The slick Tory machine that kept the by-election campaign simple

But their fortunes were turned around in spectacular fashion thanks to a straight-talking Yorkshireman and a billionaire peer.

Conservative MP Eric Pickles, who is credited with masterminding the Tories’ local elections triumph on May 1, spearheaded the crunch byelection campaign.

Victory kiss: Mr Timpson and wife Julia after the result was announced

Meanwhile, Lord Ashcroft - the party’s deputy chairman who oversees operations in marginal seats --controlled the campaign from behind the scenes.

Once derided as lackadaisical and haphazard, the Tory by-election machine is now developing into a ruthless, efficient and polished political force.

Based in four cabins on an industrial estate close to Crewe railway station, the Conservative campaign chiefs focused on bombarding different target audiences with simple messages.

It meant both the Labour and Liberal Democrat vote was squeezed by the Tories.

In Mr Pickles’s words, LibDem voters were ‘love-bombed’. He said the message was: ‘LibDem voters want change. They can’t achieve it themselves. We have a common agenda on the environment, green issues and social justice, so they should lend their votes to us.’

For Labour supporters, the Tory message was even more straightforward: ‘Send the Prime Minister a message.’ Opponents have complained that this was a ‘negative’ strategy, as it did not explain what the Conservatives stood for.

But Mr Pickles said: ‘None of our campaign literature was anything other than trying to address what people were concerned about. People on the doorstep despise Gordon Brown.

You’ve got a guy there who knows the price of a barrel of oil but not a litre of petrol for the car.

‘He talks about sub-prime mortgages in the Asian markets, but that’s not what people in the pub are talking about.’

Straight-talking Yorkshireman: Tory MP Eric Pickles spearheaded the campaign

Mr Pickles, who used the Crewe byelection as a test run for the next general election, said: ‘There is no silver bullet to win the campaign, no special leaflet or policy.

‘It is about using the best electronic data with good old-fashioned getting out on the knocker and listening to what people are saying.’

Lord Ashcroft’s financial influence was bolstered by hundreds of Tory volunteers arriving from all over the country to join the campaign.

Campaign leaflets - described as ‘top notch’ by Labour opponents --were churned out, stuffed into envelopes and delivered to target households.

It meant the Conservative message was lying on doormats within hours.

One example was when the Tories managed to deliver a speciallyproduced newspaper to every single household in the constituency -about 35,000 homes - on the Sunday before polling day.

Tributes are also being paid to Stephen Gilbert, Lord Ashcroft’s polling and marginals wizard, who was the brains in the backroom in Crewe.

Mr Gilbert, who runs the party’s Target Seats Campaign, shifted his entire team up to Cheshire to deliver a historic victory.

Mr Pickles praised Mr Gilbert as setting the ‘gold standard’ for future by-elections by ensuring Tory activists had a clear, consistent message to send to voters.