Lee Jasper
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Lee Jasper | |
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| Born | 1958 |
Lee Jasper is a British race equality campaigner and former Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities to the Mayor of London until his resignation on 4 March 2008 following the publication of sexually charged emails to a married associate. [1] In December 2007, it was revealed that he is under investigation in connection with £510,000 given to south London's Brixton Base project. [2] Jasper was cleared of any wrong-doing by an internal inquiry conducted by the Mayor's London Development Agency and Ken Livingstone stood by Jasper, saying: "I trust Lee with my life."[3]
Early life
Jasper was born in Manchester in 1958. His mother was born in the UK and is of African descent and his father is Jamaican. He moved to Oldham at the age of 8 staying there until the age of 21.
Career
Jasper left school without qualifications, and briefly ran a market stall selling second hand clothes. In his 20s he gained a degree in Social Sciences and moved to London, where he became involved in the politics of the Notting Hill Carnival.
Over the next decade, Jasper became on of the UK's most prominent race relations activist and adviser, sitting on many different committees and groups. He founded a range of national black organisations from the National Black Caucus, the 1990 Trust and operation Black Vote. He was also a founder member of Jubilee 200 and Operation Trident Independent Advisory Group. He was one of only three witnesses representing black organisations at the Stephen Lawrence inquiry representing the 1990 Trust. He presented what is considered by many as the most powerful articulation from black community perspective on Police racism. He was also a campaign group member of the Lawrence Campaign group and personally organised the intervention of Nelson Mandela in support of the Lawrence Campaign.
He came to prominence as a member of the Mangrove 11 campaign in 1986 where 11 men were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine and heroin. The 11 were tried by 11 different juries and found not guilty by all 11 juries. This led to the largest single civil award payout of the time with the then leader of the Mangrove, Frank Crtichlow, being awarded over £50.000. Jasper went on to narrate a BBC Panorama special on this subject. As a spokesperson for the National Black Caucus he became the spokesperson of a hugely successful movement attracting over 1500 African and Asians to three day Black power residential conventions throughout the late 1980s.
His experience includes being Senior Policy Advisor to the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA); Director of Development of the Mangrove Trust; Chair of Mangrove Community Association, Notting Hill; Secretary, Notting Hill Carnival; Press and Publicity Officer, Interval Housing Project, Rainer Foundation. Jasper was the Director of the 1990 Trust (1995 - 2000), a leading policy organisation on issues affecting African, Asian, and Caribbean communities in the United Kingdom and Europe. In 1998 he won a Premiere Community Award from Britain's biggest black newspaper, The Voice, for his work in race relations. Jasper is an ex-board member of the Royal Commonwealth Society (1997-1999). He is also the President of the National Black Students Alliance, as was also the Deputy Representative of the UK on the European Council's European National Anti Racist Network.(1995/6). he was voted the 2nd most powerful black man in the New Nation's Black power list in 2007. He is a founder member of the Equanomics network and has been a school governor for over 20 years.
He has been responsible for some of the largest demonstrations ever held on race equality issues in the UK. In addition he has campaigned against a range of high profile miscarriage of justice campaigns such as the Cardiff 3, M25 Three and host of others.
asper has chaired many committees and organisations including the National Black Alliance, National Black Caucus and the Lambeth Police Consultative Group. He is the National Secretary of the National Assembly Against Racism. He was also a founder board member of the Jubilee 2000 Campaign, is a current member of the Black Jewish Forum, is was one of the co-chairs of Communities on Line, a national organisation promoting internet usage for social and economic justice, and has been School Governor of St Andrew's School, Brixton, Lambeth. Kingsdale and Chestnut Grove Schools in South London. He was a the driving force behind the radical black web site black information link. (www.blink.org.uk)
He also sat on the London Criminal Justice Board and chaired Scotland Yard's Operation Trident Independent Advisory Group, which works to reduce homicide in black communitiesgun crime. His close co-operation with the police has earned him criticism from radical anti-racists and militant anti-fascists who see the police as part of the problem of racism. He began campaigning against gun crime long before it was fashionable in 1996.
Due to his role in the Greater London Authority, he played an important part at the European Social Forum hosted by the GLA in London in 2004. This caused some controversy, as there was disruption at the anti-racist session of the Forum. His criticisms of the disruption[1] were in turn condemned by a small number of grassroots anti-racist groups as stifling dissent.[2] He remains however one of the most articulate public speakers ever produced by the British African communities. He pioneered the GLA Equalities effort resulting in the GLA being awarded Level 5 of the Local Government Equality Standard.
He is currently married and has nine children. He married at 16 divorced by 21, married again at 24 and his second wife died of lupus in 1994. He was a single parent from 1981 until 1984 bringing up his two eldest daughters whilst studying at Manchester polytechnic.
In 2001 and again in September 2008 he called for the establishment of black schools in the United Kingdom in response to the current educational crisis for black youth. His call has gained increasing support from large sections of the black community. But has outraged white and black liberals alike. He currently presents a programme on www.voiceofafricaradio.com.
