Hammond was ‘frozen out’
THE Election campaign highlighted the simmering frustration of Philip Hammond over his exclusion from the inner circle in Downing Street.
This came to a head with the Tory manifesto, after aides who prepared it decided not to publish a costings document itemising how each policy pledge would be paid for.
For the Chancellor, this amounted to economic degeneracy. How could he credibly argue the Conservatives were fiscally responsible?
But the campaign leadership ruled that publishing the party’s internal calculations could backfire.
‘If we have to prove our fiscal credibility, then we have a problem,’ May’s policy adviser Will Tanner told Hammond.
The Chancellor’s frustration had been brewing for weeks. He had been locked out of the manifesto process and felt he should have been asked to approve the public spending plans earlier. He wanted to make sure the manifesto did not tie his hands at future Budgets.
The low point – before the devastation of the result itself – came on May 22, when the Prime Minister used a press conference to scrap her flagship pledge to reform social care, the so-called ‘dementia tax’, four days after announcing it.
Her speech writer, Chris Wilkins, said: ‘People don’t mind you doing U-turns if it shows you are listening and if you explain what you are doing – so to change the policy and then claim you’re not changing it was devastating to the brand.’ One Minister after another told May the manifesto should be as vague as possible. Hammond was among those who advocated a minimalist approach.
About a week before the Election was announced, Nick Timothy asked Cabinet Office Minister Ben Gummer to take charge of writing it.
Gummer was deeply unhappy at the prospect of an early Election but accepted Timothy’s offer. The drafting itself was highly secretive.
Feedback from research was that the social care policy caused a few alarm bells to ring but May’s team believed they could handle it. Then, on Sunday May 14, Gummer met Timothy and co-chief of staff Fiona Hill at the Mays’ house in Sonning.
The manifesto was due to go to the printers that Tuesday – ready for the official launch on the Thursday.
Gummer pointed out some of the most dangerous areas, including social care, and argued: ‘Given this is what we know we’re going to do, it’s dishonest to leave it out.’
May decided that more detail was the right thing to do. That meant keeping the care policy in full.
The day before the manifesto was printed, Crosby and fellow Election campaign organiser Lord Gilbert told Timothy they were ‘very concerned’ about the social care plan.
But Timothy played his trump card: the PM understood the risks and wanted to keep it.
Barely had May announced the social care plan than the backlash began. The stage was set for her humiliating U-turn four days later.