WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on the end of an error
Nice drop of red: David Evans
David Evans, the former key aide to Tony Bliar and one-time Croydon businessman who was installed as party General Secretary after Keir Starmer became Labour leader, is to stand down from the job later this month. The predicted elevation to a place in the House of Lords cannot be too distant.
Evans became a notorious figure in Croydon politics, through his close personal relationships with the council’s Labour leadership, including Alison Butler, with whom he fathered a child, as well as his part in masterminding Labour’s 2014 Town Hall election victory, and the hundreds of thousands of pounds of council contracts that flowed the way of his The Campaign Company in the months thereafter.
Evans’s close associate, Tony Newman, the leader of Croydon Council from 2014 to 2020, has been on “administrative suspension” by the Labour Party since early 2021, shortly after the financial collapse of the council. Under Evans, disciplinary action against Newman has never been actioned.
In his time as Labour General Secretary, Evans also introduced the controversial – and easily manipulated – Anonyvoter online election system, without ever going to anything resembling a competitive tendering process, but instead taking on a package from a company jointly owned by a Croydon Labour councillor.
Arch-Blairite Evans had been integral to the planning for Labour’s General Election victories in 1997 and 2001, after which he stood back from a daily role in the national party machine to establish his public relations consultancy in Suffolk House on George Street.
Watch more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Evans was installed by Starmer as General Secretary in May 2020.
“It has been the privilege of my life to be General Secretary for the Labour Party,” 63-year-old Evans said in a carefully prepared statement issued through a Labour website.
“It has always been my plan to serve for one General Election and take the organisation from shattering defeat to being a party of government.
“Now both have been achieved, it is the right time both for me and the party for a new General Secretary to take over.
“A new General Secretary being in post from the end of this year’s conference will give them the necessary time to lead the next chapter of change, taking over at the same early stage of the political cycle that I did.
Close relationship: Alison Butler, Croydon Labour’s former deputy leader
“All my thanks go to the Labour Party staff, representatives and volunteers – without their hard work and support our successes simply would not have been possible.”
Starmer said: “David has been a hugely consequential General Secretary. It is in no small part down to David’s leadership, vision and courage that we rebuilt the Labour Party and secured a landslide election victory in July… He leaves the Labour Party organisation in a strong position, ready for the challenges of the future.
“On behalf of the whole Labour Party we thank him for his service to our party and look forward to him making significant contributions in the future.”
Momentum, the organisation of grassroots Labour members formed to support the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, characterised Evans’s time in charge as being “ridden with attacks on members’ rights, corrupt selection processes and the misuse of the online voting system Anonyvoter”.
Read more: Grassroots Labour Party members in calls to sack David Evans
Read more: Newman and Hall resign as councillors claiming a ‘witchhunt’
Read more: Questions asked over Town Hall Mayor’s business deal
Read more: Starmer’s Labour is ‘losing members, losing funds, losing staff’
Read more: MP Reed ordered investigation of councillor emails at Lambeth
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