Theresa’s rottweiler (and style guru) who terrifies ministers
FIONA HILL is the PM’s Girl Friday whom she trusts implicitly. Indeed, during the infamous ‘Trousergate’ photoshoot, Theresa May’s joint chief of staff let slip that she herself had personally helped to select the outfit.
Although self-confident in her choice of clothes (most notably with her trademark kitten heels), Mrs May has benefited from the style advice of her 43-year-old aide.
Of course, the pugnacious Glaswegian does not restrict her advice to sartorial matters. With fellow chief of staff Nick Timothy — nicknamed the PM’s ‘Rasputin’ on account of his Slavic beard — she is fiercely protective of her boss.
So fierce, in fact, that many ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond, have complained about being bossed about by the ‘unelected’ Ms Hill. They have spoken of what they claim is her rudeness and control freak tendency.
Crucially, her No10 office is next to May’s and anyone who wants to see the PM must walk past her first. ‘Everything has to go through Fiona and Nick. Not only are they the PM’s eyes and ears, they are her second sight, too,’ said one bruised minister. ‘Fiona would walk across a busy street to start a fight if she thought someone was trying to damage Theresa.’
Such rottweiler duties began when she worked for Mrs May at the Home Office and she made little secret of her disdain for the ministers who crossed her. Such was her reputation that David Cameron’s Downing Street team suspected, with some justification, that Ms Hill was too eagerly promoting the interests of Mrs May above those of the government as a whole.
One victim during the Coalition years was Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker, who regularly clashed with Hill after moving from the transport department. Later, he said: ‘It was like going from somewhere nice and warm to Hell.’
Few were surprised when Ms Hill got her comeuppance in 2014 during yet another bloody Whitehall turf war. It happened after the then Justice Secretary, Michael Gove, was identified as the source of an anonymous briefing to a newspaper in which Mrs May was blamed for letting Islamic extremists infiltrate schools in Birmingham. Gove also criticised Charles Farr, Mrs May’s counter-terrorism adviser, who was in a relationship with Ms Hill.
Not surprisingly, with both her boss and her lover attacked, Ms Hill retaliated.
In the messy fall-out, Downing Street saw its chance to heap retribution on Ms Hill — with Mrs May forced to get rid of her loyal aide.
Cameron’s resignation as PM was the chance for Mrs May to bring her back into the fold. Hill quit her job at a communications agency to help Mrs May on her Tory leadership campaign.
Ms Hill was duly rewarded — being one of Mrs May’s first Downing Street appointments.
Raised in Greenock and educated at a comprehensive, Ms Hill’s first job was as a football reporter on the Daily Record. She moved to Sky News and became fascinated by politics. It wasn’t long before she was working as special adviser to the Tories’ Shadow Health Secretary.
After Cameron stood down as PM, his departing communications chief Craig Oliver warned civil servants: ‘If you think I’m difficult, just wait until you meet Fiona Hill. She’s terrifying.’
Nicky Morgan can certainly testify to that.