Lewis enjoys his OBE in style at The Villandry
FRESH from collecting his OBE at Buckingham Palace yesterday, chief executive of The Association for Financial Markets in Europe and Gordon Brown’s former comms man Simon Lewis headed to The Villandry for an after party with old pals including Sir Victor Blank, broadcaster Carole Stone and Villandry stakeholders Roland Rudd (of Finsbury) and Credit Suisse’s Russell Chambers – to name but a few. Addressing the City-heavy crowd Lewis lamented the ongoing absence of Warburg bank and called for the old posse to get back together again, much to the crowd’s delight.
Lewis had been awarded his OBE by Prince Charles and had thoroughly enjoyed his time at the palace, “I was being shuffled from room to room wedged between writer Anthony Horowitz and restaurateur Jeremy King – It was a great laugh,” he told The Capitalist.
But it turned out it wasn’t all pomp and ceremony for the former spin doctor – when he arrived at private members club the Reform Club in his three piece suit he was asked a rather peculiar question. “I was standing by the door and a gentleman came over and asked me to direct him to the loos…it certainly brought me down to earth a touch.”
Oh dear.