The race to become the next Prime Minister is on and now only three candidates are left in the running: Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Penny Mourdant.
While everyone’s attention may be on the stars of the show, there are whole teams of comms experts, special advisers and super strategists behind the ‘brands’ who are equally hungry for the keys to No. 10.
Here we take a look at the people working behind the scenes on the leadership campaigns.
Rishi Sunak
Key players
Sunak’s loyal team is mainly made up of people who worked for him in the treasury. There’s Liam Booth-Smith, his chief of staff, who is heading up the campaign; and Nerissa Chesterfield, one of his special advisers and comms experts who once worked for Dominic Cummings at Vote Leave and for Liz Truss.
He’s also getting advice from PR firm Charlesbye, set up by the former Downing Street comms chief Lee Cain. Consultant Charlie Souster is said to have taken unpaid leave to work on the campaign, while Cain insists he’s staying out of it.
The social media guru
The real architect behind ‘Brand Rishi’ is social media whizz Cass Horowitz who’s credited with transforming Sunak’s digital persona. Son of author Anthony Horowitz (who wrote the Alex Rider series and a number of James Bond books), Cass masterminded Sunak’s slick three-minute launch video which was so polished that it prompted speculation it had been made before Sunak stepped down as Chancellor, though the wannabe PM insists it was produced in 48 hours. “It was literally put together in two days,” a source told the Telegraph, adding that Mr Sunak’s team are: “f*cking good.” It’s now had 35,467 views on YouTube.
Cass began working with Sunak at the Treasury but he’s also a co-founder of creative agency The Clerkenwell Brothers. He overhauled Sunak’s social media presence and helped turn him into ‘dishy Rishi’.
The big name backers
Deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, is the biggest name behind Sunak. He’s said that only Sunak ‘could win a general election’ and the best person to ‘see people through the cost of living challenges’.
The vibe
Sunak’s campaign is said to be highly organised with a campaign headquarters in Westminster and between 15 and 20 unpaid staffers working very long days for it.
The different sections - communications, planning - are said to meet before 6am to strategise for the coming day and according to The Times want to “create a sense of inevitability about his victory,”
The secret weapon
Sunak’s secret weapon is his army of former chief whips - Mark Spencer, Boris Johnson’s former chief whip, Mark Harper, chief whip or Theresa May and Gavin Williamson, a chief whip who helped both Mrs May and Mr Johnson become head of the party.
Liz Truss
Key players
Heading up the day-to-day management of Team Truss is Ruth Porter who was formerly one of her advisers and now managing director at public affairs agency FGS Global.
Adam Jones, Truss’ Foreign Office media adviser, is leading her comms along with Jason Stein, another former Spad to Truss.
Sophie Jarvis is coordinating the support of MPs. She is a key Foreign Office adviser and a former lobbyist with the Adam Smith Institute.
The Instagram experts
Truss is said to be a huge fan of Instagram and does much of the posting herself (including showing off her baking on there) but she also has a team of social media whizzes behind her. Reuben Solomon, who was previously CCHQ’s head of digital, is thought to be the man behind it.
She also hired Robert Midgley, Boris Johnson’s former chief videographer, as her digital communications adviser. “Now everybody wants their own digital adviser,” an official told the FT.
The Brexiteer backers
Despite voting to remain in the EU referendum, Truss switched sides and now has the backing of many big-name Brexiteers including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries.
Former Brexit negotiator David Frost said of Truss: “Although she voted Remain, she has arguably done more than anyone else to make Brexit work, first on trade, and now in the Foreign Office, where she has got a grip on a sometimes sullen and (as the Kabul evacuation showed) dysfunctional department, and has stood up for principle and conviction in foreign affairs.”
The vibe
Fans of Truss are calling her the ‘new Iron Lady’ and even more comparisons were drawn when Truss wore a Thatcher-esque outfit to the first leadership debate. Sporting a black blazer and a white blouse with a bow at the front, viewers were reminded of an outfit worn by the former Conservative prime minister during a 1979 election broadcast.
Secret weapon
Truss received praise from the Ukrainian foreign minister, in her bid for Downing Street. Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: “UK support has been vital for Ukraine’s defense all the way through Russian aggression.
“I am deeply grateful to the government of the UK and especially my counterpart @TrussLiz. Her mettle, inner steel, and clarity of purpose have been indispensable in crafting crucial decisions.”
Penny Mordaunt
Key players
Mordaunt’s campaign has reportedly been “ready to go” from as early as January which means she could have spent some time assembling her team.
Her comms is being managed by Laura Round who is the director of the leading global strategic communications company Freuds. She was an adviser to Mordaunt during her (brief) time as Minister of Defence.
Craig Dillon, who recently appeared as a right-wing pundit on Fox News, had been working on Mordaunt’s social media campaign with a team of twelve from his company, Westminster Digital. It’s being reported that he was let go this week amid fears his high profile had become a distraction. He says their parting of ways was amicable. Dillon’s key strategy was for Mordaunt supporters to unleash a series of “Tweet bombs” during the votes and debates. He also set up a series of pro-Mordaunt Twitter accounts in a bid to exagerate the support for Mordaunt among the grassroot Tories. “This is the digital war. There’s no point saying ‘it’s not fair, they’re doing that’,” he responded to criticisms in an interview with The Times. “If it’s a strategy that’s working, you should be doing it.”
“Everything we’ve been doing on this is the work we do on our US campaigns. It’s bringing US-style campaigning to the UK.”
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab’s former adviser Simon Finkelstein (who advised him both in the Foreign Office and the Ministry for Justice) is also on Mordaunt’s team
Former Cabinet minister and Tory party leader hopeful, Andrea Leadsom is chairing Mordaunt’s campaign, with some believing that she would be Mordaunt’s most likely choice for Chancellor.
Secret weapon
PR boss Chris Lewis has been supporting Mordaunt for decades. He is the founder and CEO of the Team Lewis agency which employs over 500 staff (according to their site) with clients including Adobe, McAfee, Zumba and Deliveroo.
The patriotic campaign vid
With Union Jacks, images of the UK and set to Gustav Holst’s hymn ‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’, Mourdant’s campaign video was derided on social media for being corny and quickly came up against more problems. The video had to be edited and relaunched after several people, including paralympian Johnny Peacock complained that footage of them had been used without their permission. The UK sprinter replied to the video on Twitter writing: “I officially request to be removed from this video … Anything but blue please.”
However, others liked it and one Tory MP said: “never underestimate the power of patriotism in our party.”
On Monday she released another video entitled “The Real Me” which focuses on her upbringing in Portsmouth and was far better received.
Backers
Support for Mourdant comes from David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, who called her “a woman of incredible integrity” and “high competence.” She also enjoys the support of 82 of the UK’s parliamentarians including Natalie Elphicke and Michelle Donlane.
The vibe
Many see Mourdant as a clean break from the Johnson era. She would be a fresh start, Duncan Baker, a backbencher, told the FT. “She is very strong, has impeccable integrity and values.”
