Derek Draper

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

Derek Draper was a New Labour insider and lobbyist who was at the centre of a scandal about political lobbying known as "Lobbygate", the "Cash for Access" scandal, or "Drapergate".

1 Career
2 Personal life
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

He first attended Southlands High School in Chorley, Lancashire, between September 1978 and June 1984, and later attended Runshaw College, Leyland and the University of Manchester, where he was first spotted by Peter Mandelson, and employed by the latter as his assistant for four years. He then worked as Political Editor of the Modern Review, the culture magazine set up by Toby Young and Julie Burchill, which showcased rising stars such as Will Self and Nick Hornby. Next he became a lobbyist and set up the New Labour organisation Progress.

In 1998, he was working as a lobbyist for GPC Market Access, as Director of Progress, and as an Express journalist when he became embroiled in the first major scandal of Blair's government when he was caught on tape along with Jonathan Mendelsohn boasting to Greg Palast, an undercover reporter posing as a businessman, about how they could sell access to government ministers and create tax breaks for their clients^[1] in a scandal that was dubbed "Lobbygate".^[2] Draper denied the allegations.^[3]

Draper was much derided for his boast that "There are 17 people who count in this government. And to say I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century."

Palast has subsequently stated that the subsequent media coverage got his story wrong, and that it wasn't primarily about boastful lobbyists, "the real story was about Tony Blair and his inner circle." Draper, he said, was "nothing more than a messenger boy, a factotum, a purveyor, a self-loving, over-scented clerk." GPC was at the centre of the lobbygate 'cash for access' scandal. The journalist Greg Palast exposed the scandal of 'secretive business influence over policy-making', revealing how New Labour lobbyists were 'working to create a US-style interpenetration of corporations and government'.

Behind the scandal are the powerful biotech interests led by Monsanto and followup to Palast's story were covered in depth by GM Watch [1].

Draper lost his various jobs and retrained as a psychotherapist. He now writes a column for the Mail on Sunday on psychotherapy issues. He is the author of a chapter in The Future of the NHS (2006) (ISBN 1-85811-369-5).

[edit] Personal life

In July 2005, GMTV presenter Kate Garraway announced live on air that she was pregnant and engaged to Draper, whom she married later in the year, and covered in an OK! magazine exclusive. In certain circles, it was considered an unlikely match; Piers Morgan was quoted as saying, "...if I'd known that the bar was set that low, I'd have had a go myself." The couple celebrated the birth of their first child, a baby girl, Darcey, on 10 March, 2006.