David Cameron’s aide in office romance with EU Remain campaigner after Brexit defeat brought the two ‘love birds’ together
Ex-spin chief Sir Craig Oliver met Stronger In campaign deputy director Lucy Thomas during their failed bid to remain in EU
DAVID Cameron’s controversial spin chief is romancing another EU referendum campaign boss, The Sun can reveal.
Ex-No10 Communications Director Sir Craig Oliver met Stronger In campaign deputy director Lucy Thomas during their losing bid to remain in the EU.
The high-flying pair were often spotted flirting heavily during the final month ahead of polling day on June 23.
And they became an item shortly after the landmark vote.
The brunette ex-BBC producer was the pro-EU campaign’s public face, regularly appearing on TV to make its arguments.
Now friends say the couple are deeply in love and they were today spotted jogging together near Hammersmith in West London.
It’s not the first time 47-year-old Sir Craig - knighted by the ex-PM on the way out of No10 - has found romance in the office.
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The former TV executive married BBC News Channel presenter Joanna Gosling but the pair split in 2014 and have been divorced for some time.
Our revelation sparked questions over whether the pair’s new carry on ever distracted them from their work.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen hit out: "This could explain their poor campaign - perhaps Sir Craig should have spent a bit less time wooing women.”
The Brexit-backing Tory added: “Although I am very pleased to hear the Remainers are comforting each other in defeat because their victory would have screwed the whole country.”
But a source close to the pair insisted: “They didn’t get together during the campaign, they are both professionals and did their jobs without any distraction - that came afterwards.”
started with some very heavy flirting in the office
The source also denied suggestions that loved-up Sir Craig has even gone so far as to propose to Lucy.
But a senior Remain camp insider told The Sun: “It all started with some very heavy flirting in the office.”
But a senior Remain camp insider told The Sun: “It all started with some very heavy flirting in the office.”
“It was very obvious they were into each other by the end of the campaign,” they added.
Another friend added: “They may have lost the referendum together, but at least they found love.”
Sir Craig was paid £140,000-a-year to head up No 10’s media operation from February 2011 until David Cameron’s departure.
He was loaned over to the Remain campaign for the last few weeks of June’s tense referendum battle.
Friends say that since the country backed Brexit and David Cameron quit Downing Street, Miss Thomas has been helping Sir Craig with his tell-all memoir.
In the new book about the referendum, Sir Craig described how Miss Thomas broke the news to him that referendum fight was lost.
Writing about polling day in ‘Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of the EU Referendum’, he recalls:
“Lucy Thomas calls me from the Stronger In party, close to tears, as she tells me: ‘ITV is going to call it for Leave.’”