Boris Johnson has urged David Cameron to hire right-wing political strategist Lynton Crosby and give him a free hand to run the Conservatives' 2015 General Election campaign.
The Mayor of London insisted Mr Crosby was "by no means as right wing" as many people thought and said the Tories should "break the piggy bank" to secure the services of the sought-after adviser.
Mr Crosby, an Australian who ran both Mr Johnson's campaigns for the mayoralty, is seen as a potentially divisive figure for the Coalition who would distance the Tories from their Liberal Democrat partners.
He is closely associated in Westminster with the Tories' 2005 campaign when then leader Michael Howard focused on crime and immigration and took the party to a third successive defeat.
But his appointment would hearten many Conservatives concerned about a perceived lack of focus in Number 10.
"I think Lynton is a great campaign manager. I think the Tory Party would be mad not to get him," Mr Johnson said.
"They should kill the fatted calf, break the piggy bank, go for Lynton and give him a pretty free hand to run things.
"He would be demonised by the media as some sort of attack dog. He's the soul of sweetness. He's by no means as right wing as everybody will say."
His comments came after he addressed the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs in the House of Commons.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article