By Alastair Campbell Derek Draper’s career as a Labour lobbyist in the Blair and Brown years put him at the sharp end of British politics. Along with other figures, like Alistair Campbell, he played a key role in the New Labour story. But they operated in a tough, often ruthless, environment with the cut-and-thrust occasionally straying into scandal. Today, Alastair remembers his colleague and friend… It was Tory minister Michael Gove, of all people, who perhaps best captured the life and times of Labour adviser Derek Draper: “Derek is like a character in a novel who plays a prominent role t…