Alastair Campbell: 'the best thing my friend Derek did was meet Kate Garraway'

06 January 2024 , 22:33

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Kate Garraway and Derek Draper met through mutual pals (Image: PA)

Derek Draper’s career as a Labour lobbyist in the Blair and Brown years put him at the sharp end of British politics. Along with other figures, like Alistair Campbell, he played a key role in the New Labour story.

But they operated in a tough, often ruthless, environment with the cut-and-thrust occasionally straying into scandal. Today, Alastair remembers his colleague and friend...

It was Tory minister Michael Gove, of all people, who perhaps best captured the life and times of Labour adviser Derek Draper: “Derek is like a character in a novel who plays a prominent role then disappears for a couple of chapters only to re-emerge... You always feel there is a whiff of danger because you don’t know what he is going to do next.”

At the time, Derek had left the political battlefield after getting caught up in a second controversy.

Derek Draper at the 2006 Labour conference with Gordon Brown (Alan Davidson)

The first, when he was caught boasting of the access he could arrange to the Government, led to his first departure and also mental health struggles.

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The second – a hasty response to a silly email from a colleague – was as nothing to some of the scandals we have seen in recent years, but sufficient for him to get another large dose of opprobrium. “You don’t know what he is going to do next.” Well, no, you didn’t.

But what Derek did was commit to some honest self examination, which led to him training as a psychotherapist.

Derek Draper and Kate Garraway on their wedding day (ITV)

But the most important thing Derek did was meet Kate. If I was a dating app algorithm, I’m not sure I would have put them together. But theirs was a real love story.

And never was that love more profound than after Derek fell ill with Covid.

Kate’s films were much more than a portrait of a family hit with setbacks. They highlighted what it is like to be a carer. And above all they showed that when it comes to dealing with any challenge in life, there really is no substitute for love

Alastair Campbell