AS controversy rages over claims Donald Trump’s son met a Russian lawyer dishing dirt on Hillary Clinton, a little-known British Mr Fixit is in the eye of the storm.

Rob Goldstone, a chubby music publicist who grew up on a Manchester ­council estate, has emerged as the organiser of a ­meeting between Donald Trump Jnr and a Moscow lawyer that promised to “incriminate Mrs Clinton”.

Scandal erupted when last year’s meeting, attended by a former Kremlin spook, became public knowledge, though there is no suggestion Mr Goldstone has behaved improperly.

So how did the only child of two factory machinists end up as the man who might unwittingly sink President Trump?

Nicknamed “Fred Flintstone” by associates, Goldstone, 57, is the boss of New York PR firm Oui 2 Entertainment.

Its website boasts of top celebs and huge companies among Goldstone’s clients — including Michael Jackson, BB King, Sir Richard Branson, EMI Music and top ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

One client was Russian pop wannabe Emin Agalarov, 37, whose billionaire father Aras is a Moscow property tycoon with close links to Vladimir Putin.

Aras asked Goldstone to set up last year’s meeting between President Trump’s oldest son Donald Jnr, 39, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya which has rocked the US.

Before founding Oui 2, Goldstone was head of international marketing at the HMV Group.

He is said to have represented acts touring Australia including Cyndi Lauper, Julio Iglesias and U2.

In one newspaper profile, the 20st Goldstone tells how he accompanied Sir Bob Geldof to famine-hit Ethiopia and GAINED six pounds.

He even claims to have looked after the world’s press on Charles and Diana’s historic royal tour of Australia in 1988.

But questions have been raised.

Agents for Lauper and ­Iglesias said they had no recollection of working with him.

Saatchi & Saatchi’s Australian team said the same, while Sir Bob could not remember inviting him to Ethiopia.

A spokesman for Richard Branson’s Virgin group said: “Richard was not a client of Rob Goldstone.”

A spokesman for U2 said: “No one here has any memory of this guy.” And a representative for James Taylor, the US singer who Goldstone is also said to have acted for, added: “I’ve been involved with PR in the UK for over 30 years and don’t recall his name either.”

Nor could Clarence House staff find any record of his involvement in Charles and Di’s 1988 tour Down Under.

The Sun’s Arthur Edwards, who went on that trip, has not heard of him either.

Whatever the answers to those questions, there is no doubt Goldstone started life in a two-bed council flat in Whitefield, Gtr Manchester.

Though bright, he often bunked off school and quit at 16. But he did not lack confidence. Unhappy with an article in the Jewish Gazette, the teen rang the editor to complain — and landed a job as a cub reporter. He later moved to the Birmingham Evening Mail.

His former news editor, Ian Mean, said bluntly this week: “He wasn’t a great reporter. Not someone I’d say, ‘Well, he’s going to Fleet Street’.”

For three years Goldstone worked alongside showbiz reporter Geoff Baker, who would go on to become Sir Paul McCartney’s publicist.

They remain pals and stay in touch over Facebook, where Goldstone — who wears loafers embossed with the word “Sex” and often sports a T-shirt bearing the logo “Sexy” — has posted endless selfies and pics of the Trump family.

Geoff said: “Rob’s a really lovely guy who’s fun to be with. When it all blew up, I messaged him and he replied that it was ‘99 per cent ­nonsense and one per cent boring’. That’s typical Rob.” After spells at BRMB Radio in the Midlands and London’s LBC, Goldstone, then 25, moved to Sydney as a journalist.

In 1991 he followed Geoff Baker into the music promotion business, moving to New York to work for HMV. And seven years later he set up Oui 2 with his business partner and lover David ­Wilson, living together in New Jersey.

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But it was his links with Emin Agalarov, who sang in the interval at Eurovision 2012 in Azerbaijan, that catapulted Goldstone towards Trump’s circle and global controversy.

A firm owned by Emin’s father Aras, Crocus Group, is said to have paid Trump up to £15million to host the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in November 2013, where Emin again sang.

Afterwards, Trump tweeted Aras saying: “I had a great weekend with you and your family.” The billionaires got so close they were said to be on the verge of building a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Trump even appeared in one of Emin’s music videos, staging an Apprentice-style boardroom scene. The 2014 single, In Another Life, did not make the US charts.

That year Trump wished Emin a happy 35th birthday in a video, saying: “You are a winner. You’re a champ. You are great at real estate and boy, can you entertain.”

Meanwhile Goldstone, who was a judge in one Miss ­Universe contest, appeared in a video chatting to Trump at a dinner in Las Vegas in June 2013 on the eve of the Miss USA pageant.

Instagram posts show ­Goldstone has visited Russia at least 19 TIMES since 2013.

And last year, at the height of the battle for the White House, Emin asked his PR man to contact Trump’s campaign. In bombshell emails made public by Donald Trump Jnr this week, Goldstone messaged him in June 2016 offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Goldstone said “Russian government attorney” Natalia Veselnitskaya would be flying in from Moscow with evidence that would “incriminate” Clinton and would be “very useful to your father”. It added: “This is obviously very high-level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.”

Don Jnr replied that he would “love it” if the information was as promised.

But last night Scott Balber, a US lawyer representing the Agalarovs, accused Goldstone of “flat-out misrepresentation”.

He said Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to talk to Trump’s team about the Magnitsky Act, which allows the US to withhold visas and freeze the financial assets of Russian officials. Mr Balber told The Sun: “Emin asked Rob Goldstone to make an ­introduction on behalf of this Russian lawyer Natalia.

“The rest of what is contained in Rob’s emails is not true.

“Our understanding is that the purpose of the meeting was for Natalia to talk about the Magnitsky Act, a cause she is passionate about.

“She has a private practice and is not acting for the Russian government in any capacity. As to why Rob Goldstone said what he did in the emails, he is a publicist in the music industry.

“Part of his job is to promote. I think he was trying to do what his client Emin asked and secure a meeting. I think he engaged in a lot of extreme hyperbole, puffery and maybe even flat-out misrepresentation.

“If the Russian government spoke to Aras Agalarov about issues that were critical to the US election campaign, why would he tell his pop star son to ask his publicist to send an email to the Trump campaign? It is just absurd.”

Emin and Goldstone stopped working together in January. And four weeks ago Goldstone announced on Facebook he was taking a year off to travel the world. He is now on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

His page is currently filled with abuse from Americans ­calling him a traitor and a “gutter rat”, warning him to “get your cyanide pills ready”.

Pal Geoff Baker says: “It strikes me as being quite heavy, so I’d imagine the poor bloke is worried sick. I can’t believe he’d have done anything intentionally wrong. He is just the fall-guy.

“I suspect he had the nod that the sh*t was going to hit the fan and did a runner. The two ­people you don’t want to p**s off on the planet are President Trump and President Putin.”

Meanwhile, former Kremlin counter-intelligence operative Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed yesterday he was at the June 2016 meeting between Donald Jnr and Veselnitskaya.

Akhmetshin, a pro-Moscow lobbyist, said Donald Jnr asked for evidence of illicit money going to the Democratic National Committee but Veselnitskaya did not have that information.

After that, Donald Jr lost interest. “They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” he says.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort were also present.

And last night Donald Jnr’s lawyer confirmed an as-yet-unnamed sixth person was at the meeting too.

Mr Goldstone was last night unavailable for comment.

Additional reporting: JAMES BEAL

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