EXCLUSIVE: Might the failure of David Evans’s Croydon-based business offer some clues to the effectiveness, or otherwise, of his time running the party machine for Keir Starmer?
By our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE
The long goodbye: David Evans, out canvassing in Croydon earlier this year
Whatever might be planned by David Evans for life after his four years as the Labour Party General Secretary, it is almost certain that it won’t see him returning to his political consultancy business that he set up 20 years ago, after helping Tony Bliar to his second General Election victory.
Evans announced last week that he is to stand down as General Secretary of the Labour Party – with it being widely predicted that he has a place in the House of Lords lined up for him.
That £332 per day attendance allowance, travel expenses and subsidised restaurant facilities must be looking particularly attractive, given the state of his old consultancy business, The Campaign Company.
Previously based in rented offices in Croydon’s George Street, The Campaign Company (company motto: “Values first”) has been run since 2020 by Evans’s wife, Aline Delawa, under whose guidance the company has almost been struck off the register at Companies House. Twice.
Given that Labour lost 125,000 members (and their annual subscription income) in the first three years of Evans in the party’s top job, while annual expenditure had reached £44.45million, some might reasonably draw comparisons with Evans’ management of the party and his own limited company.
Since covid, TCC has become a “virtual” company, with a registered business address but with its staff mostly working remotely. Business-wise, The Campaign Company is barely limping along.
As well as guiding Blair to election victory, Evans, of course, played a key part in getting Tony Newman, Simon Hall and Alison Butler into power at Croydon Town Hall in 2014.
TCC landed a couple of sweetheart deals from Croydon Council soon after, worth a couple of hundred thousand grand. Even that work dried up by the time of Newman’s Labour’s second term, and TCC’s list of clients never appeared to be that extensive.
Evans only returned to national politics when he got the summons from Croydon obscurity from Keir Starmer in 2020.
Dynamic duo: Evans’ ex-lover Alison Butler and his old mate Tony Newman helped bankrupt Croydon. Newman’s suspension by the Labour Party was left unresolved by Evans
Two of Evans’s old Croydon muckers, Newman and Hall, have been on “administrative suspension” from the Labour Party since early 2021, for their part in bankrupting the borough.
Gen Sec Evans never seemed to be in much of a hurry to resolve their cases, which remain in the in-tray at Labour HQ to be dealt with by whoever takes over his role.
Meanwhile, Evans’s former lover, Butler, the woman that oversaw Brick by Brick and the Regina Road scandals, stood down from Croydon Council in 2022. She is now employed by a south London local authority… in its housing department.
To keep up appearances, Delawa took the reins of The Campaign Company four years ago, while Evans set about running the Labour Party finances into the ground (and becoming evermore dependent on wealthy donors). Delawa is a former Labour staffer. She met Evans when they were working together at Labour HQ two decades ago.
She describes herself as a “data geek”, though she has not been so hot on the numbers when it comes to filing accounts.
Business troubles: Aline Delawa, as her profile appears on the TCC website
The Campaign Company was first threatened with being struck off the register by Companies House in early 2023.
In February this year, it happened again. Delawa was meant to have filed TCC’s accounts for 2022 just after Christmas, but nine months later, they are still nowhere to be seen.
The most recent statements available online, for the year ending December 2021, show a worsening situation. TCC owed more money than it had, with net assets of minus £178,045 and just £571 in the bank.
How Delawa kept a straight face when assuring the accountants that TCC was a going concern is a mystery.
“There’s so much to enjoy in this role,” Delawa says in a little puff piece on the TCC’s website. “The problem-solver in me loves developing creative solutions to clients’ problems and the advocate in me most enjoys helping people without a voice influence decisions that affect their lives.”
Wonder what she and Dave will do to help “people without a voice” once he is duly installed as Lord Evans of Penge in due course? It certainly won’t be battling for pensioners to avoid dying of cold because they’ve had their Winter Fuel Allowance axed.
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: Starmer’s Labour is ‘losing members, losing funds, losing staff’
Read more: Newman and Hall resign as councillors claiming a ‘witchhunt’
Read more: Questions asked over Town Hall Mayor’s business deal
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