Publications

By Lord Ashcroft

With a Foreword by Lord Hague of Richmond.

The Intelligence Corps is one of the smallest and most secretive elements of the British Army. It has existed in various guises since the early twentieth century, but it was only formally constituted in July 1940. In this book, Michael Ashcroft tells the astonishing stories of some of its most courageous and ingenious figures, who have operated all over the world from the First World War to the present day.

Whether carrying out surveillance work on the street, monitoring and analysing communications, working on overseas stakeouts, receiving classified information from a well-placed contact or interrogating the enemy in the heat of war, a hugely diverse range of people have served in the Corps, often supplementing their individual professional skills with original thinking and leadership in the name of the Crown. This book pays tribute to them and shows why, in the words of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, ‘No war can be conducted successfully without early and good intelligence.’

By Lord Ashcroft

Carrie Johnson is not only the consort of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson; she is also considered by some to be the second most powerful unelected woman in Britain after the Queen. Since she moved into Downing Street in July 2019, questions have been raised about her perceived influence, her apparent desire to control events, and the number of her associates who have been appointed to positions of standing in the government machine. So, are these concerns justified?

In this carefully researched unauthorised biography, Michael Ashcroft charts the extraordinary ascent of Mrs Johnson, speaking to multiple sources who have been close to her and to Boris Johnson in recent years to produce a fascinating portrait of a woman who is still under the age of thirty-five.

The book scrutinises Mrs Johnson’s colourful family, her attempt to become a professional actress, and her early decision to work in politics. Long before she moved into No. 10, Mrs Johnson made a name for herself as a Conservative Party press aide before becoming a special adviser to two Cabinet ministers and eventually director of communications at Conservative campaign headquarters. Aside from politics, she is also the mother of two young children and campaigns in the fields of the environment and animal welfare.

Carrie Johnson is without doubt a very modern prime ministerial spouse. This examination of her career and life offers the electorate the chance to assess exactly what role she plays in Boris Johnson’s unpredictable administration and why that matters.

By Lord Ashcroft

How good is the NHS, really?

That is the question this book seeks to answer, as the health service emerges from the gravest crisis in its history with more money – but greater challenges – than ever before.

During the pandemic, voters made extraordinary sacrifices to save the NHS from collapse. Thanks to these efforts and the dedication and bravery of the NHS workforce, hospitals were able to treat patients with coronavirus, but millions of others lost out. Now an exhausted and depleted NHS workforce faces a huge backlog. The gap between supply and demand for publicly funded healthcare has never been so wide.

With record numbers waiting for treatment, the politicians’ answer has been to spend ever more taxpayers’ money. The question is whether throwing cash at the problem will work.

Every day, millions of patients receive care that is fair, good or outstanding. In keeping with Nye Bevan’s founding principles, the same treatment is available to rich and poor, free at the point of need. Public support for the concept remains overwhelming. Yet for every positive NHS experience there are negatives: care that is substandard, disjointed and arrives too late. A cult of secrecy surrounds errors and failings. Politicians on all sides dissemble and lie.

This book seeks to strip away the spin and uncover the true state of the NHS: the good, the bad and the ugly. It explores an increasingly urgent question: in an era of pandemics, can the NHS provide the quality of service patients deserve?

REVIEWS

“An insightful and thought-provoking guide to the challenges facing the NHS after it has been through the trauma of Covid, and as it looks ahead to how to embrace the rest of the twenty-first century. Much of the analysis and many of the stories will ring true to anyone who has experienced the NHS first-hand. Anyone who loves the NHS and wants to see it thrive would do well to read this book.”

Rt Hon. Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health, 2018–21

“This is a brilliant account, exhaustively researched with a balanced assessment of the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s a great narrative of how incredible our NHS can be but with chilling stories of the damage some patients have suffered and of a culture that is often closed and defensive. I hope this book will trigger an urgent debate about whether our NHS is as good as it can and should be – and what therefore should be done about it.”

 Sir Stephen Bubb, director of Charity Futures and the Oxford Institute of Charity

By Lord Ashcroft

The Falklands War, which may prove to be the last ‘colonial’ war that Britain ever fights, took place in 1982. Fought 8,000 miles from home soil, it cost the lives of 255 British military personnel, with many more wounded, some seriously.

The war also witnessed many acts of outstanding courage by the UK Armed Forces after a strong Task Force was sent to regain the islands from the Argentine invaders. Soldiers, sailors and airmen risked, and in some cases gave, their lives for the freedom of 1,820 islanders.

Lord Ashcroft, who has been fascinated by bravery since he was a young boy, has amassed several medal collections over the past four decades, including the world’s largest collection of Victoria Crosses, Britain and the Commonwealth’s most prestigious gallantry award. This is his seventh book in the “Heroes” series championing gallantry.

Falklands War Heroes tells the stories behind his collection of valour and service medals awarded for the Falklands War. The collection, almost certainly the largest of its kind in the world, spans all the major events of the war.

This book, which contains nearly forty individual write-ups, has been written to mark the fortieth anniversary of the war. It is Lord Ashcroft’s attempt to champion the outstanding bravery of our Armed Forces during an undeclared war that was fought and won over ten weeks in the most challenging conditions.

By Lord Ashcroft

The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer.

By Michael Ashcroft.

Sir Keir Starmer has played many parts during his life and career. He went from schoolboy socialist to radical lawyer before surprising many by joining the establishment, becoming Director of Public Prosecutions, accepting a knighthood and then, in 2015, standing successfully for Parliament. At Westminster, he was swiftly elevated to the shadow Cabinet, and in April 2020 he became the leader of the Labour Party.

