Attack dog’s Spitfire skirmish

INSIDE Conservative Campaign Headquarters, there was an air of disarray bordering on chaos as the manifesto launch approached. They were trying to find a suitable venue.

Two days before its debut, the options included an event in the centre of Newcastle, which was deemed too risky, and a speech at an air museum packed with World War II planes.

Theresa May’s chief of staff Nick Timothy thought presenting the manifesto on the eve of delicate Brexit negotiations with the PM surrounded by Spitfires would send an unfortunate message, but Election campaign chief Lynton Crosby liked the idea.

In an email to Timothy, his cochief of staff Fiona Hill and others, Crosby wrote: ‘I don’t think the Second World War issue is relevant or a problem… and you won it. Nice contrast with the anti-defence Corbyn.’

When this was abandoned, the logistics team spent hours in a frantic search for a venue in Middlesbrough that could handle large numbers of journalists, TV equipment and the security requirements of accommodating the entire Cabinet and the PM. None could be found. There was no obvious rationale for Middlesbrough other than that it was a target seat.

Only on May 17, the day before the launch, did CCHQ find a venue in another apparently random town in the North: a converted water mill in Halifax.