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Fiona McLeod Hill (born July 1973), formerly known as Fiona Cunningham, is a British
political adviser Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely tele ...
. She served as Joint
Downing Street Chief of Staff The office of Downing Street Chief of Staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office retains a ...
supporting prime minister
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
, alongside
Nick Timothy Nicholas James Timothy (born March 1980) is a British political adviser. He served as Joint Downing Street Chief of Staff, alongside Fiona Hill, to Prime Minister Theresa May, until his resignation in the wake of the 2017 general election. ...
, until her resignation following the 2017 general election.


Early life

Fiona Hill was born in
Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
, and attended St Stephen’s Roman Catholic Secondary School in
Port Glasgow Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recen ...
. Before turning to politics, she worked as a journalist in both the press and broadcast sectors; her experience included working for the '' Daily Record'', ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...
'' and
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
. She joined the Conservative Party press office in 2006, before spending a period at the
British Chamber of Commerce British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
, and then returning to work for the Conservatives.


Career


Home Office

From 2010, Hill worked alongside
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
in the Home Office as a media adviser. She resigned in 2014. She left government after being forced to resign as May's special adviser in a 2014 dispute with Michael Gove over alleged extremism in schools, which culminated in her releasing a confidential letter on May's website, prompting then Prime Minister,
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, to insist that May sack her. Hill then became an associate director of the
Centre for Social Justice The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent centre-right think tank based in the United Kingdom, co-founded in 2004 by Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie, Mark Florman and Philippa Stroud. Political positions The organisation's stated ...
think tank, and in 2015 became a Director of lobbying firm Lexington Communications.


Downing Street

On 14 July 2016, following the resolution of the 2016 Conservative leadership election, Hill was appointed joint chief of staff to Theresa May, the day after May became
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
. Little of her own political stance is on public record. Unlike Timothy, with whom she shared the post of Chief of Staff for a year, she avoided writing opinion articles. James Kirkup, who worked with Hill as a journalist on ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...
'', suggested "it's probably fair to say that Mrs May only talks about modern slavery
s a priority for government action S, or s, is the nineteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphab ...
because of Ms Hill, and that's not the only issue of which that is true". The 2017 general election saw the return of the Conservatives as a minority government, with their majority dependent on the
Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...
, leading to widespread calls within the party for both Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill to be sacked. According to reports, Hill irritated the Scottish Conservatives in particular. They complained of her excessive "interference" and of being told not to run a campaign too detached from the one run from London. Nevertheless, their leader
Ruth Davidson Ruth Elizabeth Davidson, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links (born 10 November 1978), is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019 and Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish ...
chose to ignore the demand, to achieve a considerable increase in the number of Scottish MPs. This result was crucial in mitigating the loss of seats south of the border and appeared to question key elements of Hill and Timothy′s election strategy: within days, and in the face of the growing backlash, both chiefs of staff had resigned.


Personal life

While at Sky News Hill met Tim Cunningham, a TV executive, whom she married; the couple later divorced. Later senior civil servant Charles Farr became Hill's partner.


References


External links


Twitter page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Fiona 1973 births Living people People from Greenock British political consultants Conservative Party (UK) people British special advisers Date of birth missing (living people) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Downing Street Chiefs of Staff