Theresa May's former top aide says the PM has treated Brexit 'like a damage limitation exercise'
2 min read
Theresa May has treated Brexit like "a damage limitation exercise" instead of trying to exploit its opportunities, her former top aide has said.
Nick Timothy, who was Mrs May's joint-chief of staff until she lost her majority at the 2017 election, said she was among a raft of ministers who "struggle to see any economic upside to Brexit".
He also said the Government's troubled attempts to get a Brexit deal through Parliament risked "opening up space for a populist right wing party".
In an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg for the upcoming documentary 'Inside the Brexit Storm', Mr Timothy said the Prime Minister should have been clearer when she got the job that both wings of the Tory party would need to compromise on the final deal.
He said: "One of the difficulties she’s had is that she’s tried to take every part of the party with her at different points. It would have been better to be clearer that not everybody in the party was going to get what they wanted."
Mr Timothy, who backed Leave in the referendum, added: "I think one of the reasons we are where we are is that many ministers, and I would include Theresa in this, struggle to see any economic upside to Brexit. They see it as a damage limitation exercise.
"If you see it in that way then inevitably you’re not going to be prepared to take the steps that would enable you to fully realise the economic opportunities of leaving."
The former aide also accused Remain-backing MPs of viewing Leave voters as "racist, stupid or too old to have a stake in the future".
He said he feared the current political deadlock risked "opening up space for a populist right wing party…this is one of the dangers of where we are right now".
It is not the first time that Mr Timothy has condemned his former boss's handling of Brexit.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph last November, he described the Prime Minister's proposed deal - which ended up being defeated by 230 votes in the Commons as a "capitulation" to Brussels.
His previous criticism of the Government earned him a rebuke from Tory deputy chairman James Cleverly, who told Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast: "Sometimes the best thing you should do in politics is shut the f*ck up.”
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