A man seen as one of the key architects of Theresa May’s disastrous 2017 election campaign has been selected by the Conservative party to fight Matt Hancock’s seat at the next general election.
Nick Timothy abruptly resigned from his post as May’s chief of staff when MPs put pressure on her to get rid of him, shortly after the party lost its majority in the 2017 vote and had to turn to the DUP to form a government.
Timothy, 43, a supporter of Brexit who was a special adviser to May in the Home Office during the era of the hostile environment policy that led to the Windrush scandal, was confirmed as West Suffolk’s Tory parliamentary candidate on Sunday night.
As co-author of May’s election manifesto and its “dementia tax” policy – which put no cap on social care costs but allowed people to keep £100,000 of assets – he was widely blamed by the Tories for the election results.
One Tory MP told the Guardian Timothy had been “instrumental in delivering the worst Conservative election campaign in living memory”.
He went on to write a book, Remaking One Nation: the Future of Conservatism, in 2020, in which he described May’s reaction to the 2017 election results.
“My phone rang. It was Theresa … I could hear the disappointment and hurt and anger in her voice,” he wrote.
“There was terror, too. I had seen or heard her cry before, but this was different. She was sobbing. I remember thinking she sounded like a child who wanted to be told everything was just fine.”
Hancock, the former health secretary, currently represents the constituency as an independent and has said he will stand down at the next general election. He had the Tory whip removed in November when he agreed to appear on the ITV reality programme, I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
Timothy is understood to have strong family ties to the constituency, which was won by the Tories in 2019 with a majority of 23,000 votes.
Local Conservative councillor Lance Stanbury welcomed the selection of Timothy, who had previously tried and failed to be selected for the Meriden constituency in the West Midlands in 2019.
“Delighted, absolutely delighted that Nick has been selected to fight for West Suffolk,” Stanbury told the PA news agency.
“He gave an excellent presentation today and is clearly all over the policy and understands all the issues for West Suffolk and I think will make a great candidate.”
Another local Tory, who did want to give their name, told PA the association did “not want a career politician”.
They said Timothy “has a good focus on the area, a lot of his family live here and he knows the area well”.
Hancock tweeted: “Many congratulations to Nick Timothy, a fantastic choice as Conservative candidate for West Suffolk.
“Being local MP for West Suffolk has been a huge honour the past 13 years. Best wishes for his campaign – he’ll make a terrific Member of Parliament.”
