Has Lord Feldman become a liability to David Cameron?
JUST along from David Cameron’s office in 10 Downing Street is the elegant room in which one of the most powerful men in politics works. He has never been elected and is accountable only to the Prime Minister – and yet he has a vital influence over policy decisions which affect the lives of voters. Andrew Feldman has one over-riding qualification… he is Cameron’s best friend.
They played tennis together at Oxford 30 years ago. They shared riotous evenings as members of the Bullingdon Club for high-living toffs. They ran their college’s May Ball.
When Feldman persuaded Cameron to stand for the Conservative Party leadership in 2005 the multimillionaire ran Cameron’s campaign, calling in favours from contacts in the business world and raising tens of thousands of pounds. Feldman’s reward came when he became the first paid chief executive of the party and Cameron made him Lord Feldman of Elstree.
Elevating him to the House of Lords, where he has spoken only once in five years, deeply upset many Tory MPs. As one put it: “What was it for, other than being Dave’s mate?” Today, despite being caught up in a string of political controversies and making some rank bad decisions, 50-year-old Feldman looks fireproof.
BUT his detractors describe him as a liability. They ask how Cameron can rebuke a man he calls “one of my oldest and best friends” when things go wrong – as they have many times during Feldman’s reign as party chairman. They also question how he can ever tell Cameron uncomfortable home truths while relying totally on the PM’s patronage.
When Cameron is out of touch with the views of ordinary people – as he is for example over remaining in the EU – he is surrounded by a coterie of wealthy public schoolboys who have little knowledge of the real world. I know from experience, having worked for Cameron as a speech writer in 2011, what naive snobs they can be.
None more so than Feldman, a barrister by training who lives in an £8million town house in Holland Park bought when he ran the family clothing business. He epitomises the wealth and privilege that now run through the upper echelons of a political party which was once so proud to have a grocer’s daughter at its helm.
Any study of Feldman raises this question: if he can get away with such a catalogue of controversies, what would he have to do before Cameron disciplined him? Consider seven incidents involving Feldman.
1: In September 2003, a Macedonian sportswear company paid for Cameron – then an MP – and Feldman to attend an England-Macedonia football match in Skopje. The two spent three free nights at the five-star hotel in which the England team were staying. Cameron disclosed the trip in the register of MPs’ interests. Days after this freebie, he argued for Macedonia to be allowed into the EU. Coincidentally, Feldman had business interests in Macedonia – his company had invested £440,000 in a hotel complex. Alas to no avail – Macedonia has still not been admitted to the EU.
2: The “Yachtgate” fundraising scandal erupted in 2008 when Feldman and the then shadow chancellor George Osborne met a Russian billionaire on his super-yacht off Corfu – accompanied by Labour’s Peter Mandelson. The two Tories denied soliciting donations from the Russian, which would have broken the law. Feldman claimed he accepted the invitation to go aboard the floating palace through “human weakness” because he was curious to see a boat like that close up.
3: One of Feldman’s first decisions as chairman was to bring in former tax exile David Rowland, a property tycoon, as party treasurer. Rowland had donated almost £3million to the party.
However, one of his business deals had seen him described in a Commons motion as a “shady financier” – and when this was revealed by the media Rowland resigned before even starting the job.
4: When allegations surfaced of bullying and inappropriate sexual conduct in the party’s youth wing, a 20-page dossier implicating the so-called “Tatler Tory” Mark Clarke was sent to the chairman’s office at Conservative HQ in 2010. No action was taken and Feldman claims he was “wholly unaware” of the bullying until 2015.
5: In 2013 Feldman was reported by two respected political journalists to be the unnamed close ally of Cameron who called Tory activists “mad, swivel-eyed loons”, blaming the grassroots for forcing MPs to take hard-line positions on Europe and same-sex marriage.
HOURS earlier 114 Tory MPs had rebelled against Cameron in a vote on an early EU referendum and the journalists from The Times and The Telegraph insisted they asked Feldman his views on this. Feldman emphatically denied making the comment and threatened to sue. Under Feldman, party membership has halved.
6: The Electoral Commission is investigating whether the party deliberately breached constituency spending limits while campaigning during the 2015 general election. Feldman oversaw the campaign.
7: Feldman has been criticised by the Brexit campaign, which claims he has been helping to raise funds for Remain while working in Downing Street. The Tory Party says he has merely been putting wealthy donors in touch with campaigns on either side.
Friends say Feldman has a famous party piece – an impersonation of Elvis Presley. Now they know why he never sings Suspicious Minds.
‘A string of political controversies’