Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy keep the May power vortex spinning with what insiders describe as a high-pressure blame culture

The manifesto for Mayism was stitched together on an upper floor of Conservative campaign headquarters over the past few weeks by a tight-knit team of the prime minister’s most trusted advisers.

While May has been out on the road giving stump speeches nearly every day, her policy team has been holed up in Matthew Parker Street in Westminster composing a document intended to redefine Conservativism, drawing a line under the elitism of the Cameron era and the individualism of Thatcher.

The document is pitched as representing May’s firmly held world view, but it also has the fingerprints of Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, her two co-chiefs of staff, all over it.

The pair, who reigned supreme over May’s Home Office, have been the subject of complaints from MPs that they act like deputy prime ministers instead of Downing Street aides. Now the election campaign has started, they run the show at CCHQ with a tight grip.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s joint chiefs of staff. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Conservative insiders under Timothy and Hill talk of a disciplined atmosphere and often highly pressurised blame culture, where people from advisers to ministers fear receiving a dressing-down for stepping out of line or veering off script. Hill in particular is known for firing off forthright text messages when she feels it necessary.

Their control has been consolidated after several high-profile departures from No 10 during May’s short time as prime minister. Among those who have left in recent months are official spokeswoman Helen Bower, a senior civil servant; communications chief Katie Perrior; and press secretary Lizzie Loudon, who had worked on the leave campaign. Since then, Hill has taken over communications during the election campaign.

Both Timothy and Hill are graduates of the old days in Conservative central office when the party was in opposition, although their professional histories differ slightly.

Timothy is a veteran of the policy research department – a respected, serious figure who has long-held views about needing to steer the Conservatives in a more meritocratic direction.



Hill, a formidable former journalist, came from the media side of the Tory operation. More clubbable – her karaoke number was Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 – she has gained a reputation as a May loyalist who can be volatile with colleagues.

Both state-educated, Timothy in Birmingham and Hill in Glasgow, they became a team by accident rather than design when May was elevated to home secretary by David Cameron. Those who worked with them describe them as “in lockstep” as they helped to run a political empire at the Home Office closed off from other departments and Downing Street.

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The pair were separated in 2014 after Hill was forced out under Cameron for getting into a late-night spat with Michael Gove, the education secretary at the time, when a letter was tweeted out from May criticising his approach to tackling extremism in schools. But she was back at May’s side two years later when the leadership bid was announced, after spells at the Centre for Social Justice and Lexington Communications.

Downing Street is irritated, however, by the characterisation of Timothy as a big strategic brain and Hill as responsible for media, logistics and the prime minister’s image. Although Timothy’s strain of thinking is evident throughout the manifesto, it is understood Hill also wrote passages and remains influential on policy, sharing May’s keenness to address the issue of modern slavery.

MPs have complained privately over the past 10 months about the centralised nature of Downing Street, with May, Timothy and Hill sucking policy decisions away from Whitehall departments and other ministers. It comes as no surprise to them that May’s campaign focuses on her personal leadership qualities to the exclusion of other senior figures in the party, with the case for that focus bolstered by the prime minister’s strong poll ratings.

Cabinet ministers say they are not being sidelined, although the reality looks somewhat different. Of 15 campaign events for the press held by the Tories so far, all but one have been fronted by May herself, speaking of “strong and stable leadership” and the need for a mandate to carry through Brexit at every opportunity.

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A few – including Boris Johnson, Michael Fallon, Amber Rudd and David Davis – have been used for some media interviews, but they are mainly kept away at constituency visits. By Wednesday, senior cabinet ministers such as Philip Hammond, Johnson and Rudd had seen the manifesto and approved its contents.

But its composition was very much a matter for May’s inner circle.

Others in the room for the drafting of the document included John Godfrey, the head of policy poached from the insurer Legal & General, and Chris Wilkins, the director of strategy who helped with May’s famous 2002 speech warning that some viewed the Conservatives as the “nasty party”.

Another crucial figure is Ben Gummer, a Tory minister and son of former environment secretary John Gummer, who is tipped for a possible cabinet position after the election if there is a reshuffle of May’s top team. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is one of the possible candidates for the chop.



MPs were asked to submit their ideas through George Freeman, a Tory MP and head of the Downing Street policy unit. But one who sent in their thoughts said that although MPs had been assured their input would be gratefully received, this seemed like “the place where blue-sky thinking goes to die”, as the real work was being done elsewhere.

When it comes to May’s media strategy, the campaign has been highly controlled, with Hill ultimately in charge. The prime minister has been taking questions at speeches from a wide variety of outlets, but only a small selection of broadcasters and individual journalists have been allowed on May’s battle bus, emblazoned with her name and only a tiny mention of the Conservatives.

James Slack, May’s new official spokesman and former Daily Mail political editor, is a trusted member of the communications team but has no role in the election because he is bound by civil service rules on purdah.

The chosen few do not include Sky News, which has been partially kept out of the loop and excluded from briefings. It is believed this is connected to some of the broadcaster’s political reporting about the Conservatives and an incident last month when Adam Boulton (nicknamed Bunter), the political anchor and former editor, speculated that May might be calling a press conference because of ill health, and subsequently read out a text message from Hill live on air. “You might want to tell Bunter that he should watch what he is saying about my boss’s health, utterly unfounded and untrue,” it said.

Tory advisers live in fear of receiving similarly punchy missives from the top. But they fully expect May’s regime to continue with a renewed sense of confidence and power if she is re-elected with an increased majority on 8 June.