Tom Levitt's new business venture

Well it seems that Tom Levitt certainly isn't letting the grass grow under his feet, and news has reached us that he has already set up his own company. Indeed, he's announced it on his linkedin page* (emphasis added):

Building on my considerable experience of the third/voluntary sector in UK I am in the process of setting up a consultancy on third sector/private sector partnerships: Sector 4 Focus.

Brief details of the company can be found here, and it seems that the company has been registered by a North London firm of accountants. A quick trip to the library look at the records held by Bureau van Dijk on the company shows that both Tom and Teresa Marta Levitt are the directors, and that the company was created on 2nd March 2010. A domain name has been registered on the same date by Tom Levitt.

Now it seems that Levitt's timing may be spot on. Looming deep cuts to the public sector will used as an opportunity to hive off the work of said sector to the voluntary sector. It's something which New Labour facilitated, and the Tories have talked about vastly expanding. Levitt has seen an opportunity to rake in consultancy fees.

There's a lot more background to this story, and it's something we'll no doubt explore before too long.

* - his page still mistakenly describes him as an MP

Helpful edits to Tom Levitt's Wikipedia page

Having this weekend seen an article in the Telegraph about how the Wikipedia pages of certain MPs appear to be being edited by individuals with House of Commons IP addresses, we thought we'd pop along to Tom Levitt's page to see what we could find.

Well, it seems that over the past few months there have been several tit-for-tat edits and re-edits, mainly surrounding the issue of Levitt's expenses. A series of edits caught our eye.

30th October 2009 - removal of a link to the Tom Levitt's Expenses blog

16th November 2009 - removal of a section linking the Levitt expenses furore to his decision to stand down as an MP

20th April 2010 - editing of another section about Levitt's expenses - compare these two paragraphs (changes in bold):

In Late 2009 towards the end of the furore over MP's expenses, it was revealed Mr Levitt had attempted to claim for a memorial wreath. This caused outrage in the High Peak area. He late repaid this money.

In 2009 during the furore over MP's expenses, it was revealed Mr Levitt had on one occasion inadvertently submitted a claim for a memorial wreath. This caused outrage in the High Peak press even though he had never actually received any money.

10th May 2010 (today!) - editing the amended expenses section again, adding 'inadvertently' once more and removing the following text:

Questions do remain, however, over the non-payment of [[capital gains tax]] on the sale of Mr Levitt's second home in London, and the use of taxpayers' money for a new bathroom, also in London.

The same editor also peevishly removed all traces of Levitt's successor as MP, Andrew Bingham, from the sections of the page about the post of High Peak MP.

So who made all of these edits? Well, it seems that we can't discover the IP address so easily, but helpfully, the editor has decided to choose a username which possibly points to a culprit - 'Teresamarta'. Tom's wife is called Teresa, and a search on Google yields links to pages here and here which show Mrs Levitt's middle initial is 'M' and the name is Marta (name highlighted).

Levitt marked as '100% authoritarian' on Lib Dem Voice

The Liberal Democrat website 'Lib Dem Voice' has set up a ranking system for all MPs which assesses how authoritarian they are based upon their voting patterns for key legislation over the last 5 years. The categories are below:

Freedom of Speech, ID Cards, 90 days detention, Abolition of Parliament Bill, Trial without a Jury, MPs' Expenses (FOI exemption), Control Orders, Extradition Act 2003, Government intervention in collection of evidence, DNA database

You can find the results page for Tom Levitt here. In all of these 10 categories, Tom Levitt scores 10, giving him a score of 100, the maximum possible.

Levitt writes to Private Eye

Apart from the press release he published after the Private Eye/Nestlé story, Tom Levitt has written to the satirical magazine, and they published the letter in the latest edition (Eye 1257). It reads as follows:

HP Source

Sir,

So, that Tom Levitt is to jump into the Nestlé nest when he leaves parliament (HP Sauce, Eye 1256). Pints of Buxton Water and four-fingered fair trade Kit Kats all round?

When do you think they will tell me about it?

Keep up the Good work.

TOM LEVITT MP

Buxton

At this stage, it's all at the level of a joke between friends, but I suppose we'll see.

In the meantime, there's another story which has links to Levitt which has been in and out of Private Eye over the past few weeks, and we'll be back in due course to cast a glance over that.

