Tim Montgomerie

Last updated

Tim Montgomerie
ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie speaking at the launch of PX report 'Northern Lights'.jpg
Tim Montgomerie in 2012
Born
Timothy Montgomerie

(1970-07-24) 24 July 1970 (age 53)
Barnstaple, Devon, England
Education King's School
Alma mater University of Exeter
Political party Conservative
Website conservativehome.blogs.com

Timothy Montgomerie (born 24 July 1970) is a British political activist, blogger, and columnist. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 until 2013, when he left to join The Times . He was formerly the newspaper's comment editor, but resigned in March 2014. [1] On 17 February 2016, Montgomerie resigned his membership of the Conservative Party, citing the leadership's stance on Europe, which was then supportive of EU membership. [2] In 2019, he was briefly a special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, advising on social justice issues. [3]

Contents

Montgomerie has been described as "one of the most important Conservative activists of the past 20 years", [4] and in February 2012, The Observer said that "In the eyes of most MPs, Montgomerie [is] one of the most influential Tories outside the cabinet." [5]

Early life

Montgomerie was born into an army family in Barnstaple in 1970. [6] [7] He said in a Guardian interview [8] that "his teenage Thatcherism was tempered by discovering evangelical Christianity at sixteen".

Montgomerie was educated at the King's School, a secondary school in Gütersloh, Germany run by Service Children's Education (SCE) for children of military personnel. [9] He then attended the University of Exeter, where he studied Economics and Geography, and ran the Conservative Association with Robert Halfon, Sajid Javid and David Burrowes, all future Conservative members of parliament. [8]

At Exeter University, Montgomerie and Burrowes also started the Conservative Christian Fellowship (CCF) in December 1990, supported by the Christian Coalition of America. [10] During this period, he argued that the Conservative Party should form closer links with churches on issues such as homosexuality and Section 28, saying that the party should "expose the unbiblical and the libertine". [11] He has since reversed his position on those issues. [12] He served as Director of the CCF from 1990 to 2003. [8]

Career

Montgomerie worked briefly at the Bank of England in the 1990s as a statistician, where his responsibilities included the Russian economy and the study of systemic risk in financial systems. [13]

Conservative Party Central Office

From 1998 to 2003, Montgomerie was the speech-writer for two Conservative Party leaders, William Hague, and then Iain Duncan Smith. He also had responsibility for the Conservative Party's outreach to faith communities and the voluntary sector. [8] In September 2003, Montgomerie became Conservative Party leader Duncan Smith's Chief of Staff; Duncan Smith was replaced by Michael Howard two months later. [14] He had become a main influence behind Duncan Smith's theme of compassionate conservatism. [15]

Centre for Social Justice

In 2004, with Iain Duncan Smith and Philippa Stroud, Montgomerie established the Centre for Social Justice to take forward the work on "compassionate conservatism" that Smith had begun as party leader. [8] Following the tradition of people such as William Wilberforce, the Earl of Shaftesbury and Richard Oastler he aimed to make the condition of the poor a priority. He established a social action project called "Renewing One Nation" which helped Duncan Smith focus on these issues. [4]

ConservativeHome

Montgomerie (left) at a Policy Exchange event in 2012 with Mark Pack of Liberal Democrat Voice ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie and Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack speaking at the launch of PX report 'Northern Lights'.jpg
Montgomerie (left) at a Policy Exchange event in 2012 with Mark Pack of Liberal Democrat Voice

On 28 March 2005, Montgomerie launched the ConservativeHome website in the period just before the general election campaign that year. [16] With Conservative MP John Hayes, he also set up conservativedemocracy.com, which successfully co-ordinated grassroots opposition to party leader Michael Howard's attempt to abolish the "one member, one vote" rule in the 2005 Conservative leadership election. [17]

