Theresa May paid her ‘Wizard of Oz’ election guru Sir Lynton Crosby’s firm £4m to run her disastrous snap election campaign
Senior Tory sources say his firm CTF Partners charged mega-bucks after their successful 2015 campaign for David Cameron
THERESA May paid her “Wizard of Oz” election guru £4million to run her disastrous snap election, The Sun can reveal.
Senior Tory sources say Aussie Sir Lynton Crosby’s company CTF Partners charged mega-bucks after their successful majority-winning campaign in 2015 for David Cameron.
The Sun understands a significant amount of the money was spent on focus groups, polling and setting up call centres at short notice.
But our revelation will spark fresh outcry in Tory ranks about the direction and messaging of the troubled campaign.
A senior Conservative Party source said: “It was easily £4million and when the final invoices are totted up it could be much more.”
With the Prime Minister falling short of a majority and forced into a confidence and supply arrangement with the DUP, Mr Crosby has been accused of botching the campaign.
But on the eve of polling it is claimed he said that the Tories would “do well.”
Mrs May lost a net 12 seats — working out at more than £330,000 for every seat lost — after predictions of a 60 to 80 seat landslide.
Since June’s shock result top Tories have played a blame game over the poor campaign.
Ex-Theresa May aide Nick Timothy heaped blame on the expensive “campaign consultants”.
MOST READ IN POLITICS:
The former No10 chief of staff told The Spectator that “because this election failed to produce the majority we needed, it is impossible to call the campaign anything but a failure.”
He added: “On the advice of the campaign consultants, and following opinion research that showed Theresa to be far more popular than the party or her colleagues, we eschewed our instincts.
"We were wrong to do so.”
And in a direct assault on Sir Lynton, he added: “Nobody inside Conservative Campaign Headquarters was prepared for election night’s 10pm exit poll.
“Lynton Crosby’s last text to me predicted that we were going to ‘do well’, which according to our expectations would mean a Conservative majority of more than 60.”
Last night both CTF Partners and the Conservative Party declined to comment.