Some useful insights from PR Week’s David Singleton, who reveals that Labour are planning a concerted effort to paint Andy Coulson as a “sleazeball” ahead of – and perhaps during – the next election campaign. Here’s a snippet:
You wonder why Labour have only thought of this strategy now, given how the Guardian story contains no new revelations about Coulson himself. Whatever – if nothing further emerges to implicate the former News of the World editor more closely in the scandal, then the Labour spin doctors will have a tough time making this stick.“One senior Labour source in regular contact with Gordon Brown’s inner circle told PRWeek: ‘Cameron wants to present himself as the man who’s going to clean up politics. That’s going to be difficult if the public think his right-hand man is a complete sleazeball.’ Another Labour insider said that senior party figures had been thrashing out a strategy to target Coulson since the news emerged yesterday. The source said the aim was have Coulson ‘wounded, but still there’. The source added that if Coulson was to hang on by Cameron’s side, then Labour would be able to target him heavily him during last four weeks of a general election campaign.”
Comments