Lynton Crosby

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  • Feb.10.2019: Revealed: Lynton Crosby's £5.5m offer to undermine 2022 Qatar World Cup. Tory strategist’s pitch detailed how CTF Partners would spread negative stories and press Fifa to ‘restart bidding process’. Sir Lynton Crosby offered to work on a campaign to cancel the 2022 Qatar World Cup and get it awarded to another country in return for £5.5m, according to a leaked plan. Crosby is also close to the foreign former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who has repeatedly described Crosby’s use of the “dead cat” media strategy to distract journalists. Johnson recently received a £20,000 interest-free loan from Crosby’s company, which has since been repaid. Jim Waterson, The Guardian.
  • Sept.02.2018: Theresa May’s election boss Lynton Crosby tries to scupper her Brexit deal. Senior Tories said the man who ran her election campaign is secretly masterminding a bid to destroy her Brexit plan and install Boris Johnson in Downing Street. Sir Lynton Crosby — the election guru who helped Johnson win two London mayoral elections — has ordered his allies to work with hardline Brexiteers in the Commons to run a nationwide campaign against the prime minister’s Chequers plan. One of Crosby’s senior staff at his firm CTF Partners is in close contact with the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexit hardliners run by Jacob Rees-Mogg and a campaign that is seen as a front for Johnson’s leadership ambitions. MPs plan to publish an alternative to May’s plan before the Tory party conference with the backing of both Johnson and David Davis, who resigned from the cabinet over Chequers. Crosby is understood to think that May’s plan — which will keep Britain in permanent close alignment with Brussels — would betray the voters who backed Brexit and hurt the Conservative Party at the next election. The Australian, known as the Wizard of Oz, is also said to be angry that May’s aides sought to blame him for the disastrous 2017 election campaign. One of Crosby’s staff, David Canzini, is revitalising Change Britain, a pro-Brexit group, to campaign against the Chequers deal and give Johnson a personal platform. He is working closely with former Brexit minister Steve Baker and Stewart Jackson, formerly Davis’s aide. In recent days Canzini’s Twitter feed has featured messages attacking the Chequers deal and retweeting Brexiteers such as Baker, Jackson, Nigel Farage, Owen Paterson, John Redwood and Priti Patel. A senior Tory said: “Lynton’s firm is working with the ERG to run this campaign to bring down Chequers. It looks like Lynton is hitting back after falling out over the election campaign and is trying to boot out the prime minister. They want to get Boris in.” Tory MPs keeping count say that 33 letters calling for May’s head were submitted to party bosses before the summer recess — 15 short of the number needed to trigger a vote of no confidence. In a further assault on May’s authority Nick Boles, a close ally of the environment secretary, Michael Gove, will this week call on May to ditch the Chequers plan and take Britain into a Norway-style relationship with the EU. This weekend May seeks to shore up support from Brexiteers by ruling out holding a second referendum on Brexit, saying it would be a “gross betrayal” of those who voted for Brexit. She said she would not “give in to those who want to reopen the whole question with a second referendum. A spokesman for CTF Partners confirmed the company’s involvement and defended the campaign on the grounds that even May’s former aide Nick Timothy has said she should ditch her Chequers plan. Tim Shipman, The Times.
  • Aug.04.2013: Is The British Conservative Party "Institutionally Racist"? ... It's debatable that when the Prime Minister David Cameron, Home Secretary Theresa May and tobacco and drinks lobbyist (aka Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby) kicked off their 2015 general election campaign early and in earnest by commissioning vans bearing huge "racist" advertising placards informing illegal immigrants to "Go Home or Face Arrest", that they fully realised that they were about to give the proverbial "racist hornets nest" an almighty kick, but nonetheless whether by accident or design this is exactly what they have done.
    Why did David Cameron once again, against advice from some in his own party, hire someone like Lynton Crosby (especially after all his past, present and future problems with Rupert Murdoch's now defunct former editor Andy Coulson. Crosby not only comes with controversy over his lobbying company CTF Partners (Crosby Textor) deeply contentious links to tobacco, drinks, private healthcare and fracking, but has had himself been accused of playing the race card in his native Australia and also over offensive comments he is said to have ranted during the Conservative mayoral campaign for Boris Johnson when he urged Johnson "not to get hung up on seeking support from 'fucking Muslims'". Some juicy stuff on David Cameron in here Ayes To The Left.
