TORY high command began to hone its General Election campaign focus on voters’ fears that Ed Miliband could be “pushed around” by the SNP as far back as November 2014, Lynton Crosby, David Cameron’s election strategist, has revealed.
In a rare interview in his native Australia, Mr Crosby also noted how the Nationalists would “do well for a period,” stressing: “They are going to be around for quite a long time yet but the risk is expectations of delivery versus what they can actually deliver."
The Conservatives’ raising of fears during the General Election campaign about the prospect of a Labour-SNP alliance in a hung parliament was credited by many with securing Mr Cameron’s victory on May 7.
The Tories made great play of the possibility that Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond with an enhanced SNP group at Westminster could be pulling the strings in a minority government led by Ed Miliband. Campaign posters to this effect appeared across many constituencies in England.
Mr Crosby, who also helped deliver two mayoral election wins for Boris Johnson and is known as the Wizard of Oz, said in an interview filmed by Sky News Australia: "Whilst it became fashionable towards the end of the campaign to report: 'Oh, there's been this surge in the SNP and that's upsetting the dynamic in Labour.
"The first time we picked that up was in November 2014 when in discussions, in focus groups, people said: 'Ed Miliband is a very weak man. If the SNP do really well and if he relies on them to govern, they will push him around. Who knows what we will get?'”
He added: "That was from the mouth of voters, well before anybody had picked up this sense. We started building on that then."
While Mr Crosby talked up the prospects of the SNP, he did not do so for Ukip.
"I don't think they've got a long-term future,” he declared, noting: "You should never write anyone off but they will be a voice of discontent.”
He went on: "They are very reliant on the performance of their leader Nigel Farage and even he couldn't win a seat. Sixth or seventh time he's tried to win a Westminster seat.
“He might be better coming to Australia and doing talkback radio than trying to run another seat in the UK," added Mr Crosby.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel