Behind closed doors some Labour figures are unsettled by the perception that Lord Alli has effectively privatised the Labour frontbench. Along with hundreds of thousands in donations his properties have been used extensively by the Labour leadership for numerous roles, as Guido revealed…

The “he doesn’t have any agenda because he’s already a peer” spin, which claims he doesn’t  intervene politically apart from ‘being Labour’, took a hit on Friday when Guido revealed Alli argued against the removal of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Almost zero information exists in the public domain about Alli’s role in the Middle East, which includes his multiple meetings with Assad…

Guido can reveal that Alli was also dispatched to Iraq by No 10 to meddle in the January 2005 elections. Blair’s Downing Street pledged clandestine support to Iyad Allawi, the former member of Saddam’s security services who had earlier been chosen as interim Prime Minister by the coalition forces…

After the Labour lord was installed in Allawi’s office there was a huge increase in advertising spending on his campaign. Allawi dominated the Iraqi media landscape from that point on, leading Al Jazeera to brand him an “American puppet.” Jack Fairweather, author of ‘A War of Choice: the British in Iraq’ wrote that Alli and former Labour Party General Secretary Margaret McDonagh, his partner for the mission, suggested the “classic New Labour ploys” of polling data analysis and “working with focus groups to coordinate campaign messaging“, which were received with zero enthusiasm by Allawi’s campaign team.

By the end the Allawi campaign was a foreseeable failure, gaining a mere 13.8% of the vote. The winner was Ibrahim Al-Jaafari – the candidate of the Shiite religious establishment. Predictably Labour’s intervention to support Allawi damaged UK relations with new PM Al-Jaafari, against UK interests…

What was Alli, a TV executive best known for producing ‘The Big Breakfast’, doing intervening in foreign elections on Labour’s behalf? Why has his role been kept out of the public eye? Who paid for it? Why did Alli go on to have multiple meetings with Assad in Syria? There is much more to discover…