Boris Johnson has recruited the man behind Zac Goldsmith’s racist London mayoral campaign to run the final weeks of his bid for No 10.
The Mirror has learned that Mark Fullbrook, Tory strategy guru Lynton Crosby’s right-hand man, took over the campaign at the weekend.
Their company, CTF Partners, ran his two successful London mayoral campaigns as well as the Tories’ disastrous 2017 election campaign.
His appointment comes amid fears among Tory supporters that the campaign was turning into a “car crash” and needed to get back on track.
Sources admitted that chief-of-staff James Wharton’s role had been downgraded for the second stage of the campaign - but insisted he was still playing a key role.
Former defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who helped deliver the Tory frontrunner sufficient numbers of MPs to get through to the final two, has also taken a step back now the contest has gone to the 160,000 party members.
Mr Johnson yesterday appointed failed Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith as campaign chairman, a move likely to alarm moderate Conservatives backing his leadership bid.
The move to appoint the hard Brexiteer seemed designed to bolster his position when he is coming under intense fire over his personal life and from Tory rival Jeremy Hunt .
CTF partners has given Mr Johnson £23,000 in loans and donations and Mr Crosby, who remains close, has been regularly advising him on an informal basis.
Mr Fullbrook gained notoriety when he ran Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 mayoral bid against Sadiq Khan , which became one of the dirtiest political fights in recent times.
A senior Labour source said: “Mark Fullbrook was a key architect of Zac Goldsmith’s vile dog-whistle campaign campaign in the 2016 mayoral election - widely condemned as the most racist campaign in modern British political history.”
