Aline Delawa
 Aline Delawa  | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 10 July 1969 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | David Evans | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Aline Delawa is married to David Evans, General Secretary of the Labour Party, and for nineteen years has occupied senior positions with management consultants The Campaign Company, which Evans co-founded with Jonathan Upton in 2001.[1]
Own words
On her role as MD of The Campaign Company, Aline Delawa says:
- “There’s so much to enjoy in this role: the data geek in me loves turning complex information into meaningful insight; the problem-solver in me loves developing creative solutions to clients’ problems; and the advocate in me most enjoys helping people without a voice influence decisions that affect their lives.”
Conflict of interest
In May 2020, the SKWAWKBOX reported on the dossier of concerns Keir Starmer ignored to push through the appointment of his new General Secretary:
In 2002, The Times reported that General Secretary David Triesman ordered an inquiry into Aline Delawa’s undeclared conflict of interest in handling internal party selections while she was the Company Secretary of David Evans’ company, which was campaigning for candidates in those internal party selections.[2]
Aline Delawa, David Evans’ wife and Head of Labour’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Unit, oversaw the rules governing the selection of Labour candidates while she was Secretary of The Campaign Company, set up by David Evans.[3]
A year after David Evans’ role as Assistant General Secretary ended, the new General Secretary David Triesman announced that there would be an inquiry into the conflict of interest.
According to The Times, Triesman said he was “surprised” at the disclosure and ordered an inquiry into the affair and he also admitted that if Delawa worked in a government department instead of the Labour Party, it would not be allowed as it might be seen to be a conflict of interest.
Triesman said he would never have put Aline Delawa in a position where she might have been compromised, such as handling a dispute over ballot papers or a very close result.
The Campaign Company’s website boasts that it can help “elected representatives, candidates, organisations and issue-based groups who now need a more professional approach to successfully campaign to get their message across”. When asked why his wife had been made Company Secretary when he founded the company, David Evans said:
- “I can’t remember.”[4]
