British election: top Tories laud Australian strategist Isaac Levido after landslide win

Senior Tories heap praise on young Aus­tralian political strategist who masterminded Conservative landslide.

Strategist Isaac Levido ran a disciplined campaign.

Senior Tories have heaped praise on Isaac Levido, the Aus­tralian political strategist who masterminded the Conservative landslide.

British Education Minister Gavin Williamson said Mr Levido had demonstrated “brilliance and iron discipline”.

“Australians continue to play a major role and have a big influence in British politics,” he said.

The praise came as Australia’s high commissioner in London, George Brandis, hailed Boris Johnson’s decisive victory as a “great result for Australia”.

Mr Brandis, former attorney-general in the Abbott and Turnbull governments, said the verdict heralded a free-trade deal between Australia and Britain.

“Unlike most British elections, this one has changed not just British history but European history too,” he told The Australian at the Carlton Club on Thursday night in London.

“The long national nightmare is over; an issue that has torn Britain asunder for years has finally been decisively resolved.’’

Mr Levido, 36, grew up in Port Macquarie, attending MacKillop College. He set up Australian firm Crosby Textor’s office in Washington in 2016 before becoming deputy director of the Liberal Party and working to secure Scott Morrison’s victory in the May federal election.

Will Tanner, a former top adviser to former prime minister Theresa May, said Mr Levido had led a campaign of “discipline and grit”. “To win a majority of this magnitude after a nearly decade of power is an extraordinary achievement and spells disaster for Labour,” Mr Tanner, now director of think tank Onward, said.

“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.’’

Robert Colvile, an architect of the Conservative party manifesto and chief executive of the Centre for Policy Studies, was “hugely impressed”. “He looks to have vaulted into the front rank of political strategists, and I am sure there will be a lot of people studying what he has done both in Australia and here in the UK,” he said.

“Isaac Levido ran a history-making campaign,” Mr Brandis said.

Australia and Britain established an informal working group to investigate a free-trade deal a few months after Britain’s vote to leave the EU in 2016, but have been prevented from beginning formal negotiations until Britain actually leaves the EU, which is expected on January 31.

The UK was Australia’s eighth largest trading partner last year, but the second largest investor, with foreign investment valued at more than $570bn in 2018.