His political career ended in a racy online sting, but Brooks Newmark is embracing his new role in another treacherous field.
A snap from Ukraine shows the former Tory MP posing with a drone made by his new defence technology startup, Trypillian.
Newmark launched the firm, specialising in ‘deep strike solutions’, after moving to besieged Ukraine earlier this year. ‘Our team recently visited one of the combat units, delivering UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles],’ he writes online.
‘Keeping in close comms with the remarkable soldiers who operate our drones is essential. Their feedback improves our work and helps theirs,’ explains Newmark, who was minister for civil society in David Cameron’s Coalition.
The nearly four-year conflict has been described as the ‘first drone war’ – with an estimated 75 per cent of military casualties on both sides attributed to drone attacks.
Horrified by Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Newmark set up humanitarian charity Angels For Ukraine, personally arranging civilian evacuations.
US-born Newmark, 67, would later up his support for Ukraine by moving there to launch Trypillian – though he still spends much of the year in Britain with his wife, Lucy Keegan, and their five children.
‘We work with Ukrainian units on the frontline to help improve the technology they are using in addition to having them test new technology that we are developing,’ he tells me, adding: ‘We have developed drones and related technology for both surveillance and combat, but the priority of all we develop is to protect Ukraine.’
Brooks Newman posing with a drone made by his new defence technology startup, Trypillian
When they met in 2013, Meghan Markle convinced TV presenter Lizzie Cundy that she was ‘really fun, really sweet’. Now, not so much. Struggling to digest the Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix festive special, Lizzie, 57, tells me: ‘Don’t pass the jam and the cookie jar – pass the sick bucket.’ Cundy adds at Piers Morgan’s Yuletide get-together at The Scarsdale Tavern, Kensington: ‘She needs to get the real meaning of Christmas – making peace with her father, not making bread and doughnuts.’
Lady Amelia’s festive fisticuffs with husband
While most fitness fans take a break from training over the festive period, Princess Diana’s niece Lady Amelia Spencer, 33, and her husband Greg Mallett are keeping the gloves on.
In a photo shared online, the couple were seen powering through an intense boxing session with their trainer, Chris Mugisho, in Cape Town, South Africa, where Lady Amelia’s twin, Lady Eliza, celebrated her engagement to entrepreneur Channing Millerd over the weekend.
Joking about the workout, Greg, 35, said: ‘Embarrassing hand speed, but it felt so good to throw today.’
Princess Diana’s niece Lady Amelia Spencer, 33, and her husband Greg Mallett in an intense boxing session with their trainer, Chris Mugisho
Lady Amelia with Greg (right) and trainer Chris in Cape Town
Bros star Matt Goss has no time for the secular greeting ‘happy holidays’.
‘If you’re a Christian, you should be able to say “Merry Christmas”,’ he tells me at the Nordoff and Robbins carols at St Luke’s in Chelsea where he sang his new ditty, Come Home. ‘I’m a Christian, so I always say Merry Christmas.’
Toff airs a jetset gripe
Georgia Toffolo has taken aim at airport etiquette, blasting fliers who fail to return their security trays.
She says: ‘You know when you’re at the airport going through security and the person in front of you hasn’t picked up their tray and put it down with the other used trays – I’m like, “I can’t believe people don’t do that”.’ Despite her fervour, Georgia, 31, admits she is not without sin. Her husband, BrewDog founder James Watt, 43, has called her out for the same offence, ribbing the former I’m A Celebrity jungle queen: ‘You always forget to do that.’
Georgia Toffolo has taken aim at airport etiquette, blasting fliers who fail to return their security trays
Interactive West End play You Me Bum Bum Train remains one of the hottest tickets in town, with all involved sworn to secrecy.
But I hear Elon Musk is among its fans. ‘Elon was there one time, he was playing the role of cashier,’ an insider tells me. ‘He struggled to operate the till.’
Otters deal latest blow to Stella’s Highland designs
They envisage their £5million ‘unashamedly contemporary’ eco house in the Highlands becoming their ‘forever home’. But might those words assume a bleaker meaning than Stella McCartney and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, 55, intended?
The couple, whose plans have generated 60 objections, including one from Princess Diana’s niece, Celia Woodhouse, have just been treated to a Christmas present that they could do without – an otter survey report. Vegan Stella, 54, and Alasdhair commissioned an earlier report which concluded no otters in situ.
Not so, says the new 42-page report which found evidence of otters’ ‘natal dens’. Any construction, it warns, must be outside their breeding season, May-August. Stella has waited three years for planning permission – so far. Perhaps it will indeed be forever…
