A FORMER director of the raunchy lingerie firm Agent Provocateur – slogan “less M&S, more S&M” – has been hired by Gordon Brown to spice up his policies.

American Jennifer Moses, a former managing director of Goldman Sachs, is to have an office in No 10, where she will develop new ideas to help Brown challenge David Cam-eron at the next general election.

Her record suggests that she will be anything but a yes-woman. She is on record criticising some of the prime minister’s favourite policy ideas. “Gordon has been reliant for too long on stuffy men in suits for advice,” said a Labour insider.

Moses and her husband live in a £10m Georgian mansion in the heart of Hampstead, northwest London, which they bought in 1999. According to Land Registry documents they have a mortgage with a branch of Barclays registered in the Isle of Man. It was unclear last night whether either was a “nondom” – registered overseas for tax purposes.

However, she is probably best known for her role in a court case that became a national talking point. Four years ago her personal assistant, Joyti DeLaurey, was tried for stealing £1m from her bank account over two years. The case prompted widespread amazement that anybody could be so rich that they did not quickly notice such a massive fraud.

DeLaurey was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in jail. She spent the money she stole on luxury cars, a string of properties, five-star holidays and Cartier diamonds.

Moses’s husband, Ron Beller, an investment banker, is the founder of Peloton Partners, the hedge fund that collapsed in spectacular fashion last week after taking bad bets on US mortgages.

Moses, a well-known figure on the charity circuit of London’s super-rich, sits on the boards of Duchy Originals, Prince Charles’s charitable company, and Ark, the charity that funds city academies in deprived areas.

Most intriguingly, for the past two years Moses has been chief executive of CentreForum, the think tank that specialises in attacking the sacred cows of Labour’s social policy.

A recent CentreForum report concluded that the gap between the haves and have-nots had widened over the past 10 years.

“Despite the billions of pounds spent to reduce poverty and expand life chances, Britain is, in many respects, more unequal and less socially mobile than when Labour came to power,” it said.

The think tank has also claimed that Brown’s target of ending child poverty has had “no real impact”.

Another report criticised Labour’s SureStart programme for preschool youngsters, saying it had “so far shown disappointing results for disadvantaged children”.

Moses’ own lifestyle is a world away from the gritty council estates discussed in her think tank reports.

Downing Street sources said last night that her precise job title was still being finalised, although she is likely to have a wide-ranging brief on social policy. A spokesman said: “She will not be receiving a salary.”

Moses told the board of CentreForum last week that she would be stepping down to concentrate on the Downing Street role. She was unavailable for comment last night.

Neal Lawson, director of Compass, a rival think tank, said: “She is passionate and energetic about social justice issues. She is a very able and compelling person.” Harvard-educated Moses, 46, becomes the latest big hitter from the private sector to be brought in to inject new vigour into Downing Street.

Her appointment follows the arrival of Stephen Carter, a former executive at Brunswick, the City public relations firm, as Brown’s chief political adviser.

The new arrivals have been hired to bring new rigour to an environment that critics have described as “dysfunctional”.

She will not be the only woman with a close link to Goldman Sachs to have a job in No 10. Sue Nye, Brown’s long-time “gatekeeper”, is married to Gavyn Davies, Goldman’s former chief economist.

The appointment of Moses is another sign of the growing influence of Alan Parker, the head of Brunswick. Parker, who persuaded the prime minister to be the godfather of his son, sits on the management board of CentreForum.

Moses joined Agent Provoca-teur as a nonexecutive director in 2002 and quit in November when the company was taken over by private equity group 3i, which paid £60m for an 80% stake.

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