Boris Johnson appoints combative election strategist David Canzini

Move is part of attempt to restore PM’s reputation amid new claims about ‘carnage’ at lockdown parties

Boris Johnson has appointed the combative election strategist David Canzini as part of his attempts to restore his battered reputation amid new claims that Downing Street lockdown parties regularly descended into “carnage”.

Canzini, a key ally of the political strategist Lynton Crosby, is due to start work in Downing Street on Monday. The pair worked for the former prime minister Theresa May before turning on her in 2018

His new role as deputy chief of staff is expected to involve winning over disgruntled backbenchers and coming up with an election-winning strategy.

Tory MPs have been encouraged by Boris Johnson’s handling of the Ukraine crisis, but more are expected to submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister if he is served with a penalty notice as part of the police investigation into lockdown parties.

The Sunday Times reports that one party on 18 December 2020 became so raucous that red wine was sprayed on the walls of rooms in Downing Street. Staffers were also reported to have been photographed sitting on each others laps, at the event. The paper said one source alleged that drinks events often ended in “carnage”.

Canzini has been linked for weeks with a formal role in Johnson’s revamped team, but it was reported last month that he was insisting on a clearout of Downing Street in the wake of the “partygate” scandal before taking up any new job.

Canzini will be deputy to the new chief of staff, Steve Barclay, who replaced Dan Rosenfield after his resignation over partygate. He will work alongside two other deputy chiefs of staff: Simone Finn and Ben Gascoigne.

Canzini’s appointment comes after the confirmation that two more senior Downing Street advisers, Henry Newman and Henry Cook, will be leaving No 10.

Until Friday Canzini, a former Tory party campaign director, was a director at Crosby’s CT Group. His profile page on the company’s website is no longer available.

Canzini worked on the “chuck Chequers” campaign – a series of Facebook adds overseen by Crosby that helped undermine Theresa May’s approach to Brexit in 2018. It came just after Johnson’s resignation from May’s government.

Canzini is admired by rightwing Tories in the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group and the Brexit-backing European Research Group (ERG).

David Jones, the deputy chair of the ERG, told the Sunday Telegraph: “David Canzini is one of the shrewdest political operators in the UK. We had all been pressing for a root-and-branch review of No 10. To be fair to the PM, he did exactly that.

“He got rid of some people who were not serving him well and is replacing them with people such as Steve Barclay, and particularly David Canzini, who people have got a lot of confidence in. I think that is going to change the narrative completely.”

Canzini cultivates a “hardman” reputation. On Twitter he goes by the name @DCGrumpy and uses a profile picture of Darth Vader. He has used the network recently to spar with Theresa May’s former chief of staff Gavin Barwell and the Labour-supporting football pundit Gary Neville.

Last month Johnson attempted to reassure MPs of his plans to reset his administration by saying he had rehired Crosby. But it later emerged that Crosby, who is known as the “Wizard of Oz” for his successful 2015 election strategy, will not be taking an official job but will instead occasionally advise Johnson from his base in Australia.