Adding a bit of mongrel to Number 10

The saga of whether Lynton Crosby, the hard-charging Australian strategist who ran Boris Johnson’s successful mayoral campaigns, will join the Cameron operation continues. I understand that contrary to popular belief the obstacle to Crosby coming in is not the money. One senior source tells me that ‘If it was just about money, Andrew Feldman would be sent out to raise it’. Amongst senior figures, there’s also confidence that a compromise could be reached on both Crosby’s desire for control of polling and his desire not to lose all of his current corporate clients.

But the blockage is the level of control that Crosby wants. There’s a sense among the Number 10 team that coalition means that the normal political rules don’t apply. There’s a worry that attempting to extract the maximum political benefit from every decision would soon become self-defeating as it would undermine the relationships that underpin the coalition.

Most Tories in government that I’ve spoken to are keen to see Crosby arrive before the next election.