Ready for Rishi in January: How The Independent revealed Sunak's PR campaign for the Tory leader

Rishi Sunak launched his bid to become the new Tory leader with a shrewd PR campaign backing up the plans which were first reported by The Independent in January.
Mr. Sunak is the most high-profile MP to join the race since Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday, with Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt set to follow him this weekend.
He threw his hat in the ring at 4:16 p.m. Friday, posting a glossy video titled "Ready for Rishi" on his social media and linking to a website of the same name.
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A screenshot of Rishi Sunak video posing as the future leader conservative
The Independent first revealed the former Chancellor's leadership ambitions in January when we reported that Mr Sunak had built a version draft of a campaign website, drawing on its weekly newsletter No 11, and developed a marketing strategy.
Sources told Anna Isaac of The Independent at the time that "there is no doubt Rishi and his team have it all together". They noted that there is a clear communication plan and that a copy for a website has been drafted and is ready to go live.
Cass Horowitz, a special adviser to Mr Sunak who is widely credited with creating the former Chancellor's online brand, is said to have played a central role in the preparations.
A former Number 10 staffer told The Independent that Mr Horowitz was considered a ‘little genius’ by many in the Conservative Party for his use of social media.
Rishi Sunak spoke of his immigrant grandmother who arrived in the UK "armed with the hope of a better life", in his new video
"He built a data dashboard from the newsletter. Every click and share will inform the leadership campaign at large. He is able to monitor basic online sentiment to exploit,” they said.
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Politics Jul 9, 2022 0 105 Add to Reading List

Ready for Rishi in January: How The Independent revealed Sunak's PR campaign for the Tory leader

Rishi Sunak launched his bid to become the new Tory leader with a shrewd PR campaign backing up the plans which were first reported by The Independent in January.

Mr. Sunak is the most high-profile MP to join the race since Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday, with Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt set to follow him this weekend.

He threw his hat in the ring at 4:16 p.m. Friday, posting a glossy video titled "Ready for Rishi" on his social media and linking to a website of the same name.

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Whistleblower reveals how Rishi Sunak's £500,000 focus groups are put up for sale to "improve the image of conservatives"< figure class="Image__ImageWrapper-sc-482ou5-0 gSYFvi image align-none">

A screenshot of Rishi Sunak video posing as the future leader conservative

The Independent first revealed the former Chancellor's leadership ambitions in January when we reported that Mr Sunak had built a version draft of a campaign website, drawing on its weekly newsletter No 11, and developed a marketing strategy.

Sources told Anna Isaac of The Independent at the time that "there is no doubt Rishi and his team have it all together". They noted that there is a clear communication plan and that a copy for a website has been drafted and is ready to go live.

Cass Horowitz, a special adviser to Mr Sunak who is widely credited with creating the former Chancellor's online brand, is said to have played a central role in the preparations.

A former Number 10 staffer told The Independent that Mr Horowitz was considered a ‘little genius’ by many in the Conservative Party for his use of social media.

Rishi Sunak spoke of his immigrant grandmother who arrived in the UK "armed with the hope of a better life", in his new video

"He built a data dashboard from the newsletter. Every click and share will inform the leadership campaign at large. He is able to monitor basic online sentiment to exploit,” they said.

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