Gordon Brown's rich friend

Last Modified: 19 Jun 2007
By: Andrew Thomas

Less than a week before Gordon Brown takes over as Prime Minister, the sound of reshuffle is echoing around Whitehall.

Tony Blair's controversial Middle East envoy Lord Levy is leaving too and attention is turning to Ronnie Cohen, a man some believe may play an equivalent role for Gordon Brown for the new Labour leader.

He is rich, secretive, and controversial - an important donor to the Labour party and man with a key role in British diplomacy as it relates to the Middle East.

Sir Ronald is an Egyptian-born Jew and fluent in Arabic. He fled persecution to Britain as a child.

His career background is in finance, not politics. At 26 he set up Apax Partners, a Private Equity firm that is regarded as the grand-daddy of an industry

Cohen made hundreds of millions of pounds until he started looking for a change two years ago.

It was his role at the Portland Trust that caught Gordon Brown's attention.

More4 News has learnt Sir Ronald will not have any official role under Brown in the way that Levy was a formal 'envoy' to Blair, but that does not mean that he will not be a hugely powerful figure.

A source close to Cohen told us Sir Ronald believes his power will be in inverse proportion to his profile, so he could stay out of the public eye, while acting as a key policy adviser or maker behind the scenes.