Axelrod tapped as strategist for UK vote

The United Kingdom’s Labour Party has hired Democratic heavyweight David Axelrod to help its 2015 general election campaign. 

“The strategist who masterminded Barack Obama’s back-to-back presidential victories in 2008 and 2012 has agreed to work with Labour to get Ed Miliband elected as prime minister in 2015,” the announcement said. 

Axelrod will serve as a senior strategic adviser and will work closely with the political party’s campaign team. He’ll head to London next month to begin strategy meetings with campaign officials. 

{mosads}The initial press release misspelled his last name as “Alexrod.”

Miliband serves as the Labour Party’s leader.

“I’ve had several conversations with Ed Miliband over the course of the last year in which I have been struck by the power of his ideas, the strength of his vision and the focus he brings to solving the fundamental challenge facing Britain,” Axelrod said in a statement.

Axelrod currently serves as the director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. He was a campaign adviser for Obama’s 2008 campaign and a senior White House adviser during the first two years of his presidency. 

The country’s next general election will be held in May 2015, and current Prime Minister David Cameron is up for reelection. He has served as the Conservative Party’s leader since 2005, and was elected prime minister in 2010. 

Cameron has hired another key Obama strategist, 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina, as an adviser to his campaign.