Michael Ashcroft’s new book goes in search of the man who wants to be Prime Minister and reveals previously unknown details about him which help to explain what makes him tick.

Starmer was the architect of Labour’s second-referendum Brexit policy, which was considered a major factor in its worst electoral defeat for nearly a century. Is he the man to bring back Labour’s lost voters? Is he the voice of competence and moderation who can put his party back on the political map? Or is he just a member of the metropolitan elite who is prepared to say and do whatever it takes to win favour?

This meticulous examination of his life offers voters the chance to answer these vital questions.

• Hardback, 352 pages
• ISBN: 9781785906961
• 19 August 2021
  Available to pre-order
• £20.00

• eBook
• ISBN: 9781785906978
• 19 August 2021
  Available to pre-order
• £14.99

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By Lord Ashcroft

American politics beyond the 2020 election.

By Michael Ashcroft.

Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was a remarkable end to four tumultuous years. But beyond removing Donald Trump from the White House, what is the mandate that the new President’s voters expect him to fulfil? Can he meet the expectations of the biggest electoral coalition in American history? How did Trump expand his support to win more votes than any previous Republican? And what are the chances of a new era of consensus and unity in America after years of division? Drawing on four years of groundbreaking research among voters across the United States, Lord Ashcroft examines the success of Biden, the appeal of Trumpism, and the prospects for the next chapter in American politics.

• Paperback, 112 pages
• ISBN: 9781785906800
• 20 January 2021
  Available to pre-order
• £10.00

• eBook
• ISBN: 9781785906824
• 20 January 2021
  Available to pre-order
• £5.00

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By lordashcroft.com

The Rise of Rishi Sunak.

Three years ago, Rishi Sunak was an unknown junior minister in the Department of Local Government. By the age of thirty-nine, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, grappling with the gravest economic crisis in modern history.

Michael Ashcroft’s new book charts Sunak’s ascent from his parents’ Southampton pharmacy to Oxford University, the City of London, Silicon Valley – and the top of British politics.

It is the tale of a super-bright and hard-grafting son of immigrant parents who marries an Indian heiress and makes a fortune of his own; a polished urban southerner who wins over the voters of rural North Yorkshire – and a cautious, fiscally conservative financier who becomes the biggest-spending Chancellor in history.

Sunak was unexpectedly promoted to the Treasury’s top job in February 2020, with a brief to spread investment and opportunity as part of Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. Within weeks, the coronavirus had sent Britain into lockdown, with thousands of firms in peril and millions of jobs on the line. As health workers battled to save lives, it was down to Sunak to save livelihoods. This is the story of how he tore up the rulebook and went for broke.

• Hardback, 304 pages
• ISBN: 9781785906374
• 12 November 2020
  Available to pre-order
• £20.00

• eBook
• ISBN: 9781785906381
• 12 November 2020
  Available to pre-order
• £14.99

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By Lord Ashcroft

An exposé of South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry.

By Michael Ashcroft.

In April 2019 Lord Ashcroft published the results of his year-long investigation into South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry. Over 11 pages of a single edition of the Mail on Sunday he showed why this sickening trade, which involves appalling cruelty to the ‘King of the Savannah’ from birth to death, has become a stain on the country.

Unfair Game, published on 16 June 2020, features the shocking results of a new inquiry Lord Ashcroft has carried out into South Africa’s lion business. In the book, he shows how tourists are unwittingly being used to support the abuse of lions; he details how lions are being tranquilised and then hunted in enclosed spaces; he urges the British government to ban imports of captive-bred lion trophies; and he demonstrates why Asia’s insatiable appetite for lion bones has become a multi-million dollar business linked to criminality and corruption which now underpins South Africa’s captive lion industry.

• Paperback, 320 pages
• ISBN: 9781785906114
• 16 June 2020

• eBook
• ISBN: 9781785906121
• 16 June 2020

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By Lord Ashcroft

Labour’s turn to smell the coffee.

By Michael Ashcroft.

2019 saw the Labour Party meet its fourth consecutive general election defeat, and its worst since 1935. Arguing that it is vital for Labour to regroup if it is to offer a serious alternative government, Lord Ashcroft draws on extensive research among real voters – especially those who have moved away from Labour in former heartland seats now represented in Parliament by the Tories. Diagnosis of Defeat explores the reasons for this extraordinary result and offers a frank and uncompromising portrait of the Labour Party as it is seen today.
 
 

• Paperback, 80 pages
• ISBN: 9781785906190
• Published 2 March 2020

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By Lord Ashcroft

The Unauthorised Biography of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

By Michael Ashcroft.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is one of the most prominent and controversial figures in contemporary British politics. He is a man who divides opinion in his own party, in Parliament and across the country.

An arch-Brexiteer with significant business interests and a large personal fortune, he has long been a vocal critic of the European Union and of Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempts to negotiate a Brexit deal. As chairman of the powerful anti-EU organisation the European Research Group, he has also been a thorn in the side of those seeking to dilute Brexit.

While many people mock him for his impeccable manners and traditional attitudes – he has been dubbed ‘the Honourable Member for the eighteenth century’ – an equally great number applaud him for his apparent conviction politics. Undoubtedly, Rees-Mogg stands out among the current crop of MPs and his growing influence cannot be ignored.

In this wide-ranging unauthorised biography of the Conservative Member of Parliament for North East Somerset, Michael Ashcroft, bestselling author of Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron, turns his attention to one of the most intriguing politicians of our time.

• Hardback, 352 pages
• ISBN: 9781785904875
• Published 10 September 2019

• eBook
• ISBN: 9781785905315
• Published 10 September 2019

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