Anthony Bailey

Anthony Bailey - a 'born networker'

Anthony John James Bailey (born 13 January 1970) is a PR operative and lobbyist described by The Observer as a 'PR Guru' and a 'born networker'. He is an advisor to the Foreign Policy Centre and is well connected with the Royal family and with Saudi and arms industry interests. He is an 'interfaith campaigner', and a supporter of and donor to the British Labour Party - though he once had a donation refused reportedly by Lord Levy. Under the Brown government he has been rehabilitated and in May 2007 was reported as the 'PR guru behind Brown cash drive' days before his friend Mahmoud Khayami donated £1 million to the party.

Background

The son of an engineer Bailey was brought up in Ruislip, a London suburb north west of the capital. He first came to public attention in the mid-1990s whilst he was a special projects executive at Burson-Marsteller. He was arrested for allegedly working alongside John Kennedy Prince Michael of Kent’s then private secretary in an attempt to blackmail a man who claimed to be a Libyan prince. The charges were thrown out by the courts. A friend of Bailey told the Sunday Telegraph that Bailey and John Kennedy were "inseparable" until the incident but became "a bit distant after that".

The Lobbyist

Bailey is currently Chairman of Eligo International a lobbying and PR firm which states it was founded in 1997 and is 'discreet' and 'hands-on'. Bailey has also been Senior Media Counsellor at PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee (1996), Program Manager of Management Communications at IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa (1995) and special projects exec, at Burson-Marsteller (1991-1995). He is also a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Some fuss seems to have been made over his entry to Wikipedia which has now been deleted after some suspicion that much of the page hade been self penned.

Eligo was engaged in PR work surrounding the Al Yamamah arms deal, funded by Shell and BAe and would seem to have high level diplomatic backing — this can also be seen in the line-up of the British Saudi Society.

Inter faith work

Bailey is a campaigner for greater inter-religious dialogue between (rich) Christian, Jews and Muslims in Britain and overseas. Bailey is a member of the Advisory Board of the Three Faiths Forum since 2002 and was also appointed in April 2006 as the Grand Magistral Delegate for Inter-Church and Inter-Faith Relations of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George - an international Roman Catholic dynastic Order of Knighthood whose Grand Master is Prince Ferdinand of Bourbon Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro.

He previously served as Delegate for Great Britain and Ireland from 2003-2006. Bailey is also Chairman of the St George's Chapel Appeal of Westminster Cathedral and is a Member of the Consultative Board of the Maimonides Foundation which works to encourage greater dialogue between Muslims and Jews. In December 2005 he was appointed a Trustee of the Path to Peace in the Balkans Foundation which is chaired by the Apostolic Nuncio in Serbia. Bailey was appointed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, as a member of the Advisory Council of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East which includes Sir Andrew Burnsand former head of the British Office in Baghdad, Christopher Segar and its funds run the operations of ‘The Vicar of Baghdad,’Canon Andrew White . Bailey is also Director of the Forthspring Inter-Community Group which works to foster ties between the divided communities of Northern Ireland.

Arab and Muslim affairs

Anthony Bailey is a Special Counsel to the King Faisal Foundation and the Arab Thought Foundation - two of the largest philanthropic foundations in the Arab world dedicated to education, science, medicine and literature. He is a friend of Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, son of the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, and was appointed in 1999 by the Prince as Chairman of Painting & Patronage - which brought together Prince Khalid Al-Faisal in exchange programmes with the Prince of Wales in London and Riyadh during 2000-2001 in relation to the Al Yamamah arms deal. Bailey is also a board member of numerous British-Arab groups such as the Moroccan-British Society, the British Saudi Society (which also has close ties to the Al Yamamah arms deal) and the British Moroccan Society.

Trying to donate to Labour

Bailey became a supporter of the Labour Party in 1996. He is a member of the Labour Party and the Amicus trade union. It was reported in The Times in March 2005 (the article is currently subject to a legal action brought by Bailey) that the Party had turned down an offer by Bailey to donate to the Party's 2005 General Election campaign following a dispute between Bailey and a leading Labour Party figure.

Party bosses initially decided in January to accept the money from Anthony Bailey, whose clients include members of the Saudi royal family; BAE Systems, the defence firm under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office; and businesses owned by Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born industrialist with legal problems in France. However, the party — despite facing a £5m shortfall in its general election fund — has now decided to reject the donation after background checks on Bailey caused concern at Labour headquarters.

