Publications
Partners
London - Theresa May’s director of strategy has become the latest member of her senior team to quit, leaving the premier without the authors of her Brexit vision at a critical time in negotiations with the European Union.
Chris Wilkins will leave his post inside May’s office in 10 Downing Street at the end of this week, he said by telephone on Wednesday.
Since the election, May’s been hit by a string of resignations in policy, strategy and communications. As well as leaving the prime minister short of advisers that she knows and trusts at a vital moment, the departures suggest that staff see little future in the job.
“It’s not quite rats deserting a sinking ship, but it does indicate that people feel things can’t go on as they have been going,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. “There needs to be some kind of reinvigoration, but this does indicate that some people feel that can’t be done.”
The departure means that May has lost both her top strategists in the wake of last month’s general election. Nick Timothy, her co-chief of staff, quit the day after May’s Conservatives were stripped of their parliamentary majority in the poll. He and Wilkins wrote the Brexit speech in January in which she set out her plan to take the UK out of the single market and customs union.
Time running out
Britain has less than two years to negotiate Brexit, with large questions about what it even wants a deal to look like still unanswered. Last week May held her first formal meeting with business leaders to discuss that question. This week the Home Office announced a study into the impact that migrant workers have on the economy.
As well as Wilkins and Timothy, May’s other chief of staff, Fiona Hill, quit in the immediate wake of the election. Katie Perrior, who resigned as May’s communications chief when the election was called, has made a string of public attacks on the way May’s office was run.
Wilkins, who informed May of his decision last week, before she went on vacation, said he intends to work in the private sector as a communications consultant.
“I always planned to leave but agreed to stay on after the election until the summer, and will be leaving at the end of the week,” Wilkins said. “I continue to support the prime minister and wish her and the team well for the future.”
Disastrous result
He was said to have been dismayed by the disastrous result for May’s party in last month’s election, and in particular the way the Conservative Party’s campaign was run, according to two people familiar with his thinking.
Wilkins worked as the premier’s chief speech writer, a role in which he helped shape her vision of reforming the UK economy to prioritize the needs of ordinary working people who had been overlooked in the past. Alongside Timothy, Wilkins believed May should have fought the general election as a candidate who would radically change Britain.
Instead, Wilkins was said to have been frustrated that the election consultant Lynton Crosby ordered May to campaign on the promise of providing “strong and stable leadership,” a message that allowed her to be portrayed as the establishment candidate, the people said.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories
