MAURICE SAATCHI’S illustrious 25-year career as the Tory party’s favourite advertising guru has been jeopardised by the row over loyalty and his £2.9 million bill for the work done by his companies in the general election.

Three senior members of the party’s ruling board have privately stated opposition to renewing the contract with M&C Saatchi when it comes to an end this month. They will urge the new leader of the Conservative Party when he is elected in November, and whoever is party chairman, to seek a new agency to revive the party’s fortunes.

They are incensed that Lord Saatchi twice publicly denigrated the campaign he had helped to create and which financially benefited his two companies, M&C Saatchi and The Immediate Sales Company. The revelation in The Times that his companies invoiced the Conservative Party for £2.4 million this year, in addition to £560,000 last year, was the final straw for the three board members.

By contrast TWBA/London, the advertising agency which was used by Labour, made a substantial donation to the party. The most recent Labour Party accounts show a £663,000 donation from TWBA for “staff time” up until March this year, when the election was called. Lord Saatchi made a donation of £6,000 to the Conservatives last year for a cartoon of himself, which he bought at a fundraising party.

A senior member of the board told The Times: “Maurice has brought this on himself. He has jeopardised his agency’s chances of winning back the contract. Loyalty is an important political commodity. Michael Howard is a loyal man and his loyalty was not repaid.”

Another member of the board said: “There is no way that Maurice should be able to work for the party again.”

Mr Howard was unaware of the costs involved with M&C Saatchi because he delegated the day-to-day running of the campaign to Lynton Crosby, the Australian polling expert, whom he drafted in to bolster the operation last autumn. Lord Saatchi said the Tories were charged the standard commercial rates by M&C Saatchi, which is a public company.

Lord Saatchi, who was a key figure in the campaign as chairman, made clear that after the appointment of Mr Crosby as campaign director, he played no part in the approvals of Conservative Party advertisements. “Indeed, ironically, I first saw many of the party’s advertisements and party political broadcasts when they appeared in the media,” he said in a statement. Mr Howard had brought Lord Saatchi back to the political frontline by making him party chairman, the most senior position he had held in the party that he began working for when Margaret Thatcher was Leader of the Opposition.

In a newspaper article on the Sunday after polling day, when he was still chairman, Lord Saatchi condemned the campaign for focusing too much on immigration and asylum. In a pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies he developed his theme, deriding the Tory effort as Basil Fawlty-like because they were told, “Don’t mention tax and the economy”, once the party’s greatest strengths.

The current mood of hostility to Lord Saatchi is in stark contrast to the heady days in 1978 when his Saatchi & Saatchi agency, which he founded with his brother Charles in 1970, devised the memorable “Labour isn’t working” slogan.

It helped to propel Margaret Thatcher into power the following year and to turn Saatchi & Saatchi into the biggest advertising agency in the world.

M&C Saatchi was created in 1995 after the brothers were unceremoniously evicted from Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1996, he was elevated to the House of Lords, where he later became shadow Treasury spokesman.

It was on the shadow Treasury team that he impressed Michael Howard, who praised his “phenomenal track record” as a party activist for 20 years and his organisational skills.

Lord Saatchi has been described as the Buddha of the Tory party, a wise, enigmatic figure. He is listed with his brother Charles at 209 in the Sunday Times Rich List, with a £230 million fortune, but has not been quick to open his chequebook for the party. “I prefer to give blood, sweat, toil and tears,” he once said.

His motto is: “Nothing is impossible.” He must be hoping that proves to be true when his companies next pitch for the Tory account.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Feeble wind farms fail to hit full power
• Students revolt as 150 are crammed into one tutorial
• Politics is off as Mumsnetters get raunchy