The issues was reportedly the question of whther Bailey was being used as a 'conduit':

It is unclear how he became wealthy enough to afford such a large gift. His company’s last published accounts reveal Bailey made a gross annual profit of £126,685 in 2003. But he says he has other sources of income. A Labour party source said: “We were concerned that Bailey might have been a conduit for the money, although we should stress there is no evidence this was the case.”

The Times said, 'It is thought to be only the third time Labour has rejected a donation.'

A year later Labour did accept a donation from Bailey.

Bailey, 36, was one of 28 people who declared in a national press advertisement they were "proud to help fund the Labour Party"... Mr Bailey's inclusion surprised some Labour insiders. Last year, the party reportedly turned down his offer of £500,000 amid concerns that he was a lobbyist with clients including members of the Saudi royal family and defence companies such as BAE Mr Bailey's inclusion surprised some Labour insiders. Last year, the party reportedly turned down his offer of £500,000 amid concerns that he was a lobbyist with clients including members of the Saudi royal family and defence companies such as BAE.

Bailey had clashed with the controversial Labour fundraiser and Tony Blair's Middle Eastern envoy, Lord Levy. Tony Blair, Party Chairman Hazel Blears and the Chairman of the Labour Party's National Executive Council, Sir Jeremy Beecham have all publicly endorsed Bailey and welcomed his support. In November 2006 the Electoral Commission published its quarterly report which stated that Bailey had made a £50,600 donation to the Labour Party. Bailey is also a member of the Party's Labour Finance and Industry Group and Chief Policy Adviser of the Party’s international think tank, the Foreign Policy Centre - a position to which he was appointed in May 2006. He is known to be active in the promotional of the Party's education, prison reform, inter-religious and community programmes. Bailey is Patron of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group within the British Parliament since 2003.

Desparate for cash Blears wrote a letter containing a grovelling apology for the mix up over what was first regarded as filthy lucre, and praised Bailey's charity work and involvement in the London Challenge Ministerial Advisory Group. Blears later received a personal donation from Bailey on 21 June 2007, and a month later registered a personal donation from Bailey's millionaire friend Mahmoud Khayami to her campaign for election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

Bailey is an adviser to the Department of Education and Skills since 2002 and is a member of the Government's London Challenge Ministerial Advisory Group and the Ministerial Task Force on Gifted and Talented Education which report to Education Minister Lord Adonis. Bailey has raised over £8 million pounds for the British Government's City Academy initiative. Bailey is a Board Director of the United Learning Trust - the largest sponsor of City Academies in England. Bailey is a member of the Governing Bodies of the Sheffield Springs and Sheffield Park Academies. Bailey was also appointed by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster as a Foundation Governor of the Archdiocese of Westminster and is a member of the Governing Body of The Douay Martyrs School where he was a pupil between 1981-1988.

Fund raising for City Academies

Bailey reportedly raised £8 million for Tony Blair's controversial City Academies. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph Blair’s “personal priest” Michael Seed, a Franciscan friar who has conducted private masses in Downing Street, introduced Bailey to two senior Downing Street officials at the St Ermin’s Hotel in Westminster in December 2002. The officials then asked Bailey if he could find individuals to fund the academies programme and so he later enlisted Mahmoud Khayami as well as Jasper Conran, the fashion designer and Adrian Beecroft the chief investment officer for venture capitalist Apax Partners. Khayami subsequently gave £2 million to the United Learning Trust in 2004 through his Khayami Foundation. That year Khayami’s donation represented roughly half of the Trust’s income. Bailey was made a Trustee of the United Learning Trust in December 2005.

Khayami’s money went towards the opening of two academies to be run by the United Learning Trust, each replacing Sheffield comprehensives. Myrtle Springs School and Waltheof School became Sheffield Springs and Sheffield Park Academies. Most of the £56 million set to fund the conversion came from government funds, but £4 million came from the United Learning Trust. The two projects were officially opened in June 2006. Mahmoud Khayami helped prospective academy students bury time capsules on the grounds and Anthony Bailey also attended the opening ceremony.

Bailey probably knows Khayami through their mutual interest in inter-faith dialogue. In 2007 Bailey was quoted as saying that “over the last five years I’ve brought Mr Khayami into contact with the Labour party at different levels” suggesting their relationship goes back to 2002.

In 2007 Khayami donated £1 million to the Labour Party.

Personal life

In January 2007 The Times announced his engagement to HSH Princess Marie-Therese of the Ducal House of Hohenberg, a great granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Hungary. Bailey notes that he married 'Her Serene Highness Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg of Austria' in October 2007.