the times | Saturday August 1 2020 2GM 37Saturday interviewNews
No 10 were caught by surprise when the prime minister was admitted to hospital and then to intensive care with Covid- 19
now we all have to pull together
majority – was not an unmitigated
disaster. The party’s share of the vote
increased significantly, and it made
significant gains in traditional Labour
strongholds in the north. By the time
Mr Johnson went to the polls last
year, the Tories were ready to
capitalise.
Fresh from overseeing Scott
Morrison’s campaign to become prime
minister in Australia — dubbed the
“miracle down under” — Mr Levido
was singled out to lead Mr Johnson’s
election campaign.
On July 24 last year, the day Mr
Johnson became prime minister, Mr
Levido had a meeting with Mr
Cummings. “He quite matter-of-factly
said he wanted someone to run the
campaign,” Mr Levido says. “I had
been well recommended by all sorts
of people he trusts. He wasn’t
interested in doing it.” Mr Levido set
down a number of conditions,
including that he would run the
campaign and make all decisions on
staffing. Mr Cummings agreed. “He’s
a professional, exceptionally
experienced about campaigns,” Mr
Levido said. “We both know you can’t
have any ambiguity about who’s in
charge.”
The initial plan was to secure a
Brexit deal then hold an election. “I
certainly didn’t want to run an
election campaign in the UK in
December,” Mr Levido recalls.
In the end, the extraordinary
parliamentary impasse made Mr
Johnson’s decision for him. After
grappling between the parties an
election was eventually called for
December 12.F
rom the off, the “framing” of
the election was markedly
different from 2017. “The
framing message you heard
the PM say all the time when
we started the campaign is that we
are having this election because
parliament’s broken.” Elections, in Mr
Levido’s view, are about giving voters
the answer to a question. “Ultimately
the act of voting is an answer,” he
says. “You just need to make sure the
person is thinking about your
question when they walk into the
ballot booth on the day.” In Mr
Johnson’s case, the question was how
to break the impasse. His answer was
delivered in the Conservative election
slogan “Get Brexit Done”, designed to
appeal to two groups — those fed up
with the near-endless rows over
Brexit and keen to move on, and
those who wanted to leave the EU.
Mr Levido says that there was a
“narrow, steep path to victory” as the
Tories attempted to unite voters on
both sides of the party. The slogan,
which was coined by the pollster
Michael Brooks following input from
focus groups, was critical. “It spoke to
that great frustration that a lot of
voters have that they just wanted this
resolved, whether they voted for this
or not,” he says. “Leave or Remain,
they wanted to get it done.”
The Tories believe that there were
two pivotal moments in the
campaign. The first came when the
Brexit Party chose not to contest
seats already held by the
Conservatives. “It sent a signal to
their voters that they were giving a
nod to the PM’s deal here but they
want to run here,” he says.
The second came when Jeremy
Corbyn said during a session with a
Question Time audience that he was
“neutral” on Brexit. “He would have
been better off saying he would vote
Remain,” Mr Levido said. “It
demonstrated in voters’ eyes that the
guy that was running to be thealternative PM couldn’t take a stand
on the biggest issue facing the
country.” On the day Britain went to
the polls, Mr Johnson held a meeting
with Mr Levido and his closest
advisers. Mr Levido told the prime
minister that the Tories would win
364 seats — one seat out — and a
majority of between 60 and 80.
As the scale of the Conservative
victory became clear that night,
CCHQ erupted in chants of “Oh,
Isaac Levido” to the tune of Seven
Nation Army by the White Stripes. “It
was very nice,” Mr Levido says.
He is now devoting himself to his
strategic communications agency,
Fleetwood Strategy, which he has
founded with Mr Brooks, the polling
expert he has known for a decade,
and Peter Dominiczak, a former
political editor of The Daily Telegraph.
“We’re living in a world where
there is so much information being
thrown at people,” Mr Levido says.
“Finding ways to give people
shortcuts and touchpoints to navigate
through their consumer, spending
and voting choices — organisations
that can do that are the ones that are
going to be successful.” Mr Levido
believes that the Conservatives have
an opportunity to sign a new “social
contract” with the British people and
address the “intractable challenges” of
inequality. “If the PM and party can
seize that — yes deliver on their
manifesto pledges, but also seize on
the opportunity of this tragedy to go
further and fix things for the long
term, that is where they have a real
opportunity to be successful.
