Unleashing Demons

by Craig Oliver

  Corbyn is weak – he doesn’t seem to have much of a message and as usual, there’s almost no energy. At one point, Marr suggests Mary Cameron has £200 million. I text the programme editor, telling him it needs to be corrected, and it is done in the next answer.

  Amber Rudd is on at the end. I briefed her earlier and she is firm but sober, pointing out there’s nothing to see here.

  I text DC: ‘Feels a lot better than midnight. Getting out there painful, but it’s done. Talk at 10.10. Craig.’

  His reply is short and sweet: ‘Indeed.’

  On the conference call with the core team, George says, ‘My political antennae have just pricked up.’ The reason is that Bill Cash is planning an amendment to the finance bill, which insists the Government fund a Brexit leaflet, too.

  Much of the rest of the day is spent at my kitchen table making calls and sending emails. I talk to various newspaper editors to ensure they understand why we did what we did and how publishing a summary of his tax returns is significant.

  That night a few of us gather in No. 10 and run through our mistakes. The classic analysis, that we should have got everything about Blairmore out of the door immediately, doesn’t work. We were struggling to make sense of a company that was set up three decades ago, by a man who died in 2010.

  On Monday 11 April, we may not be out of the woods yet, but we are heading in that direction.

  I wake up, wired and worn out, with the front of my brain tense as a flexed muscle.

  Interestingly the Mail is critical of other parts of the media, particularly on inheritance tax, with an ‘enough of this madness’ approach. They defend the very human urge of parents wanting to pass on their wealth to children. In a strange way, the extreme coverage on Sunday provoked the turning point, with the right-wing press now understanding that some have been engaged in sawing off the branch they’ve been sitting on.

  Some feel the decision to publish a summary of the PM’s tax returns is a mistake, describing it as ‘just feeding a crocodile’, with more and more demands coming.

  We move on to the referendum. Focus groups are showing Remain voters are weighing up the risks of leaving and the risks of remaining. Having been pushed off the economy, Leave are starting to be effective in leveraging the idea that staying is a risk – being overrun by immigrants. There are signs that this is a real motivator for those minded to leave to definitely turn out.

  Finally the conversation ends up on Gove and how it is that he has made himself the darling of the Tory party. I am nervous that people will take him seriously. Others believe he can’t take the pressure, saying we have seen him up close, having ‘infarctions’ when the heat is on. Others are more critical of ‘Mrs Gove’, whom they believe is ‘definitely measuring the curtains’.

  Chapter 16

  Who’s Up For a Threesome?

  IT’S RAINING AS I make my way to the Treasury, where George and I are meeting Peter Mandelson, Nick Herbert, Will Straw and Stephen Gilbert, as part of our first attempt at getting the politicians together.

  A backbench Labour MP, who wouldn’t want it to be known he’s at the meeting, is also there, looking nervy. What would his colleagues think if they knew he was in Osborne’s office? There hasn’t been a moment where we’ve been introduced – and he eyes me diagonally across the Chancellor’s long wooden table, not sure if we can all trust each other.

  George speaks first, making clear that he and the PM are available to work with the campaign.

  Perfectly groomed, Mandelson makes a speech, his tone soft and insistent. His view is, ‘If I were Leave, I would know the weakness of my argument – and think that the only way I can win is by making this a referendum on the Government.’ He makes a point of saying, ‘And things aren’t going that well for the Government. So make it as much of a maelstrom as possible, so that their message is buried.’ He then argues, ‘The message of our campaign is not igniting. We are in a bit of a phoney war at the moment, until the local elections are at an end, so let’s take advantage of that time and review everything.’

  As he speaks, I notice that his tone doesn’t change at all. There is no special emphasis – calm, quiet, almost monotonous. ‘They will play the man, not the ball. Try to run us ragged.’

  The backbench Labour MP’s analysis is plain and simple. This referendum is turning into a battle between economics and immigration. He is also clear that – right or wrong – the Labour party feels the lesson of the Better Together campaign on Scottish independence was, ‘Don’t share a platform with the Tories, because they will toxify you.’

