CCHQ strengthens team in run up to General Election with return of George Bridges

He resigned two-and-a-half years ago but it will be confirmed in the next 24 hours that George Bridges is returning to CCHQ to help with the General Election campaign. I understand he'll be reporting directly to George Osborne in the latter's capacity as General Election Co-ordinator.

I warmly welcome this appointment. George is a great operator and I included him on my recent list of twenty people who would make excellent MPs.

George has served three Tory leaders; John Major, Michael Howard and David Cameron. He knows how to run campaigns and learnt a great deal when he worked closely with Lynton Crosby in 2005.

I suspect that George will also be an important voice within the Cameron operation arguing for more robust positions on immigration, the trade unions and the economy. His writing for The Telegraph and Spectator since he left CCHQ has often been uncompromising. This on the National Union of Teachers was typical:

"The NUT cannot turn off the nation's lights, but it can certainly dim children's prospects. And just as Margaret Thatcher's defeat of the NUM decided our economy's future, David Cameron's battle against the NUT will decide the future of our children. It will not be a battle for the fainthearted, but for those who feel in their bones that they are doing the right thing. There will be naysayers, even on the Tory front bench, warning: "Remember, teachers are voters, too." Well, there are more parents than teachers."

Tim Montgomerie

PS I'll need to update my Wallchart of the Cameron operation!