British Prime Minister Theresa May's chief of staff Nick Timothy and joint chief of staff Fiona Hill resigned on Saturday after facing severe criticism from several MPs and officials of the party. Party legislators claimed that the advisers played a detrimental role in the poor performance of the party during the recently concluded general elections.
The Conservative Party failed to win a majority in the general elections where the Tories emerged as the largest party but couldn't reach the magic figure of 326 seats needed to form government in the 650-seat House of Commons in the country. May reportedly was given an ultimatum from a few MPs that she would have to face a leadership contest if she didn't sack the pair.
Timothy announced his resignation through Conservative Home, a centre-right political blog in the UK, saying: "I take responsibility for my part in this election campaign, which was the oversight of our policy programme. In particular, I regret the decision not to include in the manifesto a ceiling as well as a floor in our proposal to help meet the increasing cost of social care."
Timothy, who was appointed chief of staff in July 2016, also clarified that "the bizarre media reports about my own role in the policy's inclusion are wrong; it had been the subject of many months of work within Whitehall, and it was not my personal pet project."
He added: "I chose not to rebut these reports as they were published, as to have done so would have been a distraction for the campaign. But I take responsibility for the content of the whole manifesto, which I continue to believe is an honest and strong programme for government."
Hill also released a short statement on Conservative Home saying: "It's been a pleasure to serve in government, and a pleasure to work with such an excellent Prime Minister. I have no doubt at all that Theresa May will continue to serve and work hard as Prime Minister – and do it brilliantly."
