Sir Lynton Keith Crosby was born on 23 August 1956 and is an Australian political strategist who has managed election campaigns for right-of-centre parties in several countries.
35 Facts About Lynton Crosby
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Lynton Crosby oversaw the party's successful campaigns at the 1996,1998,2001, and 2004 federal elections, which made the Howard government Australia's second-longest serving federal government.
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In 2002, Lynton Crosby left his formal position in the party to establish a consulting firm, the Lynton Crosby Textor Group.
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Lynton Crosby first ventured into overseas politics at the 2005 United Kingdom general election, where he managed the Conservative Party's unsuccessful campaign.
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Lynton Crosby has since run Conservative campaigns for the 2008 and 2012 London mayoral elections, as well as the 2015 general election, all of which resulted in victories for the party.
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Lynton Crosby's campaign was not successful for the 2016 London mayoral election and the 2017 general election in which the Conservatives remained the largest party but lost 13 seats and their parliamentary majority.
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Outside of Australia and the UK, Lynton Crosby has served as an advisor for parties in Canada, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka.
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At the 2009 European Parliament elections, Lynton Crosby acted as a consultant for Libertas, a pan-European party opposed to the Treaty of Lisbon.
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Lynton Crosby was born in Kadina, South Australia, and grew up in a rural area of the state, where his father Dudley Lynton Crosby worked as a cereal farmer and an arts and crafts shop-owner.
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Lynton Crosby started his career in 1976 as a market analyst with Golden Fleece Petroleum.
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Lynton Crosby then moved into politics as a research assistant in 1978 for Senator Baden Teague.
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In 1980, Lynton Crosby became executive assistant to Harold Allison, then Minister of Education and Aboriginal Affairs.
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Lynton Crosby became executive assistant to Martin Cameron in 1992, then Leader of the Opposition in the South Australian Legislative Council.
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Between 1986 and 1991, Lynton Crosby held a number of corporate affairs positions in the Australian private sector.
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At the 1982 South Australian election, Lynton Crosby unsuccessfully ran for the Liberals in the House of Assembly seat of Norwood.
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In 1991, Lynton Crosby became state director for the Queensland division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and in 1994 the party's deputy federal director.
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Lynton Crosby served under federal director Andrew Robb, until replacing him as federal director of the Liberal Party in May 1997.
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Lynton Crosby served as campaign director for the party at the 1996,1998,2001, and 2004 federal elections.
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In 2002, Lynton Crosby established an election consulting firm, the Lynton Crosby Textor Group, with an associate, Mark Textor.
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Lynton Crosby was involved in setting up CT Financial, an investor relations and financial communications specialist consultancy, in 2006.
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Lynton Crosby managed the Conservative Party's 2005 United Kingdom general election campaign, but was unable to help leader Michael Howard defeat the incumbent Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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In November 2012, Lynton Crosby sued Mike Kelly, an Australian parliamentary secretary for defence, for libel for alleging on Twitter that Lynton Crosby had used push polling.
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Lynton Crosby issued The Guardian with a legal challenge over their reporting.
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In 2014, it was revealed that having been hired in 2012 by Philip Morris International, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, Lynton Crosby lobbied Lord Marland, then parliamentary undersecretary for intellectual property and a former Conservative party treasurer, to oppose the introduction of plain packaging on cigarettes.
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In December 2015, it was announced that Lynton Crosby was to be included in the Queen's New Year Honours list and would receive his knighthood for his political services.
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In 2018, Lynton Crosby allegedly contacted Boris Johnson in an attempt to force a leadership battle against Prime Minister Theresa May in order to "destroy" her flagship Brexit policy, which he viewed as a betrayal of the Brexit voters.
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In 2019, The Guardian announced it had seen documents revealing that multiple outwardly independent groups behind adverts on Facebook promoting a hard Brexit are administrated by employees of Lynton Crosby's lobbying firm, CTF Partners.
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Lynton Crosby has combined this with the targeting of marginal constituencies and highly localised campaigning, latching on to local issues and personalities.
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Lynton Crosby is said to run a tight ship, focus on simple messages, target marginal constituencies and use lots of polls.
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Lynton Crosby is married to Dawn Heinrich, an Australian, with whom he has two adult daughters: Tara and Emma.
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South Australian farmer and businessman John Lynton Crosby is his cousin.
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In 2005, Lynton Crosby was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, for "service to politics".
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Lynton Crosby had previously received the Australian government's Centenary Medal, for "service to Australian society through politics".
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Lynton Crosby was knighted in the UK's 2016 New Year Honours "for political service".
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Lynton Crosby's supporters note that Spencer Livermore, a strategist for the Labour Party, had been awarded a life peerage earlier in the year.