Michael Ashcroft Quotes

The certainty with which Cameron informed MPs and Shadow ministers of the specifics of a Labour offer that never actually existed suggests a degree of flexibility with the truth.

Michael Ashcroft

• Shadow
• Degree
• Informed

We spent too much time attacking Gordon Brown and Labour rather than setting out our own plans. People had decided they wanted change - the thing they were not sure about was the alternative we were offering, so going on and on about Labour missed the point.

Michael Ashcroft

• People
• Point
• Decided

A majority of all defectors who voted Labour in 2010 but for a different party in 2015 said Ed Miliband had helped push them to another party. For those switching to the Tories, the second biggest reason was the fear that a Labour government would spend and borrow too much.

Michael Ashcroft

• Party
• Government
• Labour

At 10 A.M. on the Friday after the election in 2010, David Cameron's team met in his room at the Westminster Bridge Park Plaza Hotel. Cameron was clear that, unable to form a majority government, they had to begin talks with the Lib Dems about forming a coalition. But in a rare example of strategic discord, George Osborne disagreed.

Michael Ashcroft

• Coalition
• Discord
• Cameron

The stigma of being an unmarried mother was something we can't comprehend today. It was not uncommon that you'd go off somewhere to have your child, then give it up for adoption.

Michael Ashcroft

• Being
• Something
• Comprehend

While loyalists and defectors overall said John Smith did a better job of standing up for Labour's values, they put Blair ahead on representing the whole country, appealing beyond traditional Labour voters and offering strong, competent leadership; switchers to the Tories gave him a clear lead in all categories.

Michael Ashcroft

• Leadership
• Beyond
• Categories

I get more ambitious every decade, and I am more ambitious today than ever before. I still love the game - and the thrill of the chase.

Michael Ashcroft

• Before
• Ambitious
• Decade

If someone asked, 'Would you prefer to be thought of as St. Michael as opposed to the devil,' I might say St. Michael. But that choice is not really there, because you are in an environment in which you have natural predators and enemies.

Michael Ashcroft

• Environment
• Thought
• Because

I learnt a lesson that you mustn't worry what people think if you are achieving your objective.

Michael Ashcroft

• People
• Achieving
• Learnt