“The biggest risk for the party in
four years’ time is that they are able
to be framed in a way that — rather
than a first-term Johnson
administration who have started a
whole bunch of things versus a
15-year Conservative government
who have run out of ideas and haven’t
delivered.” Mr Levido also believes
that the public will not hold thegovernment responsible for the “huge
economic shock” that will come.
“There is a slightly different
understanding about why this
economic crash has happened. There’s
not a whole bunch of bad guys who
were shuffling paper around the world
that caused this to happen. If the
government can get the management
and importantly the expectations
right, and the tone in which they talk
about the challenges ahead, and how
collectively we can get through it... It
will be incredibly important.” He
believes that Britain is on the cusp of a
“Kennedy-esque” moment when the
government can pull together with
businesses and society. “Yes the
government has done big things and
stepped in and helped people but
business, industry, community groups
also have a role to play,” he says. “Ask
not what your country can do for you,
ask what you can do for your country.”
He believes that Sir Keir Starmer as
Labour leader is “doing a good job at
projecting that he’s not Jeremy
Corbyn. It’s a big part of the reason
they’re getting a bit of improvement.
But he’s also doing a good job at
papering over some significant cracks
in what is a very divided party.” He is
some way off winning disillusioned
Labour voters back. “I’m still not sure
they’re sold.”the house about politics,” he recalls.
“He’s a real Kennedy buff.” Mr Levido
studied political science and
accounting at university, and initially
pursued a career as a corporate
underwriter. But he says: “I was not
that interested in a long-term career
doing that kind of thing.” He took a
master’s in political science in
Washington and went on to work for
the Australian embassy in the run-up
to the 2012 election. He subsequently
made contact with Sir Lynton Crosby,
the election guru, and asked for a job
at his company. “I politely asked him
for the next couple of months and he
said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got something for
you’.”
So began his entry into British
political life. From October 2013 to
the 2015 general election he worked
alongside Sir Lynton in CCHQ, acting
as his “gopher”. “I learnt a huge, huge
deal from him. I owe him a great
amount. His outstanding success
speaks for itself,” he says. “You want
to learn as much from them when
they’re instructing you to do
something as you do when you’re
observing them undertake their role.”
In contrast to Sir Lynton, who is
known as the “Wizard of Oz” and
renowned for his colourful language,
Mr Levido is taciturn and softly
spoken. He is renowned by colleagues
for his cool head. “I’ve never seenIsaac Barry Ernest Levido
Curriculum vitae
Born 1983, Australia
Educated Studied political science
and commerce at Australian
National University; did a master’s at
Georgetown University.
Career Worked on Republican
Senate campaigns in US then under
Sir Lynton Crosby on David
Cameron’s 2015 election campaign
and Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 London
mayoral campaign. In 2019 he
helped Scott Morrison to power in
Australia and directed Boris
Johnson’s campaign. In March he
began improving the government’s
coronavirus message.
Family Eldest of three boys; his
father, Justin, was a councillor.
Quick fire
Keir Starmer or Jeremy Corbyn?
Corbyn. I think he’d be a more
interesting guy to have a beer with.
Boris Johnson or Dominic
Cummings? Johnson. He’s the boss.
Ed Davey or Layla Moran? I can’t
really picture them. Layla.
Yorkshire Dales or the Gold Coast?
Yorkshire Dales.him lose his temper,” says one.
Mr Cameron secured a majority by
quietly targeting Liberal Democrat
seats in the southwest. “We worked
away below the radar,” Mr Levido
says. ”It’s not something you
telegraph to your opponents.”
He stayed out of the 2016 EU
referendum, but he views it as the
moment when voters’ frustration with
the status quo boiled over. “They saw
the act of voting Leave as a way to
press a big red button to try and get
the system to turn around and focus
on them,” he says.
Mr Levido was parachuted back
into CCHQ for Theresa May’s
disastrous 2017 election campaign,
arriving in the UK on the day she
made the announcement.
After months arguing that Britain
did not need a general election, Mrs
May changed her mind on a walking
holiday in Snowdonia. The campaign
was effectively doomed from the start.
“The biggest difference between
2017 to 2019 was that not enough
voters saw there was a burning
platform, or a burning need to have
an election,” Mr Levido says. “The
prime minister had said numerous
times and in the months before that
there wasn’t going to be one. We had
a standing start.”
For the Conservatives, however, the
election result – which slashed their‘Get Brexit Done spoke
to that frustration that
a lot of voters just
wanted this resolved’
ANDREW FOX FOR THE TIMES