Designers are a last minute concern for Tories

The Conservative Party leadership competition may have created in-fighting among the politicians, but it hasn’t harmed the design industry. In fact, it has arguably given it more exposure than the Conservative Government did in 18 years. A short-lived pact between Michael Howard and William Hague to run for the party’s top jobs meant that consultancy Sledge had to design and build a set for Hague’s private campaign overnight. Amazingly, considering how busy the consultancy was, it also had time to notify the press, by post, of its sterling work. This had the side-effect of deflecting questions as to how Hague had obtained such a complex set by 9:30am, when he had only decided to run for the leadership position the previous day. Tom Beaumont-Griffin of the consultancy explains: “In politics you are always having to respond at the last moment.”