Beth Rigby, Senior Political Correspondent

Remember the 2015 election? Ed Miliband bore the brunt of a highly personal and deeply negative campaign dubbed "Kill Mill".

The strategy was simple. The Conservatives had two main advantages to deploy over their opponents; David Cameron's leadership ratings and the party's economic competence.

"Red Ed" was "just not up to it". Here was a man who had stabbed his brother in the back and was in the pocket of the then SNP leader Alex Salmond. Mr Miliband was a weakling, ready to do a backroom deal with the SNP to secure the keys to No 10. Brutal, yes, but effective too.

That campaign was masterminded by Sir Lynton Crosby, who was rewarded with a knighthood for returning David Cameron to No 10.


Now the pugnacious Australian strategist is back in Conservative Campaign Headquarters running Theresa May's campaign: And if you think he was vicious about Mr Miliband, just wait for what he does to Jeremy Corbyn.

What hasn't yet been fully unleashed are the direct attacks on Mr Corbyn, already struggling with dismal leadership ratings.

Hints of his 2017 playbook were on show yesterday at Prime Minister's Questions: The 'competent', and 'strong' Mrs May faced down a 'weak' Mr Corbyn who was ready to join a "coalition of chaos" with the SNP and the Liberal Democrats to block Brexit.

But what hasn't yet been fully unleashed are the direct attacks on Mr Corbyn, already struggling with dismal leadership ratings.

Less than half of Labour voters think he'd make a better Prime Minister over Mrs May, according to a poll out last weekend. Given a two-way choice between Mr Corbyn and Mrs May, just 14% of voters would choose the Labour leader, against 47% for May.

It won't be hard, then, for Sir Lynton to put in place an attack campaign that plays on voters' doubts about the Labour leader.

As one senior MP put it to me: "They'll run the security strategy very strong. They'll bring up [his links to] the IRA, Hamas.

"He won't act on threats, he prevaricates on military intervention, he is a pacifist, he's not patriot, he won't sing the national anthem."

Jeremy Corbyn begins campaigning in Croydon

One Conservative party source says: "There is stuff in the locker - on the IRA, on Hamas, on security.

"For a long time they [the Conservative leadership] held off from killing Corbyn because they wanted to keep him there for an election - now it's game on and the stakes are higher."

It remains to be seen how much damage a 'Crush Corbyn' campaign will inflict on an already imperilled Labour party. They expect to lose - the question is by how much. Losing 30 to 50 MPs would be considered a success, say some. But MPs mutter that 80 or more could go.

This is a snap election in which voter apathy is a far more potent enemy for the sitting Prime Minister than the man she faces across the dispatch box.

She'll use the next seven weeks to wound Corbyn. The more interesting question is whether, come 9 June, the Labour party itself is prepared to finish him off.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Sky News editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Tom Cheshire - Why London Marathon is a world beater