Derek Draper

For the former Welsh professional footballer, see Derek Draper (footballer).

Derek William Draper (born 15 August 1967, Chorley, Lancashire, UK) is a former lobbyist, psychotherapist, and an editor of the LabourList website. As a New Labour insider, he was widely known for being the centre of the "Lobbygate", and "Smeargate" scandals.

Early life

He was educated at Southlands High School, also in Chorley between September 1978 and June 1984. He later attended Runshaw College, Leyland and the University of Manchester. While at the university, Draper provided hospitality for Ken Livingstone, who had missed his train after a Labour Club meeting. Livingstone was astonished to find displayed in Draper's student room an improbable large poster of Labour Party deputy leader, Roy Hattersley. At around this time, he first met Charlotte Raven, with whom he was later involved romantically.

Draper began his political career in 1990, when he became the constituency secretary to Nick Brown. In 1992, he left this job and went to work as a researcher for Peter Mandelson. In 1996, he became a director of a lobbying firm called GPC Market Access, and was employed by them until early 1999. Whilst working at GPC Market Access, he set up the New Labour organisation Progress. During the late 1990s, Draper worked as the Political Editor of the Modern Review, was briefly a columnist for the Daily Express, and briefly a presenter on Talk Radio. By this time, Draper had acquired the sobriquet of 'Dolly'.

In a Guardian article of November 2005, Decca Aitkenhead wrote:

'...his reputation became increasingly notorious in Westminster circles, and he did little to discourage it. Following the publication of his book, Blair's 100 Days, a BBC political correspondent approached him at a party and whispered a rumour going around that Derek hadn't actually written it. "Write it?" Derek laughed out loud. "I haven't even read it." Private Eye published a story about a "member of Blair's kitchen cabinet" getting involved in threesomes, bondage and cocaine. They called him "Mr. X" but the euphemism was quite unnecessary. In the Blairs' suite at party conference, Cherie greeted Derek with a knowing smile, "ahh, look who it is - Mr. X."'

'Lobbygate'

In 1998, while still working as a director at GPC Market Access, Draper became embroiled in one of the first major scandals of Tony Blair's government. He was caught on tape, with Jonathan Mendelsohn, boasting to Greg Palast - an undercover reporter from The Observer posing as a businessman - about how they could sell access to government ministers and create tax breaks for their clients. When the tabloids got hold of the story, they dubbed it "Lobbygate". On the recording, Draper also allegedly boasted that "there are 17 people who count in this government.... to say I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century." Palast also wrote that Draper said, regarding his motivation: "I just want to stuff my bank account at 250 pounds an hour". Although he denied the allegations and accused The Observer of attempting to entrap him, he was widely ridiculed in the aftermath. Palast later stated that the subsequent media coverage got his original story wrong, and that it was not primarily about boastful lobbyists: "the real story was about Tony Blair and his inner circle." Palast also said that Draper was "nothing more than a messenger boy, a factotum, a purveyor, a self-loving, over-scented clerk."

Following his involvement in the "Lobbygate" scandal, Draper was sacked from his job at the Daily Express and generally shunned by Labour insiders. His long-time political friend, Peter Mandelson, said that Draper "has a fine intelligence, but sometimes I am afraid he misuses that intelligence. He gets above himself. But now he has been cut down to size and I think probably he will learn a very hard lesson from what has happened."

Draper urged people to vote tactically against Labour in the 2005 General Election, saying, "I don't want my vote to be used as vindication for Tony Blair, I'd like him to wake up after the election and feel like a hunted man".

Self-styled psychotherapist

After leaving politics, Draper claims on his website to have retrained as a psychotherapist, obtaining an MA in clinical psychology after "three years in Berkeley, California". While "in Berkeley", he claims to have worked as "the development director of a community counselling centre"; later, to have entered "private practice in Marylebone, London". David Hencke of The Guardian and Paul Staines from the Guido Fawkes blog have called into question this claim of Draper's formal qualification from "Berkeley". According to Staines, the registrar at the University of California, Berkeley was unable to find any record of Draper - "because the information you provided did not match any records in our database, we asked the school to research your request. The school was unable to locate either a degree or enrollment record for the subject of your verification request". Draper has since clarified that he in fact studied at the Wright Institute of California, a graduate school in the town of Berkeley founded by Nevitt Sanford, with no academic links to the prestigious university. However, he did not admit that he did not finish the course, being asked to leave in the third year (of the required five) in March 2004. A month later, the institute determined he would not receive an MA for work already submitted, although he continues to claim that he has a Master's qualification.

Summing up the controversy of Draper's 'psychotherapy degree', Staines wrote "Derek Draper wants to be Labour's answer to Iain Dale, instead he seems more like Labour's version of Jeffrey Archer. A fantasist who exaggerates himself for his own psychological reasons." Draper responded, denying the allegations completely and saying that this was "a brazen attempt to smear me by Guido Fawkes and David Hencke". He has also stated he is considering taking legal action against them. Staines replied to Draper's threat by saying "Come on Derek, serve that writ or 'you can just fuck off'".

Draper claims to be a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, although does not appear to be currently on their register and is certainly not accredited to the BACP.

