Derek Draper’s larger than life Labour character will certainly not be forgotten
In the Blair and Brown years, the irrepressible Derek Draper was one of Westminster’s best known and most colourful characters.
Affectionately known as “Dolly”, he was a cheerful extrovert who loved being at the centre of intrigue and gossip and was prone to boasting about his own importance.
To be fair, he was indeed very much an insider in the New Labour project that catapulted Tony Blair into power in the landslide election victory in 1997.
He was sociable, gregarious and because he worked for and was an ally of Peter Mandelson he was almost a Blairite before Blair.
He was fun, had a cheeky grin and an easy manner, and enjoyed the company and camaraderie of MPs and journalists in Westminster.
He was also very good at his job, colleagues acknowledged, and passionate about Labour winning the 1997 election after 18 years in opposition.
But it was his occasional boasting – and his misfortune in being unwittingly dragged into plotting – that landed him in two embarrassing New Labour scandals.
The first was when he was caught out bragging about how important and well connected he was. The second was over a link to a plot to smear Tory politicians.
Part of Dolly’s colourful reputation came from the fact that he worked for Mandelson, the “Prince of Darkness”, during Mandy’s ascent from spin doctor to government minister.
Draper faced criticism over his infamous quote
That wasn’t Draper’s first job in politics, however.
In fact, he worked for Nick Brown, when “Newcastle Brown” – the Tyneside MP who later became chief whip under four Labour leaders – was a shadow minister.
He went to work for Mandelson when he became the MP for Hartlepool in 1992 and – along with the equally irrepressible Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown‘s legendary spin doctor – was one of Westminster’s most high-profile insiders.
‘I am intimate with every one of them’
But Draper left Westminster a year before the Blair landslide and became a political lobbyist. And that was when his boasting landed him in trouble.
In 1998, in a scandal that became known as “Lobbygate”, he told an undercover reporter from The Observer how important and influential he was.
“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,” he said in a memorable quote.
He drew criticism. Even Mandelson said at the time: “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.”
But he landed in more trouble in 2009 when The Daily Telegraph revealed that Brown’s then spin doctor, Damian McBride, had sent him emails about a plot to smear Tory politicians including David Cameron, George Osborne and Nadine Dorries.
It was reported that Draper, who by now had set up the LabourList website, described the plan as “brilliant” in an email to McBride.
Now spin doctor for the shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, McBride immediately quit and prime minister Brown was forced to issue a grovelling apology.
A few weeks later, a contrite Draper quit LabourList and said: “I regret ever receiving the infamous email and I regret my stupid, hasty reply. I should have said straight away that the idea was wrong.”
After his career change, training as a psychotherapist, Dolly moved on, although he would still turn up to social events with Labour Party pals, such as the Tribune magazine Christmas party.
His illness has been a terrible shock to all who knew this larger-than-life character who was such amusing and engaging company. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.
Politics
Watchdog criticises ‘unprecedented’ government offer to delay local elections – as five councils confirm requests for postponement
The elections watchdog has criticised the government for offering to consider delaying 63 local council elections next year – as five authorities confirmed to Sky News that they would ask for a postponement.
On Thursday, hours before parliament began its Christmas recess, the government revealed that councils were being sent a letter asking if they thought elections should be delayed in their areas due to challenges around delivering local government reorganisation plans.
The chief executive of the Electoral Commission, Vijay Rangarajan, hit out at the announcement on Friday, saying he was “concerned” that some elections could be postponed, with some having already been deferred from 2025.
“We are disappointed by both the timing and substance of the statement. Scheduled elections should, as a rule, go ahead as planned, and only be postponed in exceptional circumstances,” he said in a statement.
“Decisions on any postponements will not be taken until mid-January, less than three months before the scheduled May 2026 elections are due to begin.
“This uncertainty is unprecedented and will not help campaigners and administrators who need time to prepare for their important roles.”
Mr Rangarajan added: “We very much recognise the pressures on local government, but these late changes do not help administrators. Parties and candidates have already been preparing for some time, and will be understandably concerned.”
He said “capacity constraints” were not a “legitimate reason for delaying long planned elections”, which risked “affecting the legitimacy of local decision-making and damaging public confidence”.
The watchdog chief also said there was “a clear conflict of interest in asking existing councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters”.
Sky News contacted the 63 councils that have been sent the letter about potentially delaying their elections.
At the time of publication, 17 authorities had replied with their decisions, while 33 said they would make up their minds before the government’s deadline of 15 January.
Many councils told Sky News they were surprised at yesterday’s announcement, saying that they had been fully intending to hold their polls as scheduled.
They said they were now working to understand the appropriate democratic mechanism for deciding whether to request a postponement of elections. Some local authorities believe it should be a decision made by their full council, while others will leave it up to council leaders or cabinet members to decide.
