Mark Fulbrook, who ran the successful 2019 leadership bid, played a key role in the Foreign Secretary’s bid to win over more senior Tory MPs to consolidate her top spot. Truss campaign sources confirmed the senior aide had had “lengthy talks” with high-profile potential replacements and claimed “more than one are swinging” – but added there were “not dozens” of MPs to come. Tory sources told the Guardian that at least one senior minister currently backing the former chancellor was considering publicly backing Truss, despite the contest only having two full weeks to run. Sunak topped the final round of MP voting with 137 votes, while Truss came second with 113 votes, just edging out Penny Mordant, an early favourite, who gathered 105 supporters. However, opinion polls consistently suggest the foreign secretary is well ahead among party members. Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland last weekend became the first cabinet minister to publicly switch his support for the Tory leadership from Sunak to Truss, citing an emphasis on the economy as the main reason for his defection. Days later, Alun Cairns – who served as Welsh secretary for three years under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson – announced he was no longer backing Sunak as he felt Truss had the best chance of securing the union’s future . Universities minister Chris Skidmore, who co-authored the controversial book Britannia Unchained with Truss in 2012, also switched sides. A Truss campaign source said: “Mark has done a lot of that, particularly talking to MPs at a senior level, but there have been others involved in the campaign.” However, they denied suggestions that the politicians may have been offered positions in a new Truss government or any other incentives to defect. “No jobs have been offered. It’s definitely about the positives of joining Liz’s team. No threats, we are not Gavin Williamson,” they added. A senior supporter of Sunak told the Guardian that he had been contacted by Truss’ team in an attempt to get them to change allegiance, but without success. A Tory called by Team Truss said: “Any MP who switches sides will have their reputation in parliament shattered in an instant and find themselves walking past colleagues who would rather look at their shoes than give them the time of day.” One minister added: “This approach was used early on for high-profile figures and jobs were offered, but surely my colleagues must now realize that there are more hopefuls than jobs?” Other MPs supporting the former chancellor said they had not been contacted by the Truss campaign. “I guess they just think I’m too pro-Rishi so it’s not even worth the effort,” said one. Another added: “No one has tried to call me but I’m not a senior Tory and probably on a ‘no turn’ list. The suggestion that there could be more defections has gone down badly with Sunak’s campaign team. One of the experts said: “Those who switch are doing it purely for their own career and it is spineless. Nobody forgets a switch and it tends to end badly for them.” Tory MPs also told the Guardian that some colleagues who support Mr Sunack had now backed Mr Truss after being threatened with de-selection by constituency parties backing the foreign secretary. Fullbrook is an election consultant who was previously the business partner of veteran Australian all-rounder Lynton Crosby, but now runs his own business. Renowned for his knowledge of the Tory party and its members, he first worked with the Conservatives in 1992 and helped win Johnson’s re-election as London mayor in 2012. Fullbrook was also closely involved in Zac Goldsmith’s failed London mayoral bid in 2016, a campaign criticized for using racist slurs against the winner, Labour’s Sadiq Khan. It came as poll expert Sir John Curtice said neither leadership candidate was likely to give the Tory party the “bounce” it received when Boris Johnson became prime minister. “Honestly, the polling doesn’t suggest that any of them that make it will make that much of a difference on their own. The crucial question will be how they do their job,” he told Times Radio. “It is not clear that either will offer the Conservative party across the UK the kind of bounce in fortunes that has certainly happened since Mr Johnson’s premiership.”
