Guido hears Kemi’s ‘come to Jesus’ moment at CCHQ with the wider party hasn’t exactly steadied the ship. Insiders grumble it was “100 days too late” and “disingenuous.” Her “burn the whole place down” remark—supposedly from a member—is said to have been lifted from a Jenrick speech during the leadership race…
There is plenty of unease over Kemi telling staff they need to “deliver on fundraising or campaigning” when, there isn’t an official director of campaigning and, as one campaign manager put it, “how can we campaign when we’ve got no policies to campaign on?” The biggest concern for some is how to take the fight to Reform, with grumblings over the lack of a clear campaign strategy to tackle the party that’s outpolling the Tories…
Meanwhile, one CCHQ insider says the speech left staff feeling “devastated” after Kemi “didn’t say one positive thing.” At the same time, CCHQ’s lease on 4 Matthew Parker Street is up, with a decision to be made soon—though LOTO insists it won’t be funding-related—despite insiders saying that more donors are leaving than Kemi anticipated. It may need more than a pep-talk to bring back members and polling numbers…
The boffins over at Conservative Campaign Headquarters have spied an opportunity to out-Farage Farage by reverting to a sound position on Starmer’s Brexit renegotiation. As flagged by Guido yesterday…
While Nigel Farage has adopted the plan of calling for a completely new set of negotiations with the EU (on Radio 4 this morning), the goal is still open for the Conservatives to commit to opposing any Starmer deal outright. This would basically reject any re-opening of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and signal to the EU that Labour’s rejoin project is strongly opposed…
Guido hears on the grapevine that the reversion to a strong pro-Brexit position is under consideration. The old Brexit bat signal is still sounding loud and clear…
Guido hears that Kemi summoned an all-staff call at CCHQ today, rallying the wider party. After 100 days in LOTO, Kemi’s verdict is that machine “must do better”, saying party members told her during the leadership election they “wanted everyone in CCHQ sacked,” with some even saying they should “burn the whole place down.” At the time she defended CCHQ—now that she’s seen it up close, she’s shifting course…
While praising some staff for their work, she called out others for not pulling their weight warning that if staff don’t believe in the party’s mission, they “shouldn’t be here”. Complaints about poor performance followed—some responses to her requests were “not good.” She went on to say that staff have “two jobs: campaigning and fundraising. If you’re not doing something to make either of those happen, you’re not doing your job right.” Sound words of advice while Reform gain in the polls…
A LOTO source said:“Kemi has a mandate to renew the Conservative Party from top to bottom to ensure we rid the country of this terrible Labour government who are already doing so much damage, and she won’t hesitate in making the changes that are necessary for that to happen.” Meanwhile, if you want to see real political impact, just read Guido…
Guido hears CCHQ is currently staffed to the tune of around 140 individuals. Down from somewhere approaching 400 before the election…
It usually operates at above 300 – contract non-renewals and further job cuts have slimmed the ship further. In the meantime PAd roles, who are responsible for shadow ministers’ comms and policy work, are being dished out to CCHQ staff who are already on the payroll. One Tory source predicts “they will inevitably f**k it when pesky journos come calling.” Shadow ministers privately express disquiet that there is no resource to bring in their own people. Post-election brain drain occurring as usual…
Expectations have lengthened on when any hiring run will begin. One shadow cabinet minister says grimly: “It’s a long game.” The Tories are just asking for cash for Christmas this year…
UPDATE: A Tory source says: “CCHQ always slims down after elections and HQ is now renewing under Kemi to ensure it’s a proper fighting force in the years ahead.“
In momentous news CCHQ’s top veteran spinner Alex Wild is leaving his role as the Tories’ Director of Communications. “Tory Source” enjoyed giving the most caustic quotes. Sometimes they were even about the opposition…
Entering Whitehall in 2019 from his role as Research Director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance Wild spun for Priti Patel before heading up the top of the Tory comms machine – with a stint as No 10 Press Secretary. Wild understood better than most what the strengths of the Tory message are…
He says “after four leaders and 10 chairmen it’s time to move on” and will leave at the end of the year. A loss to CCHQ…
Reform UK is ramping up its war on the Tories and Labour, with 380 local branches in action and a target of 500 by New Year. The party’s on a recruitment spree, moving into bigger offices and beefing up its operations. They’ve already poached several former CCHQ staff…
One notable defector is Richard Murphy, ex-National Head of Field Campaigning at CCHQ, who’s had 30 years of working with the Conservative Party. The Tory veteran has now jumped ship to Reform. As have two former CCHQ campaign managers of two years, Michael Hadwen and Luigi Murton. One current CCHQ staffer told Guido, “good, they were useless anyway”. Ouch…
Reform Chairman Zia Yusuf tells Guido:
“Reform has all the momentum in British politics and is rapidly assembling a formidable ground campaign machine. Richard Murphy, formerly Head of Campaigning for the Conservative Party has terminated his Tory membership after 44 years to launch the Reform Candidate Centre of Excellence. He agrees with us that Reform will be the next party of government and will play an important role in making that happen. We have also hired two rising stars from CCHQ – Luigi Murton who has led campaigns overturning big Lib Dem majorities, and Michael Hadwen who ran a top 10 national campaign in Bassetlaw. Real change is coming to Britain.”
Meanwhile, Reform has compiled a list of Tory councillors who replied with a snarky response to their defection call-out. Those councils are now firmly in Reform’s crosshairs, with the party promising to focus their full firepower on them. All eyes on Reform’s press conference tomorrow, which promises a “special announcement”…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”