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Sunday 17 June 2018 | UK News feed

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Who's who in this campaign of stealth

In the phoney war that is the race for the Tory leadership, the candidate with the subtlest, quietest campaign is king, writes Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor

Since Michael Howard launched his MPs into a contest last month that will not officially begin until October, the contenders have come up with some stealthy ways of fighting for the party's heart and soul.

The main candidates have appointed chiefs of staff and assembled teams of followers who claim to be working on nothing more unusual than the MPs' parliamentary brief. Behind the scenes they are waging a war of ideas and a battle for media attention. The following is a guide to who's who in the leadership election that no one admits is already going on.

Team Davis: Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, is David Davis's campaign manager-in-waiting.

Mr Mitchell, 49, was educated at Rugby and Cambridge, and served in the Royal Tank Regiment before joining Lazard, the investment bank. He describes himself as a classic one-nation Tory.

Julie Kirkbride, 44, is expected to be one of the stars of the Davis campaign. Her father was a lorry driver who died when she was seven and her mother worked as a secretary.

Miss Kirkbride was the social affairs editor of The Sunday Telegraph and is now the MP for Bromsgrove.

Iain Dale is Mr Davis's "home affairs chief of staff". He is the owner of Politicos bookshop and one of the few openly gay Tory candidates at the general election, when he stood, unsuccessfully, in Norfolk North. He describes himself as "right of centre".

Also behind the scenes is Derek Conway, the jovial MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup and another tough cookie who, like Davis, has been both a whip and a member of the Territorial Army.

Team Fox: Chris Grayling, the shadow Commons leader, is expected to be Liam Fox's campaign manager. A rising star who was responsible for one of Michael Howard's biggest coups, the case of Margaret Dixon's cancelled shoulder operation.

Bill Clare, a former civil servant and advisor at 10 Downing Street, is Dr Fox's "foreign affairs chief of staff". The pair worked closely together when Dr Fox was a junior minister at the Foreign Office during the Major government.

Eleanor Laing, shadow secretary of state for Scotland and shadow minister for women, will be thrust to the forefront of the campaign. A single mother, Ms Laing was a special adviser to the Rt Hon John MacGregor MP in 1989, when he was Secretary of State for Education.

Oliver Heald, the shadow secretary of state for constitutional affairs, will also play a leading role. A kingmaker at the last leadership election, Mr Heald was instrumental in Mr Howard's coronation.

Team Cameron: Alexander Deane, a Cambridge graduate and debating champion, is David Cameron's chief of staff. He is an arch Right-winger with trenchant views on a range of delicate subjects from land mines to refugees. His appointment might seem an odd choice for Mr Cameron, who is marketing himself as a modernising Tory with a social conscience. Earlier this month he published a book, The Great Abdication, which argues that the British middle class must re-assert its moral values.

Team Yeo: Tim Yeo is the only candidate to have an office staffed by women: Janice Small, is his communications chief and Rebecca Harris his chief of staff. Ms Small is a former marketing guru who was responsible for selling Bob the Builder. She was the South-East region press officer for the party during the election campaign

Press releases from the Yeo camp advertise their candidate as "on the Left".

Team Rifkind: Crispin Blunt, a former Royal Hussars officer, resigned as a party whip last week in order to run Sir Malcolm's fledgling campaign. Mr Blunt lived up to his name when he became the first Tory MP to call on Iain Duncan Smith to resign in May 2003, saying: "The fact is he has not made an impact because he does not have the qualities required."

Mr Blunt, 44, was Sir Malcolm's special advisor from 1993 to 1997, when he was Defence Secretary and Foreign Secretary, and remains a close confidant.

The bearded MP for Reigate was educated at Wellington College and The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he won the Queen's Medal.

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