Multiple councils also emphasised in statements to Sky News that the ultimate decision to delay elections lay with the government.
Reform UK has threatened legal action against ministers, accusing Labour and the Tories of “colluding” to postpone elections in order to lock other parties out of power – a sentiment echoed by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.
But shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly told Sky News this morning that the Conservative Party “wants these elections to go ahead”. Sky News understands that the national party is making that position clear to local leaders.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government, said it was taking a “locally-led approach”, and emphasised that “councils are in the best position to judge the impact of postponements on their area”.
They added: “These are exceptional circumstances where councils have told us they’re struggling to prepare for resource-intensive elections to councils that will shortly be abolished, while also reorganising into more efficient authorities that can better serve local residents.
“There is a clear precedent for postponing local elections where local government reorganisation is in progress, as happened in 2019 and 2022.”
The five councils that confirmed they would be seeking postponements were:
- Blackburn with Darwen Council (Labour);
- Chorley Borough Council (Labour);
- East Sussex County Council (Conservative minority);
- Hastings Borough Council (Green minority);
- West Sussex County Council (Conservative).
The councils in Chorley, and East and West Sussex, had decided prior to Thursday’s government announcement that they would request a delay.
An East Sussex County Council spokesperson told Sky News: “It is welcome that the government is listening to local leaders and has heard the case for focussing our resources on delivery in East Sussex, particularly with devolution and reorganisation of local government, as well as delivering services to residents, such high priorities.”
They also pointed to the cost of electing councillors for a term of just one year, and argued that it would be “more prudent for just one set of elections to be held in 2027”.
Read more from Sky News:
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West Sussex County Council echoed those reasons and said it would cost taxpayers across the county £9m to hold elections in 2026, 2027, and 2028, as currently planned.
Chorley and Blackburn councils also cited the cost of delivering elections, and said they would prefer that money be spent on delivering the local government reorganisation and delivering services to local residents.
Meanwhile, 12 councils confirmed to Sky News that they would not be requesting delays:
- Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (Liberal Democrat-Independents);
- Broxbourne Borough Council (Conservative);
- Colchester City Council (Labour-Liberal Democrat);
- Eastleigh Borough Council (Liberal Democrat);
- Essex County Council (Conservative);
- Hart District Council (Liberal Democrat-Community Campaign);
- Hastings Borough Council (Green minority);
- Isle of Wight Council (no overall control);
- Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council (Conservative);
- Portsmouth City Council (Liberal Democrat minority);
- Rushmoor Borough Council (Labour minority);
- Southampton City Council (Labour).
Keonne Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to one felony count related to his role at Samourai Wallet, is calling on US President Donald Trump to pardon him, citing similar language that has been successful in previous pardon applications.
In a Thursday X post, Rodriguez said he would report to prison on Friday, where he will serve a five-year sentence for operating an illegal money transmitter. The Samourai co-founder claimed there were no “victims” to his crime, and blamed his incarceration on “lawfare perpetrated by a weaponized Biden DOJ.”
In a message tagging Trump, Rodriguez expressed hope that the US president would issue a federal pardon for him and William “Bill” Lonergan Hill, another Samourai executive who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. Rodriguez blamed “activist judges” for his legal troubles, claiming he was targeted by a “political anti-innovation agenda.”
“I maintain hope that [Trump] is a fair man, a man of the people, who will see this prosecution for what it was: an anti innovation, anti american, attack on the rights and liberties of free people,” said Rodriguez. “I believe his team […] and others truly want to end the weaponization of the DOJ that the previous administration wielded so effectively […] I believe he will continue to wield that power for good and pardon me and Bill.”
Related: Samourai Wallet co-founders to now plead guilty to US charges
Rodriguez’s public plea followed Trump’s statement that he would “take a look” at a pardon for the Samourai co-founder, claiming that he had no knowledge of the case. It’s unclear whether Rodriguez filed an official application for a pardon or is relying on public statements to get the president’s attention.
Other crypto execs successfully lobbied for a Trump pardon
One of Trump’s first acts as president in January was to issue a pardon for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence for his role in creating and operating the darknet marketplace.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to one felony in 2023 related to the exchange’s Anti-Money Laundering program, served four months in prison but also received a pardon from the president. Trump later said he “[knew] nothing about” Zhao when asked about the pardon in a November interview.
Rodriguez’s language addressing Trump mirrored comments from the White House on previous pardons. For example, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was a “weaponization of justice from the previous administration” when the president commuted the sentence of David Gentile, who was convicted of defrauding “thousands of individual investors in a $1.6 billion” scheme in 2024.
Crypto users on Polymarket were not given the choice of betting on the odds of a Trump pardon of Rodriguez as of Friday. At the time of publication, Trump ally Steve Bannon had the highest odds, at 9%.
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