One person, each day, to help make sense of the election.
Downing Street’s director of communications has enjoyed a rapid ascent, which neatly tracks that of her boss. Nerissa Chesterfield started out in politics a year before Rishi Sunak was first elected as an MP, working her way up from roles at the eurosceptic group Business for Britain, via the Vote Leave campaign, to the libertarian Institute of Economic Affairs. She joined Sunak in the Treasury soon after he was made chancellor and then followed him to Number 10. Chesterfield was promoted to the top job last autumn after Amber De Botton resigned. She enjoys a friendly relationship with Sunak and appears to be a genuine believer in his talents. But after multiple gaffes, Sunak’s election campaign has pivoted from presidential to absentee. In the minds of many Tory MPs, either the message or the messenger is to blame.
