Nick Timothy CBE MP
Timothy in 2020
Downing Street Chief of Staff
In office 14 July 2016 – 9 June 2017 Serving with Fiona Hill
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Deputy	Joanna Penn
Preceded by	Edward Llewellyn
Succeeded by	Gavin Barwell
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 July 2024
Preceded by	Matt Hancock
Majority	3,247 (TBC)
Personal details
Born	Nicholas James Timothy 1980 (age 43–44) Birmingham, England
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	University of Sheffield

Nicholas James Timothy CBE (born March 1980) is a British Conservative politician and former political adviser, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk since 2024.^{[1] [2]}He served as Joint Downing Street Chief of Staff, alongside Fiona Hill, to Prime Minister Theresa May,^[3][4][5][6] until his resignation in the wake of the 2017 general election.^[7]

Early life

Timothy was born in Birmingham, the son of a steel worker and a school secretary.^[8] He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Aston, Birmingham,^[9] and at the University of Sheffield, where he gained a first in politics.^[4][10]

He has cited as his inspiration in politics the Birmingham-born Liberal politician Joseph Chamberlain, of whom he wrote a short biography for the Conservative History Group.^[11] He has supported conservative philosophies which he believes benefit poorer people and has suggested the Conservative party should focus on benefiting all citizens.^[8][12]

Career

Early posts

Following his graduation, Timothy worked at the Conservative Research Department (CRD) for three years, from 2001 to 2004.^[4] In 2004, Timothy left the Conservative Research Department to work as corporate affairs adviser for the Corporation of London.^[4] In 2005, Timothy took up a post as a policy adviser for the Association of British Insurers.^[4] In 2006, Timothy returned to politics after two years in the financial sector, spending a year working for Theresa May - the first of three posts on May's staff.^[4] In 2007, Timothy returned to the CRD, where he worked for a further three years.^[4]

Home Office

In 2010, Theresa May was appointed Secretary of State at the Home Office and appointed Timothy as a special adviser. He spent five years working for the Home Secretary, before leaving, in 2015, to become a Director at the New Schools Network (NSN).^[4][13][14]

New Schools Network

While at the NSN he spoke in favour of ending the 50% Rule which requires oversubscribed Free Schools to allocate half of their places without reference to faith.^[15]

In 2015, Timothy wrote an article to express his worry that the People's Republic of China was effectively buying Britain's silence on allegations of Chinese human rights abuse and opposing China's involvement in sensitive sectors such as the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. He criticised David Cameron and George Osborne for "selling our national security to China" and asserted that "the Government seems intent on ignoring the evidence and presumably the advice of the security and intelligence agencies." He warned that security experts were worried that the Chinese could use their role in the programme to build weaknesses into computer systems which would allow them to shut down Britain's energy production at will and argued that "no amount of trade and investment should justify allowing a hostile state easy access to the country's critical national infrastructure."^[16][17]

In October 2016, the Health Service Journal rated him as the fifth most influential person in the English NHS in 2016.^[18]

Timothy has stated that he voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 membership referendum.^[19][1]

Downing Street

Following David Cameron's resignation as Prime Minister in the wake of the Brexit referendum result, Timothy took a sabbatical from his position at the NSN to work on Theresa May's 2016 leadership campaign. May's campaign was a success and Timothy was appointed Joint Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister on 14 July 2016.^[20]

In spring 2017, May called a snap general election. As a result of the election, the Conservative Party lost its majority and became a minority government dependent on the Democratic Unionist Party for their majority. Timothy, along with Fiona Hill, faced immediate calls for his removal.^[21] Theresa May was also given an ultimatum by Conservative Members of Parliament, to sack Timothy or face her own leadership challenge.^[22]

On 9 June 2017, Timothy resigned as Joint Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister.^[23] He, along with Hill, had been blamed by members of the Conservative Party for a disastrous campaign, which resulted in May losing a 20-point lead in the polls.^[7] Reflecting in 2020 on the projected cost of adult social care, Timothy wrote "Many things went wrong in that election campaign, but I resigned as joint Chief of Staff in Downing Street because our social care proposal blew up the manifesto."^[24]

Journalism

Since leaving Downing Street, Timothy has worked as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph newspaper.^[25]

Brexit and allegations of antisemitism

In February 2018, Timothy denied allegations of antisemitism^[26][27] following the publication of an article of which he was the principal author that claimed the existence of a "secret plot" to stop Brexit by the Jewish philanthropist George Soros.^[27] In response, Timothy tweeted: "Throughout my career I’ve campaigned against antisemitism, helped secure more funding for security at synagogues and Jewish schools".^[26]

2019 general election

In November 2019, Timothy failed in a bid to be selected as the Conservative candidate for the Meriden constituency in the West Midlands, for the 2019 general election.^[28] The seat had previously been held by Dame Caroline Spelman, who opted to stand down as an MP and candidate over the "intensity of abuse arising out of Brexit".^[29]

2022 Commonwealth Games

In January 2019 Timothy was appointed as a member of the organising committee of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, to be held in his home city of Birmingham.^[30]

The Trojan Horse Scandal

In February 2022, The New York Times released a podcast entitled "The Trojan Horse Affair" which was created by Brian Reed and Hamza Syed.^[31] The podcast shed light on Nick Timothy's contribution to the scandal when he emailed a Birmingham community centre which was due to host an event entitled "Trojan Horse or Trojan Hoax" in order to shut down the event. In the email it is alleged that Nick insinuated that the owners of the community centre would be associated with terrorism if they allowed the event to go ahead, and references an article Nick Timothy himself wrote.^[32][33]

Conservative parliamentary candidate for West Suffolk

On 30 July 2023, Timothy was selected as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for West Suffolk at the 2024 general election.^[34] This was following Matt Hancock's announcement of standing down from parliament.^[35] He defeated incumbent MP for Penrith and The Border Neil Hudson^[36][37] and former Financial Times journalist Sebastian Payne.^[38] He said he hoped to "draw a line" under the controversy of Hancock who was suspended from the Conservative Party after he appeared on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.^[39]

References

External links

• Twitter feed
• Columns by Timothy for ConservativeHome