  We could spend all day arguing about that, and whether the truth was that Labour had taken its own supporters in Scotland for granted for too long, but it wouldn’t help. The fact is that it is a strong view, so we had better deal with it.

  My view is that we need to lean into the fact that we have broad support – Green, Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative – and do more to show people that we are prepared to set aside our differences in the same cause.

  I walk back to No. 10 with Will Straw in the rain. I half expect us to be snapped together.

  When we sit down in my office, I want to talk about how we are getting across that we are a coalition. We think Vote Leave will have lots of rallies, but what they won’t have is cross-party support. I suggest getting the PM at a call centre with a prominent and recognisable figure from each of the other parties. This is a clear visual that says, ‘Look – you didn’t expect to see us on the same side.’

  The fast burn rate of stories works in our favour. By Tuesday 12 April the tax story has died down almost completely.

  DC is seen as having performed effectively in the Commons yesterday, though he thinks he has been fortunate in facing a weak Labour leader, with a party in disarray.

  ‘Yes, I meant to say that you mustn’t remark, “We’re so lucky!” quite so loudly when we are in the House of Commons!’

  I get a call from Francis Elliott asking our plans on the referendum. I have to walk past John Whittingdale, who is wandering around early for the Cabinet meeting. I can’t be overheard by a Leave minister, so I dip into Ed Llewellyn’s office, only to find Michael Gove ensconced in there.

  I have to go and stand in the disabled toilet to continue the conversation in private.

  The key event of the day is the International Monetary Fund giving its report on the UK’s finances – warning of the serious consequences of Brexit. I have gone out of my way to say it will be big. The IMF more than delivers.

  The No. 10 media team sit in my office to watch the news. We find ourselves having another proof point that we are living through the looking glass – with everything the wrong way round. The person used to oppose the IMF is the former Conservative Chancellor, Norman Lamont; the one to support it is the left-wing firebrand John McDonnell.

  I’m almost home that evening when I get a call from John Whittingdale’s special adviser, Carrie Symonds. Newsnight is planning on running a story about him having had a relationship with a prostitute.

  Carrie has already drafted a statement, which includes the following:

  Between August 2013 and February 2014, I had a relationship with someone who I first met through Match.com. She was a similar age and lived close to me. At no time did she give me any indication of her real occupation and I only discovered this when I was made aware that someone was trying to sell a story about me to tabloid newspapers. As soon as I discovered, I ended the relationship.

  This is an old story, which was a bit embarrassing at the time. The events occurred long before I took up my present position and it has never had any influence on the decisions I have made as Culture Secretary.

  I talk to the Newsnight editor, Ian Katz, who sees it heavily from the Hacked Off point of view – the papers didn’t run it because they wanted to be able to hold a gun to his head, in case he threatened to push through the final bits of the Leveson inquiry on press regulation. This sounds like pure conspiracy theory to me.


  I finally get through to DC and I propose saying, ‘He is a single man who is entitled to a private life.’ I have also been round this block often enough to know that we will be asked if we have full confidence in him, to which the answer is always ‘Yes’, until you are actually prepared to sack someone.

  DC suggests Ed and I call John Whittingdale. When I get hold of Carrie, she says the call will need to be quick, because he has to go into a dinner. I ask what dinner could be more important than his career? She’s embarrassed to say it’s something for Vote Leave. I tell her his career may be a little more important than that and laugh at the bitter irony of spending my evening doing my best to help.

  He is clear that he didn’t realise he was going out with a prostitute who specialises in sado-masochism.

  I tell him that the Mail on Sunday was on to me at the weekend about his string of Russian girlfriends. He snaps, ‘My current girlfriend isn’t Russian – she’s Lithuanian.’ He goes tortuously through the story. I tell him to release the statement and find myself in a series of calls until Newsnight. I watch it on my iPhone in bed, including a debate between Brian Cathcart and Roy Greenslade. Cathcart seems to have lost the plot – appearing as the champion of people’s right to privacy, while demanding someone else’s is invaded.

  My last call on the subject is at midnight.