Levitt denies he has post-election job at Nestlé

Following a story in the latest Private Eye, Tom Levitt MP has issued a denial* that following the General Election he plans to become a paid adviser for Nestlé. The Private Eye story ran as follows:

Tom Levitt, Labour MP for High Peak, is standing down at the next election - no doubt to the relief of colleagues who were often bemused by his defence of Nestlé, the food giant frequently attacked for its baby milk marketing practices.

Levitt even went on a Nestlé-funded trip to South Africa, returning full of praise for his hosts and even quoting Nestle's own PR on his blog to refute activists' charges.

Announcing his decision not to stand for re-election, Levitt said: "I would like to spend more time with my wife, our children and grandchildren. I would also like to do something different in the work environment." How fortunate that one of the roles that will help the transition to his "new work environment" will be... as a paid adviser to Nestlé!

Levitt issued his own response as a press release, which is below:

"Over the years I have been a guest of Nestlé at Wimbledon, at a cricket test match and on a visit to South Africa in 2008 to look at Corporate Social Responsibility, all properly recorded in the Register of Members' Interests. Nestlé is the owner of Buxton Water, an important local employer and an iconic brand of the High Peak area. It is right for the MP to have close relations with important local companies.

"I have no firm plans yet for what I shall be doing in the work environment after the election - though I have some irons in the fire - but the post of "paid advisor to Nestlé" is news to me.

"I am not aware of any MP colleague who has been "bemused" in the way the story suggests. The "practices" to which the story refers took place 30 to 40 years ago and I now believe that Nestlé is amongst the most ethical of traders in this field."

Now the history of Levitt's involvement with Nestlé is long, and there is plenty to be found on the internet which I'm sure we will look at in future. But a little bit of research suggests there's perhaps more to Levitt's "close relations" with this "important local company" (Levitt speak for multinational corporation with a plant in High Peak) than he's letting on.

Firstly, there's the All-Party British-Swiss Parliamentary Group. As the name suggests, it's a cosy little organisation that spans all sides of the House of Commons, concerned with matters of trade and commerce. Tom Levitt is the Vice Chair (he used to be the Chair), and the current Chair is a Charles Hendry - those who are either too young or who have short memories will remember that he was the Tory MP for High Peak prior to Levitt's election in 1997.

Tom Levitt has also booked rooms in the House of Commons** for the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce (BSCC) on a number of occasions, this being revealed in the last rash of expenses data.

And this article from the Times in 2006 revealed that Levitt was amongst a number of other MPs having jolly skiing holiday in Davos under the name of the All-Party Parliamentary Ski week, which is linked to the BSCC.

Now people with more time on their hands than us can probably pick the bones out of that brief trawl of the internet. But the suggestion here is that making the right connections using the time politicians are paid to be working for constituents may pay off for themselves later, if it hasn't already.

There's surely more dirt to dig, and this is just the start of it.

*when this link no longer works, try this screengrab
** - opens PDF. See pages 102 & 103 for the full list of rooms booked by Levitt.

Introduction to 'Levitt Watch'

Our sister blog, Tom Levitt's Expenses, has been a huge success. The once in a lifetime opportunity to hold MPs up the scrutiny and show them for what they broadly actually are - greedy, self-interested individuals who think they are entitled to live the lives of the rich and cossetted, all at our expense - was fully exploited by us, and added to an atmosphere of outrage in the High Peak which ultimately led to Tom Levitt leaving his job.

But with the expenses revelations seemingly petering out, and with Tom Levitt standing down as an MP, it's time for a different kind of focus.

The aim of this new website will be twofold:

• To document any news on Tom Levitt we either find or are informed about with regard to any future political and/or corporate activity he chooses to undertake which we think is sufficiently interesting and worthy of exposition.

• To follow up past leads about his activity whilst he was an MP - for example, his connections with Nestle - and add them to this website, in one easy to find place.

We think of this as being a public service. Needless to say, as the authors of this blog are High Peak residents, we would be far less interested in Mr Levitt were he to vacate our little part of this planet and have nothing to do with it. Were this to occur, we'd then regard him as someone else's problem.

But for the time being, he's ours - so here goes.