labour leader Keir Starmer and his right hand man Morgan McSweeney.
Simons’s new position does not make him a member of the Government, but is seen as a step on the ladder to a future ministerial position.
He will be an assistant to the Environment Secretary and help the Government communicate with the backbenches and vice versa.
