Lord Levy

Lord Michael Levy


Lord Levy is one of the most important fundraisers for the Labour Party and Tony Blair's unofficial envoy to the Middle East. He met Blair at a dinner party in 1994 held by Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli diplomat, and became his tennis partner. Levy was in charge of donations to the 'private trust' which funded Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election (which reached £7 million), and is now the chief fundraiser for the 'high value' donors account at the Labour Party, along with his deputy Amanda Delew (who worked with him at Jewish Care). He is reported to have raised £12 million for the 'high value' fund before the 1997 election, becoming known as 'Mr Cashpoint'. Straight after the election he was given a peerage. He used to work with Dr Henry Drucker, whose company Oxford Philanthropic was brought in by the Labour Party to advise on gaining large corporate donations, but they fell out over Drucker's description of Labour's 'blind trust' funds as 'evil' (the trusts have since all been closed down). At one meeting with Levy in his Totteridge mansion, Levy apologised to Drucker for not offering him a cup of coffee, but explained 'You'll have to do without as none of the servants are about and I don't know how to work the machine myself.'

He set up Magnet Records in 1972 with help from Maurice Oberstein, Head of CBS Records, and made millions from artists like Alvin Stardust, Chris Rea, Dollar, Darts and Bad Manners, at one point was selling 8% of all records in the UK. Some former employees of Magnet have complained that he was a tyrant who shouted at staff and threw ashtrays around. He sold Magnet to Warner Brothers in 1988 for £10 million and later set up another record company called M&G (named after himself and his wife Gilda), where he paid himself a salary of £308,657. He sold M&G in 1997.

Although a multi-millionaire, he only paid £5,000 in tax in 1998-9 and less than £10,000 in 1997-8 as he said he wasn't working. He runs a private company called Wireart, an investment company which was based in an oversea tax haven until 1997. Wireart paid him £160,000 (plus £50,000 expenses) for work as a management consultant in 1998-9 at the time he wasn't working. Since 1992 he has been Chairman of Jewish Care, one of the UK's biggest charities (he was asked to join by the Tory minister Lord Young), raising as much as £60 million.

Levy's house in the UK Levy's house in Israel
Lord Levy's multi-million pound home, Chase House in Totteridge Levy's second home in Tel Aviv, Israel

Chase House, Levy's home in Totteridge (north London), has 5 large bedrooms, 3 sitting rooms, tennis court, swimming pool, a games room, palm trees, a large garage for his chauffeur-driven Jaguar and Bentley and a seperate annexe for his servants. He spent £1.3 million refurbishing the house after he bought it in 1997 for £1.3 (his previous house was sold for £3.4 million). The rooms are lined with marble, granite and limestone.

He also owns a villa in Herzliya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel, which he bought after selling another villa nearby for £4 million. He has acted as a fundraiser for Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister, and maintains a close relationship with him. His son Daniel worked for the Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, to whom Levy contributed campaign funds. Both his children live in Israel.

His role as unofficial envoy for the Middle East took him to 8 different countries in 1999, staying in British Embassies, including Syria, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon (where he was accused by the Lebanese Government of bringing them the Israeli position and the British Ambassador had to issue a statement to try and calm the situation down). He was also provided with cars, drivers and staff support. The Embassy in Amman, Jordan, arranged a lunch for him to meet Jordanian politicians.

Levy with Cherie Blair and Chris Smith
Levy with Cherie Blair and Chris Smith


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