  • Oct.02.2017: Iain Dale’s 100 most influential people on the Right 2017. Co-owner, Crosby Textor Fullbrook. Lynton Crosby advised the Prime Minister not to hold an election in June as he recognised the dangers. His advice was ignored. Only in the last ten days of the campaign did he have control of the campaign, so he can't be blamed entirely for what happened. The question now is whether he'd want to return for the next campaign or whether whoever leads the party would think they need a fresh pair of eyes. Iain Dale, Conservative Home.
  • Oct.03.2016: Iain Dale's 100 most influential people on the Right. Co-owner, Crosby Textor Fullbrook. Crosby remains a hugely popular figure in the Conservative Party even if he does have the odd enemy. His decision to opt out of advising either side in the referendum campaign was the right one and although his company failed to pull off an unlikely win for Zac Goldsmith in the London mayoral campaign he remains in prime position to run the Conservative 2020 general election campaign. Iain Dale, Conservative Home.
  • Dec.27.2015: Lynton Crosby knighthood discredits honours system, say Labour MPs. Australian political strategist is reportedly set for place in New Year honours list after running Tories’ 2015 election campaign. Lynton Crosby, the political strategist who ran the Conservatives’ election campaign, is set to get a knighthood in the New Year honours list. Honours for political service were supposed to be banned after Tony Blair took office in 1997, although in practice some MPs continued to receive knighthoods on the grounds that they are being rewarded for their contribution to parliament. Cameron has been a lavish dispenser of patronage – he even included his barber, Raffaele Claudio Carbosiero, in an honours list two years ago “for services to hairdressing” – and he has revived the idea of granting honours to people explicitly for political service. One Conservative source said it might be hard for Labour to complain about the Crosby honour because Spencer Livermore, who ran Ed Miliband’s election campaign, received a peerage in the dissolution honours list, even though he lost the election in May and Crosby won. Crosby’s knighthood is likely to prove controversial not only because he is a foreign political consultant receiving a high-profile honour, but because his uncompromising tactics have previously appalled some of his opponents. Having made his name in Australia, where he worked for the right-of-centre Liberal party and masterminded election victories for John Howard, Crosby first played a major role in the UK when he ran the Conservative party’s election campaign in 2005, under Michael Howard’s leadership. Crosby approved hard-hitting campaign slogans, including one saying “it’s not racist to impose limits on immigration”, which at the time led to the accusation that he was engaged in “dog whistle” politics by making a covert appeal to racist views. The Tories lost in 2005, but Crosby, who was brought in relatively late, was not blamed and, after running Boris Johnson’s two successful London mayoral campaigns, he was hired by Cameron and George Osborne to take overall command of the 2015 general election campaign. Most of those involved in the campaign speak very highly of his contribution, in particular his ability to impose message discipline on the party, and his decision to focus heavily on winning Liberal Democrat seats in the south-west of England, some of which were considered impregnable, but eventually fell to the Tories. Andrew Sparrow, The Guardian.
  • Jul.14.2013: Now Cameron aide Lynton Crosby’s links to fracking industry are explored. David Cameron came under renewed pressure to sack his party’s elections adviser Lynton Crosby on Sunday night as environmental activists expressed concern about his links to the fracking industry. Mr Crosby’s lobbying firm, Crosby Textor, represents the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), an oil and gas lobby group campaigning aggressively for fracking. APPEA's chief operating officer, Stedman Ellis, has made headlines in recent months for his outspoken criticism of anti-fracking campaigners. APPEA's members include Dart, the company behind coal-bed methane extraction in Scotland, which holds a fracking licence. George Osborne announced massive tax breaks for the oil and gas industry just weeks after Mr Crosby's appointment as a Conservative adviser was announced. ... Mr Crosby’s company is employed by the tobacco giant Philip Morris. Questions have been asked about his role in the decision to shelve govt plans to require tobacco products to be sold in plain packaging. (more...) Emily Dugan, Nigel Morris, The Independent.