Boris Johnson’s Aussie election guru Isaac Levido moves into Downing St

Isaac Levido, Boris Johnson’s election campaign director, is now at the heart of government, advising on messaging for restrictions easing.

Boris Johnson with Isaac Levido at Conservative party HQ after Boris won the 2019 general election. Picture: Andrew Parsons / i-Images.

Boris Johnson’s election guru, Australian Isaac Levido, has moved into Downing Street and is working on a snappy slogan for the easing of coronavirus restrictions.

Mr Levido, the amiable campaign director who helped drive the Conservative Party’s big win last December, has been wooed directly to the heart of British politics by Mr Johnson.

Mr Levido has followed up the successful election slogan of Get Brexit Done, and was responsible for the coronavirus messaging of Stay At Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives.

Now with an office inside Downing Street, Mr Levido is devising another sharp message for when social distancing, transport and other restrictions are eased. Mr Johnson is expected to outline the next steps in dealing with coronavirus in a national address this Sunday.

Mr Levido, who had worked on Scott Morrison’s election campaign, had been lured to return to the UK in mid 2019 to work on the Tories’ election by Dominic Cummings, the Svengali-like Adviser to Mr Johnson. When Mr Cummings was struck down by coronavirus last month, it had already been decided that Mr Levido, 36, would temporarily take his place.

Mr Johnson indicated in Westminster during his first Prime Minister’s Questions in a month that some lockdown measures would be eased on Monday, as he set a new target of 200,000 tests a day by the end of the month.

Mr Johnson said an “unlockdown” announcement would include measures to start the following day. Both the COBRA emergency committee and the cabinet are expected to meet over the weekend to sign off on the new steps.

This comes as a further 649 deaths were announced on Wednesday, taking the UK total to 30,076.

Meanwhile, people who are infected with coronavirus but show no symptoms could make up a significant proportion of coronavirus cases, a scientific study of the Diamond Princess cases by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has suggested.

The London research team estimated that 72% people of infected with COVID-19 on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship remained asymptomatic.

Nine people died and 700 people tested positive to coronavirus on the Diamond Princess which was anchored off Japan when an outbreak occurred on February 3.

The scientists analysed the dates of testing and dates of developing symptoms for each person on board to uncover the spread of the virus among the passengers and crew.

They have estimated that the high numbers of asymptomatic cases were responsible for 11-84% of all infections during the outbreak.

Lead researcher Rein Houben said: “While asymptomatic cases were likely less infectious when compared to clinical cases, they may well have significantly contributed to overall transmission, as the proportion of people with asymptomatic disease may be higher in younger populations than in this outbreak. Control measures, and models projecting their potential impact, need to look beyond the clinical cases if they are to understand and address ongoing transmission.

“Extensive testing of non-symptomatic individuals will most likely need to be part of any effective control or exit strategy.”