Nick Timothy: ‘Divided Cabinet and Conservative party’ cost Tories the election
3 min read
Theresa May lost her Commons majority because of a "divided Cabinet and party", according to her former joint-chief of staff.
Nick Timothy, who was forced to quit along with Fiona Hill in the wake of the general election, admitted they had "messed up" the campaign, but suggested no other leader would have done any better.
In a Twitter spat with Tim Montgomerie, the political commentator and former adviser to Iain Duncan Smith during his time as Conservative leader, he accepted having “made mistakes” in the post.
He said the party should have stuck to the message of “a country that works for everyone" set out by Mrs May when she entered 10 Downing Street in 2016.
Mr Timothy was responding to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report which showed that while the Conservatives appealed to low income voters in areas such as Brexit and immigration, it was Labour who mainly tapped into economic concerns.
Writing for the ConservativeHome website after quitting, Mr Timothy - who is now a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and The Sun - said: "Britain is a divided country: many are tired of austerity, many remain frustrated or angry about Brexit, and many younger people feel they lack the opportunities enjoyed by their parents’ generation.
"Ironically, the Prime Minister is the one political leader who understands this division, and who has been working to address it since she became Prime Minister last July. The Conservative election campaign, however, failed to get this and Theresa’s positive plan for the future across."
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