Who is responsible for Labour’s recent woes? For some Conservatives, the answer is obvious – Sheridan Westlake. He is that rarest of beasts: an effective Tory operator who has served every leader since John Major. Flaxen-haired with an impish grin, he is spoken of by colleagues as part myth, part political mastermind. Yet ask him what he does, and the stock answer is modest: ‘I simply do the photocopying.’

‘He just likes getting up in the morning and kicking socialists. He’s in it for the love of the game’

The resignation of Angela Rayner last month is widely attributed within Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) to an effective campaign by the party’s attack team. Westlake, a 30-year veteran, is part of the five-man squad who worked on exposing Rayner’s tax affairs. His experience of a similar story involving John Prescott was a factor in the party pursuing lines of inquiry to keep the story alive over the summer.

What began as a simple written question in April slowly turned up the pressure on the former deputy PM. One longtime Westminster ally compares Westlake’s tenacious harrying of Labour to ‘the federal prosecutors who brought down Al Capone. He followed the plumbing and the wiring – then he acted on it’. One admiring peer adds: ‘He puts the bullet in the gun, and he likes to see someone else fire it.’

The Tories were forced to downsize these resources after last year’s landslide defeat, but are now replenishing them. Some 17 staff sit in........

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