Isaac Levido: Scott Morrison miracle to Boris Johnson juggernaut

Boris Johnson’s Australian campaign strategist tells how Jeremy Corbyn got it wrong.

36-year-old Australian Isaac Levido addressing the staff at Conservative party HQ after Boris Johnson wins the 2019 General Election. Picture: Andrew Parsons/i-Images

Isaac Levido was so confident of a Conservative victory in the British election that he secretly organised for the printing of banners days before Thursday’s vote proclaiming “The People’s Government’’.

Mr Levido, the 36-year-old Australian political tactician who headed Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party campaign, also tried to reassure the Prime Minister the vote would not result in a hung parliament as a late tightening in the polls had suggested.

“It’s my job to be worried,’’ he told Mr Johnson during a visit to No 10 on the eve of the election, “and I am not worried.’’

In an interview with The Australian on Sunday, Mr Levido said: “It wasn’t a rollercoaster, there was a lot of stability (in the Tory numbers) all the way through.’’

The campaign strategist from Port Macquarie, who worked on Scott Morrison’s “miracle” victory for more than a year, said Jeremy Corbyn’s fudge on Brexit early in the campaign set the tone. “When Corbyn said that on Brexit he was neutral, that was quite the defining moment,’’ Mr Levido said.

Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds watch the 2019 Election results on the TV in his study in No10 Downing Street. Picture: Andrew Parsons/i-Images

“The voters saw that as ­pathetic that he couldn’t take a position on the biggest issue, so how could he run the country?’’

Two other issues were crucial: the National Health Service, which Mr Johnson began to ­address in parliament before the campaign to build credibility that he could address its failings, and the terror attack on London Bridge.

“Labour’s hysterical claims that the Tories would sell the NHS to (US President Donald) Trump just weren’t believed,” Mr Levido said.

“For voters it showed the desperation of Labour that they would make up these lies in an attempt to distract from their lack of a clear Brexit position.’’

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson with his Campaign Director Isaac Levido. Picture: Andrew Parsons / i-Images

Only a month after the surprise Morrison victory, Mr Levido was employed as the Conservative Party’s campaign manager, being well known to Mr Johnson as the lieutenant to Lynton Crosby, who was knighted for producing sharp results for the Conservatives in previous years.

Mr Levido immediately demanded overall charge, including over Mr Johnson’s maverick ­adviser Dominic Cummings. The move would prove crucial. “What Isaac said, everyone did, including Dom, which was a big surprise,’’ said one campaign insider.

Mr Johnson was already well known for wanting tougher sentences for terrorists and serious criminals, and they decided to go on the front foot.

Despite being criticised for politicising the attack, Mr Johnson’s message that he didn’t want any other parents to suffer like those of the victims of this attack hit home to voters.

The streamlined messaging from the party headquarters began at 3am every day when ­Michael Brooks — from Sir Lynton’s polling company CTF Partners — would analyse overnight numbers of internal polling in just 100 of the 650 seats. The 100 seats were 50 the Tories were hoping to win over, and 50 Tory marginals they were hoping to defend — and had been drawn up well before parliament had agreed to the December 12 election.

The Tories would end up winning 47 of their target seats and holding 44 of the marginals.

Mr Levido would arrive at the Conservative campaign headquarters near Westminster by 5.20am and brief Mr Johnson and a handful of key aides at 7am.

When staffers appeared distracted, especially in the final week when a couple of Tory gaffes — Mr Johnson hid in a fridge to avoid an interviewer and pocketed the phone of a journalist to avoid looking at a picture of a sick child lying on a hospital floor — Mr Levido was calm. “Our role is not to navel gaze,” Mr Levido would say to staff. “Our role is to change the outcome.”

Mr Levido’s quiet demeanour and quick decision-making was key, insiders say. He headed a “god-pod’’ in the centre of the CCHQ office alongside Mr Brooks.

“Issac was so effective because he was really clear in his instructions and he was consistent.

“He was quietly spoken but firm,’’ an insider said.

Will Tanner, a former top ­adviser to former prime minister Theresa May, said Mr Levido had led a campaign of “discipline and grit”. “They learnt the hard lessons of 2017, did not leave anything to chance and relentlessly drove home the core messages of getting Brexit done and avoiding the stasis of a hung parliament,’’ he said.

Ministers weren’t given second chances during the campaign. Jacob Rees-Mogg went off message suggesting Grenfell fire victims should have used common sense to escape the inferno. He wasn’t heard from again in the campaign, joining others considered mavericks and banned from television and radio interviews.

Mr Levido also signed off on the social media memes that cut through, especially one of Mr Johnson talking about his policies while making a cup of tea.

Candidates said people would debate with them about whether the right way of making tea was to put the milk in first or last.

While waiting for the exit poll at 10pm — the usually accurate prediction of how the counting would unfold — Mr Levido and his team were drinking, of course, tea. The bottles of champagne and beer were on ice until the first few results indicated that the Red Wall of Labour Leaver seats was crumbling.

The staff didn’t need too much prompting to then break out in chants of “Oh, Isaac Levido’’.

Mr Levido told The Australian he wasn’t sure what his next campaign would be, but his immediate diary is pencilled in. He said: “I will take a break — looking forward to a quiet Christmas in the Yorkshire Dales.”

Additional reporting: Adam Creighton, Joe Kelly