  Wednesday is largely spent defending John Whittingdale, who is top of the news.

  By Thursday we are back on Europe – with the BBC’s 6 a.m. headline: ‘Corbyn to outline case for staying in the EU.’

  It’s yet another reminder of the fact we live in strange days. The man we think would ruin this country is now an ally.

  At 10.30 this morning DC and I jump in a car to the Stronger In call centre. I have pushed for a photo opportunity designed to show we have support from the Conservative party, all the way through to the Greens.

  It’s a classic political call centre – desks strewn with leaflets, newspapers and used paper cups, that won’t be cleared up between now and the vote. The walls are badly in need of a lick of paint, and dotted with posters. In one place, the words ‘Stronger In’ are spelt out in photographs of the team. The young staff, wearing campaign T-shirts over their normal clothes, look like they could do with a good night’s sleep and some healthy food.

  A line of desks has been set up with phones and a script for participants. DC sits in the middle and puts on a blue rosette that says ‘Stronger In’. Paddy Ashdown, Tessa Jowell, Neil and Glenys Kinnock, and a guy from the Green campaign called Darren Johnson surround him wearing rosettes in their own party colours. Ashdown really hams it up, swapping phones with the PM and roaring with laughter as they explain who they are to people who answer. The pool reporter, snapper and cameraman lap it up. I can see we have a hit – the clear message: a very broad coalition of people say, ‘Vote Remain’.

  Meanwhile, Corbyn is out doing his speech – supposedly signalling to his core supporters that we need to stay in. All his media handling around this is bad. He sounds lukewarm. I had to send a message from No. 10, through Stronger In, to Labour In, to the Labour Leader’s office, to stop them doing odd things like a series of clips after the speech (what would the point of that have been?). But perhaps this will start getting Labour voters to realise …

  The news gets better, as Lloyds Bank, the NATO Secretary General, and a union come out for us. I watch with satisfaction as Laura Kuenssberg declares that, ‘All in all it’s been a good day at the office for the Remain campaign.’

  I get in the car with DC to an awayday at a hotel in the constituency. I need this like a hole in the head, but the PM wants the media team to do a presentation to keep them occupied.

  We arrive at the hotel, where most of the MPs have already gathered. Most look relaxed and part of a modern party, but there are some ‘smart casual’ horror stories, including a tweed jacket with giant pink checks.

  I give my presentation, which is aimed more at entertainment than to inform. There are endless clips and tweets of politicians making fools of themselves, which go down well.

  I disappear to my room to work, before coming back down for Andrew Neil’s presentation on the US elections – it’s entertaining and informative, with the apocalyptic conclusion that mainstream politics is in serious trouble.

  Dinner is interesting. I sit next to the MPs Helen Whately and Andrew Bridgen. Bridgen is the Outer’s outer and a self-made man. I have fun having a robust chat with him, during which he gives me chapter and verse on his low opinion of No. 10 and the EU campaign. He’s convinced Leave will win, and volunteers that even if they don’t and it is close, they will demand George’s head on a plate.

  Over the weekend, I feel as tired and as fed up as I have done at any time since I started this job.

  To top it all, I’m still dealing with calls about John Whittingdale’s love life.

  It starts with Simon Walters calling with the Mail on Sunday’s latest allegations about someone called Stephanie Hudson, whom they describe as ‘a former Page 3 girl and soft porn actress.’ They claim: she stayed at his constituency home and he permitted her to see confidential ministerial documents from his red box; he texted her a photograph taken at Chequers showing many Cabinet ministers and Downing Street advisers and did so without their permission; he was asked to leave the American Bar at the Savoy in December 2013 after engaging in what she describes as ‘mutual drunken heavy petting, kissing and groping’.

  I call John Whittingdale to go through it. He begins to bluster at the very first sentence, saying she was a Page 3 model, but not a porn actress. I ask him to let me get through it before he responds. He insists he wasn’t thrown out of the Savoy, though accepts a waiter did approach when she was kissing him, after a customer had complained.

