Charlie Whelan

Last updated

Charles Alexander James Whelan (born 3 February 1954, north-east Surrey) is former political director of the British trade union Unite. He rose to prominence as spokesman for Labour politician Gordon Brown from 1992 to 1999. He has also worked as a presenter on BBC Radio.

Contents

Early life and career

Whelan's father was a Conservative-voting civil servant. Between 1968 and 1974, Whelan went to Ottershaw School, a state boarding school in Ottershaw, Surrey, which had been established in 1948 by Surrey County Council (SCC) as a boarding school for boys of 12 to 18 years of age. It was the first of its kind in the country to be entirely in the hands of a Local Education Authority. [1]

He studied Politics at the City of London Polytechnic (which became the London Guildhall University in 1992).

In 1980 Whelan became a foreign exchange dealer. From 1981 to 1992 he was a researcher and assistant to Jimmy Airlie of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. He was a member of the Communist Party during the 1980s.

Resignation and later career

Whelan resigned as Brown's spokesman in 1999 after leaking information relating to Peter Mandelson's resignation over a home loan. He has since carved out a career in the media, presenting shows for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Scotland. [2] [3] Whelan worked as a political director for Unite, Britain's biggest trade union.

In April 2009, it was revealed that Whelan was copied in on emails from Damian McBride which proposed to publish lies about opposition politicians and their families on the internet. The ensuing scandal forced McBride's resignation, followed by personal letters of regret from the Prime Minister to those named. A leading article in The Times on 16 April 2009 called on Unite to review its relationship with Whelan as a result. [4]

In Stephen Frears' made-for-television film The Deal , Charlie Whelan was played by Dexter Fletcher. [5]

Related Research Articles

Andrew Marr British journalist

Andrew William Stevenson Marr is a British journalist and presenter for radio and television. Beginning his career as a political commentator, he subsequently edited The Independent newspaper (1996–1998) and was political editor of BBC News (2000–2005). He began hosting a political programme—Sunday AM, later called The Andrew Marr Show—on Sunday mornings on BBC One from September 2005 until he left the BBC in December 2021. In 2002, Marr took over as host of BBC Radio 4's long-running Start the Week Monday morning discussion programme.

Michael Fabricant British Conservative politician

Michael Louis David Fabricant is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lichfield in Staffordshire, formerly Mid Staffordshire, since 1992.

Michael Fallon British Conservative politician

Sir Michael Cathel Fallon is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 2014 to 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, Fallon served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sevenoaks from 1997 to 2019, having previously served as the MP for Darlington from 1983 to 1992.

Surrey Heath Place in England

Surrey Heath is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Camberley. Much of the area is within the Metropolitan Green Belt.

John Wentworth Pardoe is a retired British businessman and Liberal Party politician. He was Chairman of Sight and Sound Education Ltd from 1979 to 1989.

Christopher Trace

Christopher Leonard Trace was an English actor and television presenter, notable for his nine years as an original presenter of the BBC children's programme Blue Peter.

Laura Lopes British art curator (born 1978)

Laura Rose Lopes is an English art curator. She is the daughter of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Andrew Parker Bowles, and the stepdaughter of Charles, Prince of Wales.

Iain Dale British radio broadcaster

Iain Campbell Dale is a British broadcaster, political commentator and publisher. He has been a blogger since 2002 and frequently appears on UK news channels. He was the first openly gay Conservative candidate to contest a parliamentary election.

John Lewis Romer is a British Egyptologist, historian and archaeologist. He has created and appeared in many TV archaeology series, including Romer's Egypt, Ancient Lives, Testament, The Seven Wonders of the World, Byzantium: The Lost Empire and Great Excavations: The Story of Archaeology.

Ottershaw Human settlement in England

Ottershaw is a village in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately 32 km (20 mi) southwest of central London. The village developed in the mid-19th century from a number of separate hamlets and became a parish in its own right in 1871.

Kevin John Maguire is a British political journalist and is currently associate editor at the Daily Mirror newspaper. Earlier in his career, Maguire was chief reporter for The Guardian.

George Lee (journalist) Irish economist, journalist (born 1962)

George Lee is an Irish economist, journalist, television and radio presenter, and former Fine Gael politician. He worked for RTÉ from 1992 to 2009. He was appointed Economics Editor in 1996. During his time in RTÉ News and Current Affairs he was named Irish Journalist of the Year for uncovering a major tax evasion and overcharging scandal at National Irish Bank. He has also presented many documentary programmes for RTÉ.

Damian McBride is a British political advisor. He is a former Whitehall civil servant and former special adviser to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. McBride began his civil service career at HM Customs and Excise. He worked with Customs and Excise and later became Head of Communications at the UK Treasury, before becoming a special adviser.

Steve Baker (politician) British Conservative politician, MP for Wycombe

Steven John Baker is a British politician and a former Royal Air Force engineer, consultant and bank worker, who served as Chair of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2016 to 2017 and 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire since 2010.

In British politics, Brownism is the political ideology of the former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown and those that follow him. Proponents of Brownism are referred to as Brownites.

Ottershaw School was founded in 1948 as an English school for boys in Ottershaw Park, Ottershaw, approximately 30 miles (48 km) southwest of London between Chertsey and Woking, Surrey, south of England, on an estate that dated back to 1761, when the first house was built there.

Len McCluskey

Leonard David McCluskey is a British trade unionist. He was General Secretary of Unite the Union, the largest affiliate and a major donor to the Labour Party. As a young adult, he spent some years working in the Liverpool Docks for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company prior to becoming a full-time union official for the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&GWU) in 1979.

Ruth Davidson Scottish politician

Ruth Elizabeth Davidson, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019 and Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish Parliament from 2020 to 2021. She served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow from 2011 to 2016 and for Edinburgh Central from 2016 to 2021.

Arthur Foot

Arthur Edward Foot CBE, was an English schoolmaster, educationalist and academic. He was a science master at Eton College from 1923 to 1932. In 1935, he was invited to India to head a newly opened all-boys boarding school, the Doon School, where he was the first headmaster from 1935 to 1948. He then returned to England as head of another new school, Ottershaw.

David Charles Walter, was a British journalist and a former Political Correspondent for Independent Television News programmes on ITV from 1980–1986, then on ITN's Channel 4 News from 1986–1988, followed by Paris Correspondent for BBC News, a BBC television and radio producer and presenter, and a Liberal Democrat contender for a seat in the British Parliament. He was a direct descendant of John Walter, the founder of The Times newspaper, whilst his mother was a cousin of former Home Secretary William Whitelaw.

References

  1. ↑ "Old boys society". The Ottershaw School Old Boys' Society. Archived from the original on 31 December 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  2. ↑ "Whelan denies ill feeling at the top". BBC News. 14 January 1999.
  3. ↑ "Strathspey and Badenoch Herald | Features | Spin doctor casts around on the fly". Strathspey-herald.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  4. ↑ Booth, Jenny (16 April 2009). "Dealing with Whelan". London: Times Online. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  5. ↑ "The Lion and the Unicorn". The New Statesman. 6 October 2003. Retrieved 28 March 2010.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.