Lynton Crosby has developed a surprisingly close relationship with Boris Johnson. The infamous Australian spin doctor is purportedly running Johnson’s campaign for prime minister: services for which he would normally charge a small fortune. But, instead, “the lizard of Oz”, as he’s known, appears to be paying Johnson for the honour.

Crosby's lobbying firm CTF Partners has donated over £20,000 to Johnson's leadership bid. But why does Crosby appear to be financially backing his client, rather than taking money from him?

One clue might come from the Washington arm of the spin-doctor’s global empire: CTF Global says on its website that it offers “unrivalled expertise... thanks to the Group’s longstanding relationships in the UK” to companies looking for advice on “how best to position themselves as the UK prepares to exit from the European Union”.

The firm refuses to disclose who is taking advantage of these connections either in the US or UK. But CTF, named for Crosby and his business partners Mark Textor and Mark Fullbrook, is a registered lobbyist for British American Tobacco on “issues impacting domestic tobacco industry”, and has run a “covert campaign” globally for the coal industry, and against renewable energy.

The firm launched in the US as CTF Global just weeks after the UK voted to leave the EU. Crosby’s London staff were also behind dark-money funded Facebook adverts promoting a hard Brexit.

Crosby made his reputation helping Australia’s right-wing Liberal party win a string of elections, before running both of Boris Johnson’s successful campaigns for London Mayor, as well as the Tory party campaigns in 2005 and 2017 and acting as an advisor to David Cameron. His services for the four month of the 2008 mayoral campaign are said to have cost £140,000.

In October, CTF Partners lent the former foreign secretary £20,000 for office and staffing costs, and then in January, the firm gave him £3,000 for the same.

In April this year, the Times reported that Boris Johnson had told fellow Tory MPs that Crosby was running his campaign for Conservative leader, and claimed that he talks to Crosby on the phone “most days”. Crosby’s company was also behind a poll published in the Daily Telegraph which claimed that Johnson was best placed to win back Brexit party voters to the Tories. openDemocracy understands that Johnson’s account, along with the Leave campaign, also co-ordinated by CTF, is one of the biggest within the company - this is not small scale.

When the Sunday Times reported earlier this year that Crosby was working with senior Brexiteers, CTF commented that its “senior staff are often consulted because of their campaign expertise... That’s not unusual.”

Johnson, who has now made the final two in the Tory leadership election, has had a notably more successful campaign than when he attempted to run for the role in 2016. After David Cameron resigned, the former London Mayor ended up using what was meant to be his campaign launch to announce that he would, in fact, not be running.

This time, the former journalist has managed to raise more than £100,000 for his leadership bid, including from the prominent climate change denier Terence Mordaunt, as openDemocracy previously revealed.

In March this year, the Guardian revealed that CT Group - Crosby and Textor’s company - was also behind a covert global campaign funded by the mining giant Glencore to prop up the coal industry, pushing anti-renewables messages and countering environmental activists. The campaign, dubbed “project Caesar” “aimed to engage key politicians, both to gauge their views on coal and attempt to convince them of its continuing value”, according to the paper. Glencore say that the campaign has since been shut down, and told the Guardian “The project’s objective was to convey simple facts about coal and in particular to counter misinformation from environmental activists.”

Commenting on claims they were behind the pro-coal lobby, CT Group said to the Guardian “All information about our clients is treated with the strictest confidence.”