What was Derek Draper’s role in the Labour Party?
DEREK Draper began his political career in 1990.
Though he's since left politics, he became well known while working with Labour.
What was Derek Draper's role in the Labour Party?
Derek Draper worked in a mix of political roles before retraining as a psychologist.
In 1990 he started his career as the constituency secretary for Nick Brown.
Two years later he took on a role as a researcher for Peter Mandelson, MP for Hartlepool.
Then in 1996 he became a lobbyist, serving as the director of GPC Market Access.
Before leaving in 1999 he set up the New Labour organisation Progress with Liam Byrne.
In 1998 he was involved in a scandal after being caught on tape talking about selling access to government ministers then creating tax breaks for clients.
This became dubbed "lobbygate" and affected Derek's reputation.
When was Derek Draper editor of the LabourList website?
Derek launched LabourList as founder and editor in January 2009 after a break from politics.
Though the website has Labour in the title, it was said to sometimes be critical of the party in amongst the overall support.
Contributors included David Lammy, Peter Mandelson and Piers Morgan.
The platform wasn't run by Labour and the party made this very clear after a scandal that saw Derek step down from his role.
Most read in Showbiz
Why did Derek Draper step down from his role as LabourList editor?
Just four months after the site's launch, Damian McBride, Gordon Brown's special advisor, suggested setting up a blog to create a smear campaign against leading Conservatives of the time, such as David Cameron.
Derek said this idea was "absolutely totally brilliant" and it got leaked to the press.
The following month he resigned 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."