Holborow joins Hague as adviser

WILLIAM HAGUE last night appointed Jonathan Holborow, former editor of the Mail on Sunday, as a special adviser on campaigning. Mr Holborow, who recently retired from Fleet Street, will be expected to give the Tory party advice on regaining the support of the "Middle England" voters to whom his newspaper most appealed.

He will work two days a week at Conservative Central Office, for an undisclosed sum. It was one of three appointments aimed at sharpening the press and public-relations department after MPs criticised the leadership's failure to lift the party in opinion polls.

Mr Hague also hired Nick Wood, a former chief political correspondent of The Times and a Eurosceptic, as the party's new Westminster spin-doctor. It is expected he will engage in more rebuttal operations, which helped give Labour an edge in opposition against Tory allegations. Ceri Evans, a former Channel 4 creative director, was made director of presentation. His responsibilities will include party political broadcasts.

Archie Norman, chief executive of the party, had been close to hiring Mr Holborow to head the party's press office, to do "a Mandelson" on the Conservative Party. But Mr Holborow's appointment surprised former colleagues at the Mail on Sunday, who cast doubt on his political insight.

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