Crosby praised for Conservative campaign

With the Tories winning a majority in Westminister the praise has begun for the Conservatives' Australian strategist Lynton Crosby.

Lynton Crosby.

British PM David Cameron is under fire over reports his election strategist is up for a knighthood. (AAP) Source: Press Association

With the Conservative Party winning an effective majority in the UK despite pre-poll predictions of a hung parliament, praise has been heaped on the Tories' Australian election strategist Lynton Crosby.

Referred to as the Wizard of Oz in the UK, Mr Crosby is regarded as one of the most powerful political operators in the country.

He helped John Howard win four terms in Australia, ran Conservative leader Michael Howard's 2005 UK general election campaign which fell just short and steered Boris Johnson to two successful London mayoral campaigns.

He was unavailable when asked back by the Conservatives for the 2010 election but returned to London to take charge of the campaign in late 2012.

Professor Charlie Beckett, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, says Mr Crosby ran an extremely disciplined Tory campaign in 2015.

"The judgment on any campaign is the result," the media expert told reporters in London.

"It doesn't matter the methods, the cost, the sophistication or the ethics."

Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday thanked his team at Conservative HQ.

"This is the sweetest of victory," he told Tory campaign workers.

"The pundits got it wrong, the pollsters got it wrong, the commentators got it wrong.

"This morning celebrate. You are an amazing team (and) this has been the most professional campaign."

Mr Crosby's driving principle was "message discipline".

The Conservative Party was a safe pair of hands that could be trusted with the economy. Labour under Ed Miliband was the party of chaos. Simple.

The Tories refused to discuss broader issues.

"For example the Tories have to find billions of pounds in welfare cuts and they refused to even talk about what might be the options," Prof Beckett said.

"They're just not engaging at all."

Mr Crosby himself refused to engage with the media - he knocked back all interview requests and cancelled a business breakfast at the last minute after trying to ban reporters from covering the event.

Early on it appeared Mr Crosby wanted the Tories to appeal to voters' perceived prejudices on immigration. But he subsequently dropped that tactic.

"It played into Ukip's hands," Prof Beckett said on Friday.

"Also they screwed up very badly. The Conservative Party failed dismally to reduce immigration and so to talk about it would remind people that they'd failed on this and Nigel Farage was promising Australian systems."

Before the 2010 election Mr Cameron pledged to cut net migration to less than 100,000 a year. But it was almost 300,000 over the 12 months to September 2014.

Ukip wants Britain to adopt an Australian-style visa system to reduce the number of unskilled workers coming from Europe and boost the number of commonwealth professionals in the country.

Another Australian, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has once again played a big part in the British election.

The front page of The Sun tabloid on Thursday screamed: "Make sure YOU vote today to stop Labour ballsing up Britain."


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Source: AAP



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