Liz Truss told she’s made a ‘monumental error’ as PM cuts ties with Isaac Levido – the Australian political strategist who masterminded the Tories’ 2019 election triumph
- Liz Truss facing backlash after cutting ties with mastermind of 2019 election win
- Australian political strategist Isaac Levido dropped from role at Tory HQ
- He is widely credited with having delivered Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority
Liz Truss is facing a backlash after she cut ties with the Australian political strategist who masterminded the Tories’ 2019 election triumph.
Isaac Levido is reported to have been dropped from his role at the Conservative Party’s headquarters as the Prime Minister carries out a shake-up ahead of the next election.
Former Number 10 staff who worked with Mr Levido in helping to deliver the Tories’ 80-seat majority in 2019 told Ms Truss she had made a ‘monumental error’.
Senior party figures and Tory MPs are also said to be furious about the decision.
News of Mr Levido’s departure has emerged at a time when Ms Truss’s premiership is under severe pressure after her mini-Budget fiasco and following a chaotic party conference in Birmingham.
Mr Levido is a protege of fellow Australian elections guru Sir Lynton Crosby.
He and his business partner, the pollster Michael Brooks, were widely credited as the architects of the Tories’ victorious 2019 election campaign.
The campaign’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ mantra saw ex-PM Boris Johnson deliver the party’s largest majority since the 1980s.
Isaac Levido is widely credited the architect of the Tories’ victorious 2019 election campaign under Boris Johnson
Former Number 10 staff who worked with Mr Levido in helping to deliver the Tories’ 80-seat majority in 2019 told Liz Truss she had made a ‘monumental error’
The 2019 campaign’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ mantra saw Mr Johnson deliver the Tories’ largest majority since the 1980s
Mr Levido was viewed as having played a key role in persuading Labour voters in ‘Red Wall’ seats to switch their support to the Tories, which proved crucial to Mr Johnson’s success.
As the size of the Conservatives’ victory became clear on election night in December 2019, officials inside the party’s headquarters were revealed to have begun chanting ‘Oh Isaac Levido!’ to the tune of ‘Seven Nation Army’ by The White Stripes.
According to the Guardian, Mr Levido’s departure has cleared the way for Mark Fullbrook, who is Ms Truss’s chief of staff, to run the Tories’ next election campaign.
Angry party figures highlighted Mr Fullbrook’s previous role in Tory peer Zac Goldsmith’s disastrous bid to become London mayor, a campaign that was branded ‘racist’ by critics.
A senior Conservative source told the newspaper: ‘This would be an indefensible decision at any time.
‘Isaac and his team took the Conservatives to our best result since the 1980s, whereas Mark Fullbrook’s last campaign was losing the London mayoral race badly.
‘For Liz Truss to abandon Isaac and hand a lucrative contract to her chief of staff beggars belief, especially given the chaos of the last few days in Birmingham.
‘I am yet to speak to anyone who thinks this is anything other than crazy.’
Lee Cain, who was Mr Johnson’s director of communications during the 2019 election, posted on Twitter: ‘Isaac Levido and Michael Brooks spearheaded the best election campaign in decades. This is a monumental error.’
Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s estranged former chief adviser, highlighted Mr Levido’s role in Number 10 during the Covid pandemic.
‘We worked very closely together. He is very able. He also really helped the country in Covid meltdown,’ Mr Cummings tweeted.
He added that Mr Levido’s exit had confirmed the team around Ms Truss, who he refers to as the ‘human hand grenade’, was unable to ‘escape its own burst radius’.
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