Guido was too late to get the “Save Draper” campaign going.  People don’t realise what a disaster this is – what will Guido do for comedy material?

Labour’s general-secretary Ray Collins has thrown him overboard already.  In an NEC announcement leaked to Iain Dale, rather than LabourList, the entertainment provided by Derek was brought to an end.

Ray Collins, General Secretary of the Labour Party,

“As you will recall from November’s NEC Away Day, last year Derek Draper volunteered one day a week of his time to Labour HQ on an unpaid basis. He subsequently left Victoria Street to set up the Labourlist blog.  Since then he has offered advice and opinion on an adhoc basis which ended in March of this year and will not be sought in the future.

“I receive advice and opinion from many Labour Party supporters in my work as General Secretary but I decide what advice I take or seek and act in a manner appropriate with my values and those of the Party which certainly does not include smears or personal attacks. I want to reiterate that Derek Draper does not hold a position or role with the Labour Party and this will remain the case.

“To make clear Labourlist is an independent left-of-centre website and blog. The Labour Party did not fund its activities. What the Party has supported is an effort to promote left-of-centre bloggers more generally by bringing interested supporters together at a series of events.

“I absolutely support the Prime Minister’s view that scurrilous rumour, gossip and personal attacks have no place in politics and no place in the Labour Party.”

Psychologies magazine, where Derek Draper had a regular column, announced today that:

“Derek’s position is being investigated independently by the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists to reveal if he really is guilty of the allegations made about him, what the background and details of the story are, and how all of this affects his standing as a therapist.”

Guido doesn’t have any psychotherapy qualifications, so this is not a professional judgement.  In Guido’s opinion a man who thinks smearing an innocent woman over mental health issues is “absolutely brilliant” is not fit to deal with vulnerable people.  The BACP has been dragging its feet over concerns that Draper lied about his qualifications.  It is a fact that Draper was expelled from his course at the Wright Institute (in Berkeley, not at Berkeley).

His desk is already on Ebay…