  He says the idea she saw things in his red box is ridiculous. He is very dismissive of her: ‘We weren’t compatible, which is why we broke up.’

  I discuss it with the PM and we agree to stick to, ‘He’s a single man, who is entitled to a private life.’

  I have no doubt they will go big on it, but no one will follow it. It’s too saucy for broadcast, and the other newspapers aren’t about to go for him, having made a point of not going for him.

  All of this takes up several hours, as does tackling a wide variety of issues about the wiring of the Remain campaign comms operation.

  On the plus side, cross-party pictures at the phone bank were a real hit – they have been seen everywhere and are now being used in cartoons. My favourite is in The Times, the PM with Ashdown and Kinnock, asking, ‘Who’s up for a threesome?’

  I exchange thoughts with Peter Mandelson, who also thinks we have had a good week. He hopes Labour and trade union people (e.g. Unison re the NHS) will grow in confidence now that Corbyn is out of the trap. He believes the main hit of the week was the phone-bank pictures, because if Kinnock can do work with the PM, others can.

  It’s still a bright sunny day when I drive in for our Sunday night meeting.

  It kicks off with another round of the debate about to what extent we should be engaging in blue-on-blue spats. This weekend Boris has had a go at the PM and Chancellor for being the Gerald Ratners of politics, dealing in crap. He’s also accused them and Theresa May of talking ‘bollocks’ on immigration.

  My view is that we can’t just keep taking this without coming back. We should consider an intervention from the likes of John Major that aims to call him out on all of this. George is up for this – I think other issues are at play for him here. DC isn’t so sure. He doesn’t feel it is in our interests to engage at all. His point is – I keep pushing the fact we have a broad coalition of people on our side and massive third party support, and how does engaging in Tory Wars help that?

  I see his point, but fear we look like we are being run ragged as a Government and there is zero incentive for them to stop punching. We are also being penned in by the reality of their position – Vote Leave only have Tories, so they can only put them up
. If we don’t engage most of the time, we are ruling ourselves out of a lot of battles. We’re also hobbling ourselves in the social media/digital battle because, frankly, we can’t take the piss. DC is adamant: ‘We must not let them be able to play the victim.’

  We move on to discussing what image we are portraying. There’s a bit of a debate about the PM, Kinnock and Ashdown picture making Tories feel uncomfortable. Some think it was a mistake. DC says he wants to see more of it.

  He believes, ‘If we lose this – it will be very serious for this country for the next ten years, so we need to do what we can.’

  The meeting concludes with the PM saying he wants more aggression in our responses to Leave. That will certainly come tomorrow, when George releases a Treasury document warning that the average household will be £4,300 a year worse off if we leave the EU.

  On Monday, Leave predictably go bananas about the claim that everyone will be so much worse off – specifically the Chancellor standing in front of a huge sign with £4,300 emblazoned on it.

  DC jokes that he is like Sean Connery in The Untouchables, riddled with bullets and crawling along the floor: ‘They keep shooting me.’

  ‘That’s not a great analogy,’ I laugh. ‘He dies!’

  I show him a fairly mild digital attack that’s a play on The X Files, a picture of Boris and John Redwood beneath the title, ‘The Brexit Files’. It’s inspired by Boris saying the CIA set up the EU and Redwood saying, ‘It’s a conspiracy!’ DC agrees to it, before suggesting we add a little Roswell alien to the gap in the poster.

  DC isn’t the only one prepared to start taking off the gloves. George gives a very punchy interview on the Today programme defending the Treasury document and warnings. He sounds to me like a man who isn’t going to go down for the lack of shooting back – describing the Leave campaign as ‘dishonest’ and ‘economically illiterate’.

  The outrage from the Outers is palpable.

  Meanwhile, the Government continues to be attacked by its own people. Priti Patel seems to be prepared to say anything the Leave campaign tell her to. She is at the centre of a story on school places today, saying it’s ‘deeply regrettable’ that families in England would be hit by a shortage of primary school places because of immigration. There’s anger at how prepared she is to hand Labour a series of quotes to put on campaign leaflets when this is done.