Greater London Authority
As advisor to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, Jasper earned £120,000 per year and the Mayors policy Director for Policing and Equalities. He was responsible for the development, enactment and promotion of equalities policies for the Greater London Authority (GLA) and had corporate responsibility for the development and delivery of anti discriminatory policies aimed at ensuring equality in employment practices and service delivery. He was also directly responsible for advising the Mayor on policing issues. He secured level 5 for the GLA the highest level available for the Local Government Equality Standard only a handful of public sector organisations have achieved this distinction. During his term the GLA became the lead public sector organisation in the UK winning a broad range of awards and establishing cutting edge practice in areas such as supply side diversity.
He developed and chaired London's Olympic Diversity Forum the only one of its kind in the history of the Olympics. He established and chaired the project team for the single non emergency for London, developed TfL's anti social behaviour campaign as currently advertised. He also led the campaign to return the confiscated assets of criminals back to the communities that suffered their crimes resulting in millions being reinvested in London high crime communities. He was a member of the project team that delivered the successful Safer Neighbourhood Programme.
He represented the Mayors Office at the London's Gold Group Emergency and Disaster Committee that sat continuously throughout the terrorist attacks of 7/7/ He organised the Mayors apology for Transatlantic Slavery in 2007 led the successful campaign to have the 23rd of August recognised as Transatlantic Memorial Slavery Day in partnership with UNESCO. He led with others the establishment of the Mayors Commission on African and Asian Heritage in London. He chaired the Mayors Notting Hill Carnival review producing a report that is now considered a seminal document. He chaired the GLA Procurement Diversity Strategy that produced a clear strategy in ensuring minority access to all city contracts. He ensured the delivery of a high profile recruitment strategy for the Metropolitan Police that saw for the first time a 50% increase in black and ethnic minority officers
He led discussions with black churches in London on behalf of the Mayor. He was also responsible for delivering a broad range of cultural events across London including the ' Rise Festival ' As a member of the Mayor's Advisory Cabinet, he was responsible for political advice regarding race relations in London He was the most high profile public figure of former Mayor Ken Livingstones advisors.
Funding controversy
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In March 2008 it was reported that Police investigating public funds allegations involving associates of Jasper had arrested Joel O'Loughlin, said to be a friend of Jasper's, whose company, Diversity International (DI), went into liquidation after being paid nearly £350,000 by the London Development Agency. It was alleged that the tender rules had been waived when DI was paid £346,000 to run a London website despite having no expertise in the field and being based in Liverpool. In fact the rules were not waived as evidenced by Boris Johnson's Forensic Audit Panel and after a year long Police investigation O'Loughlin was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.[citation needed]
On the same day another LDA-funded group linked to Jasper, Ethnic Mutual, was shut down by the Financial Services Authority. EM had received over £1 million from the LDA and the government, and it was discovered that £18,000 had been diverted from it to a company of which Jasper is a director.[4] Jasper stated that his fellow Directors had applied for and secured this loan without his knowledge, a fact confirmed to the Police by his co-directors.[citation needed]
The police launched an investigation after Jasper voluntarily referred these allegations to the police in a bid to clear his name and arrests were made in response to the pressure brought to bear by the London Conservatives and the Evening Standard. Over 11 individuals were arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the course of a year long investigation. Of the 11 people, 9 have been released without charge and it is widely expected that the final two will also be discharged.
Incoming Mayor of London Boris Johnson also launched an extensive Forensic Audit Panel investigation to examine in detail all aspects of Lee Jasper decisions and actions whilst in office. That committee reported in July 2008 that Lee Jasper had acted at all times within his remit as a Mayoral adviser. They did however express concern about two members of his staff who were responsible for the Carnival Showcase.[3]
The matters were referred to the police for investigation in July 2008 and in December 2008 the police concluded again that there were no charges to answer. This politically motivated act was seen by many as a diversionary tactic designed to obscure the fact that Johnson's panel had failed after indepth forensic examination to find any evidence to substantiate their false allegations.
Jasper is the most comprehensively investigated black man in Britain and despite having his life scrutinised and forensically examined by the London Development Agency, the Greater London Authority, Boris Johnson's Forensic Audit Panel, The Metropolitan Police Service , The Financial Services Authority and the right wing tabloid press along with BBC London, he has remained steadfast in maintaining his innocence.
In January 2009 all of the investigations concluded that Lee Jasper had no case to answer. Neither had any of the other individuals connected with these investigations been charged with any crime. As of July 2009 the last two remaining individuals being investigated by the Police had not been charged with a single offence some 18 months on since the investigations were launched.
For a useful inpart summary of investigations see http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2009/jul/03/lee-jasper-andrew-gillian-london-development-agency-evening-standard
References
- ^ "Mayor's aide Jasper quits",
- ^ "Mayor's aide in funding dispute", BBC News (online), 5 December, 2007
- ^ BBC NEWS | Politics | Profile: Ken Livingstone
- ^ Dawar, Anil (18 March 2008), "Police make arrest in LDA funding inquiry", The Guardian
The most recent report produced after a forensic 18 month independant investigation by the law firm DLA Piper and comissioned by the London Development Agency examined all the fraud and corruption allegations made by the London Evening Standard . The report published in June 2009 concluded that Lee Jasper had not influenced the funding decisions of the LDA and that there was no evidence of fraud or corrpuption. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/02/london-london. [Ken Livingstones administration not guilty of fraud or corruption,]]