Psychiatrist and journalist Dr. Ben Goldacre of Bad Science described as "beneath contempt" Draper's statement to Labour advisor Damian McBride (see below) that it would be "brilliant" to smear the wife of a Conservative MP with the allegation that she had a "fragile emotional state." This despite Draper's claim that "every week I see vulnerable people, some with life threatening mental illnesses".

Although he has no formal qualification on the topic, Draper writes an occasional column for the Mail on Sunday newspaper on psychotherapy issues. He is also the author of a chapter in The Future of the NHS.

Return to Labour politics and Internet activities

During 2008, Draper made a return to British politics. He was described on the BBC television current affairs programme Newsnight, on 12 September 2008, as a "Labour Campaign Advisor". His return to the front line has received a mixed response according to prominent pro-Labour journalist Kevin Maguire from the Daily Mirror. He said:

"Many think psychotherapist (sic) Derek Draper's greatest skill is self-promotion and the cunning plan for him to pop in a couple of unpaid days a week to advise Labour where it is going wrong hasn't gone down well with MPs. Correction. It's gone down like a pile of cold sick. A worrying number of comrades with long memories recall how Peter Mandelson's sidekick spectacularly discredited himself a decade ago and fear what the future holds. I've yet to come across a single MP in Westminster who thinks the arrangement's a good idea for Labour. A fair few can see what he might get out of it: TV interviews? diary on how it all went wrong for Brown? OK! celebrity deal?"

Draper's claim to be an adviser to Ray Collins, the General Secretary of the Labour Party has been shown to be misleading. An email from Mr. Collins to the Labour Party National Executive, removed all doubt that Collins and the Labour Party wanted no further involvement with Draper. The email also revealed that rather than working directly for the Labour Party General Secretary, Draper had in fact turned up one day a week as an unpaid volunteer.

Draper is the editor of LabourList.org. The website was launched in January 2009. In an article for the Mail on Sunday, Draper explained why he had started the website:

"If one aspect of politics has changed since I was last involved, it is the role of the Internet. If you are a Tory you can visit the Conservative Home website or commentator Iain Dale's blog and read professionally produced news and views. Labour, excepting a few talented bloggers such as Tom Watson MP, has nothing to compare."

Contributors to his website include David Lammy, Peter Mandelson, James Purnell and Piers Morgan. Although LabourList is generally supportive of the Labour Party, it does claim to publish articles and views that are critical of the government occasionally.

LabourList has received very mixed feedback on the blogosphere and the mainstream media. For example, Draper was a harsh critic of Iain Dale, following remarks that he made on his own blog in defence of Carol Thatcher after she used the word "golliwog" to describe a tennis player. He wrote four entries for his website demanding that Dale apologised for defending her - to date, he has refused to do so. In response, a number of bloggers ridiculed him and Dale called Draper a "prat". .

Damian McBride and 'Smeargate'

On 11 April 2009 it was reported by the Daily Telegraph that Gordon Brown's special adviser, Damian McBride had sent a series of emails to Draper discussing plans to set up a blog which would be used to post false rumours about the private lives of senior members of the Conservative Party and their spouses. These smears would have included sexual and personal fabrications against MP Nadine Dorries, Conservative leader David Cameron and his wife Samantha, and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne and his wife Frances.

The emails, which had been sent from the Downing Street Press Office, found their way to Paul Staines, who brought them to the attention of the media. McBride resigned later the same day, and 10 Downing Street issued an apology for the "juvenile and inappropriate" emails. Gordon Brown later sent personal letters to those who had been mentioned in the emails, expressing his regret over the incident, but Conservative politicians called for him to make a public apology. Mr Brown apologised a few days later while on a visit to Glasgow, saying that he was sorry about what had happened.

Draper later apologised for his part in the affair. Although in his reply to McBride's email he had described the idea as "absolutely totally brilliant", Draper claimed that he only responded to the email in order to gain favour from Downing Street for LabourList. A closer examination of Draper's emailed reply shows the plot was far more advanced, with Draper knowing that the controversial Red Rag blog site had already been set up and offering to sort out the technology with trade union official Andrew Dodgshon.

The national press referred to McBride and Draper's action as an "orchestrated strategy of dishonesty". Trevor Kavanagh of The Sun described Draper as an "unstable cocktail of charm and venom", Adam Boulton of Sky TV stated that Draper's attempts to spin out of the crisis were "utter rot" and "one of the more clumsy attempts at smoke-screening I've seen in my time at Westminster", and Will Self condemned Draper as having the "instincts of an immature anorak".

In the wake of the incident Labour sought to distance itself from Draper's LabourList blog, saying that his website is not owned by the Labour Party. Draper also came under pressure to resign his post as editor of LabourList. Peter Oborne has criticised Draper's failure to resign and his continued association with the site as "morally revolting".

Personal life

Draper married GMTV presenter Kate Garraway in 2005 in Camden, London. They have one daughter together, Darcey Mary, born in March 2006 in Hammersmith and Fulham, London. Their second child is due in July 2009.

External links

• Draper's personal website
• Labour List
• The Red Rag
• http://www.progressives.org.uk/
• The Future of the NHS
• Journalisted - Articles by Derek Draper
• Guido Fawkes Website
• Iain Dale's diary
• That's News. Online news magazine that has covered the so-called Drapergate affair