Jonathan Mendelsohn
Jonathan Neil Mendelsohn, Baron Mendelsohn (born 30 December 1966[1]) is a British lobbyist and Labour political organiser. He was appointed the Director of General Election Resources for the party in 2007.[2][3]
With Neal Lawson and Ben Lucas, he founded LLM Communications in 1997, a lobbying firm with notable access to the new Labour Government.[4][5] He has been a spokesman and lobbyist for the gambling company PartyGaming.[6]
He had written to controversial Labour donor David Abrahams claiming he was one of Labour's "strongest supporters".[7] In 1998 he was caught on tape along with Derek Draper boasting to Greg Palast, an undercover reporter posing as a businessman, about how they could sell access to government ministers and create tax breaks for their clients[8] in a scandal that was dubbed "Lobbygate".[9] Draper denied the allegations.[10]
In the same incident Mendelsohn was approached by an undercover journalist posing as a representative of American energy companies who were seeking to ignore environmental laws. Despite LLM's claim that "we believe that there will be a new breed of 'ethical winners' who will demonstrate that businesses no longer operate in a moral vacuum",[11] Mendelsohn went on to advise the reporter to rephrase their plans into language that sounded "Earth-Friendly" going on to say "Tony [Blair] is very anxious to be seen as green. Everything has to be couched in environmental language – even if it's slightly Orwellian."[12]
He donated money to Peter Hain's deputy leadership campaign.[13]
Mendelsohn is on the board of directors of the New Labour pressure group Progress,[1] and is a trustee of the UK charities the Holocaust Educational Trust[14] and the UK arm of the New Israel Fund.[15] He is a former chairman of Labour Friends of Israel,[3] of the Finchley United Synagogue, and the Union of Jewish Students.
According to the Daily Telegraph, "Mr Mendelsohn is steeped in the north London Jewish community. He is a close friend of Lord Levy, who was at the heart of Labour's cash for peerages affair."[3]
On 5 September 2013 he was created a life peer as Baron Mendelsohn, of Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet.[16][17]
He is married with four children. His wife Nicola, née Clyne, now Lady Mendelsohn, was appointed Facebook's Vice-President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in May 2013.[18] She was formerly chairman of the advertising agency Karmarama, deputy chairman of the advertising agency Grey London[3] and past President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.[19]
References
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- ↑ Comment is Free… but journos are scared « Follow The Money
- ↑ Party Gaming communicator now Labour Party Fundraiser
- ↑ 'You're not up to the job Gordon': Cameron launches blistering attack over donor scandal, Evening Standard, 28 November
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- ↑ LLM Brochure
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- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 60621. p. 17761. 9 September 2013.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 60637. p. 18815. 24 September 2013.
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