![]() In 2013, shortly after Crosby started working again for the Conservatives, long-anticipated British moves to impose a minimum price for alcohol and compulsory plain cigarette packaging – both measures already opposed in Australia by Crosby Textor clients – disappeared from the government’s immediate legislative programme. These have included tobacco companies, and trade associations with members involved in the alcohol industry and fracking. But while it sometimes trumpets specific election successes – “Lynton Crosby is simply the best campaign manager and political strategist I have ever encountered or even heard of,” says a handwritten note from Boris Johnson prominent on the website – the company does not name its private-sector clients. Taking this knowledge and using it to influence the way people behave to achieve your goals is another.”Ĭrosby Textor works for companies as well as political parties. The website goes on: “Knowing what people think is one thing. On its website, the Crosby Textor Group, which includes businesses in Australia and Italy as well as London, advertises its “unmatched pedigree” in combining “market research, strategic communications and campaign execution”. But like Coulson, convicted last year of conspiracy to hack phones, Crosby has sometimes been a liability for the Tories as well as an asset. Like Coulson, who went from an Essex council estate to the News of the World editorship to director of communications at 10 Downing Street, Crosby, who is a farmer’s son from South Australia with a taste for red meat and blunt language, has usefully served, you could say, as the patrician Cameron’s bit of rough: a key strategist who can understand and speak to parts of the electorate that Old Etonians cannot. ![]() He’s much better at motivating our own supporters to come out and campaign than David Cameron is.” A former Tory shadow minister says: “David Cameron has only had clarity when two people have been in the room with him: Andy Coulson, when Cameron had lost his way in opposition, and Lynton Crosby, when Cameron had lost his way in government.” He really inspires a lot of loyalty from people, knows how to get the best out of them. Iain Dale, another well-informed Tory journalist, who dealt with Crosby as a candidate in the 2005 election, says: “In 10 years, I have never heard anyone in the party slag off Lynton Crosby. “He has given the party shape and momentum,” says Paul Goodman, editor of the influential Tory website ConservativeHome. A few months later, the Tories signed up Crosby to plot their long march towards this May’s general election.Īccording to most of the media and Westminster, but not quite all, he has done an expert job so far. In 2012, with the Conservatives unpopular in London and nationally, he helped Johnson win again. ![]() In 2008, hired by the Tories at the last minute again, this time to rescue Boris Johnson’s collapsing candidacy for mayor of London, he guided his client to a comfortable victory in only four months. In 2005, hired as campaign director a little too late by the unpalatable Tory leader Michael Howard, he nevertheless helped reduce Tony Blair’s Commons majority from 167 to 66. “The Wizard of Oz”, “The Lizard of Oz”, “the outback Rasputin”, “an evil genius”, “an Australian rottweiler” (Vince Cable), “an incredibly effective campaigner” (Ken Livingstone), “the Crosbinator” (Boris Johnson) – Crosby has won and maintained probably the most intimidating and unquestioned reputation in British politics since he first became involved in our elections 10 years ago.
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