In September 2006, The Independent described Montgomerie as "emerging as a major player in Tory politics." [18] He was critical of the A-List and argued that the party leader after 2005, David Cameron, was in danger of alienating working-class Tory voters, [19] [20] [21] and pressed Cameron for specific pledges on tax cuts. [22] He supported the introduction of same-sex marriage in England and Wales arguing that it was a way to strengthen the institution more generally. [12] Through ConservativeHome, Montgomerie was used as an expert on internet campaigning by Conservative Central Office. [23] [24] [25]

Internet television

Montgomerie was a director of the internet television channel 18 Doughty Street which began broadcasting in October 2006 and went off air in November 2007. While at 18 Doughty Street, Montgomerie hosted its 'Campaign HQ' programme, which developed the channel's Internet political advertisements after allowing viewers to vote on a choice of (usually) three different proposals. Previous adverts included attacks on taxes, state funding of political parties, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone. The latest, "A World Without America", with an end scene depicting the Statue of Liberty wearing a burqa, was co-produced by 18 Doughty Street and the website BritainAndAmerica, and had 50,000 views within its first 24 hours of publication. [26]

Since 2010

Tim Montgomerie in Budapest Tim Montgomerie (8).jpg
Tim Montgomerie in Budapest

Montgomerie continued to edit ConservativeHome alongside others including co-editor Jonathan Isaby, assistant editor Joseph Willits, deputy editor Matthew Barrett, and Isaby's replacement, former Conservative MP Paul Goodman [27] After the 2010 general election Montgomerie wrote a report that was critical of David Cameron's election campaign, entitled "Falling short". [28]

Montgomerie has promoted the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory and wrote in The Times in 2013, "The 20th century was far from an overwhelming victory for the right. Though revolutionary Marxism died, its fellow traveller, cultural Marxism, prospered." [29]

Through his prominence with ConservativeHome, Montgomerie wrote frequent articles on Conservative politics for The Guardian and The Times, and occasionally for the Daily Mail , The Independent, and the Financial Times . [30] In April 2011, he became a columnist for The Sunday Telegraph , [31] but in October of the same year, Montgomerie resigned from his column, after a series of attacks on him by the Mandrake column in The Daily Telegraph , its sister paper. Montgomerie wrote that a tweet critical of the Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher had started the attacks. [32] Montgomerie became a columnist for The Times soon after. [33]

In February 2013, Montgomerie announced that in April that year he would join The Times as comment editor, replacing Anne Spackman, but maintained a role as an "advisor" and weekly blogger for ConservativeHome. [34] [35]

He founded the UnHerd website in 2017 "to appeal to people who instinctively refuse to follow the herd and also... to investigate 'unheard' ideas, individuals and communities". [36] On 25 September 2018, he announced that he had left UnHerd. [37]

In September 2019, Montgomerie was appointed as "social justice adviser" to the Prime Minister in Number 10 Downing Street. [3] On 31 January 2020, he said on the BBC's Politics Live that the role lasted until the election was called in November 2019 and that he was now in discussions with Boris Johnson regarding a new advisory role following Johnson's success in that election. By May 2020 Montgomerie had become a frequent critic of the government, in particular of the Prime Minister's Senior Adviser Dominic Cummings and the Prime Minister himself. [38] [39]

In 2020, Montgomerie was reported as saying that the British government should have a "special relationship" with Hungary post-Brexit, saying at a meeting of the Danube Institute that "Budapest and Hungary have been home, I think, for an awful lot of interesting early thinking on the limits of liberalism, and I think we are seeing that in the UK as well. So I hope there will be a special relationship with Hungary amongst other states." [40] [41] [42] Montgomerie had been appointed Boris Johnson's Social Justice advisor in the September of that year and the Labour Party called for his removal from the position, accusing him of "Cosying up to a government which peddles antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric, attacks migrants and refugees and undermines judicial and media independence". [43]

Personal life

Montgomerie is a Christian. [44]

Related Research Articles

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, having won the 2019 general election, and has been the primary governing party in the United Kingdom since 2010. The party is on the centre-right of the political spectrum, and encompasses various ideological factions including one-nation conservatives, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatives. The party currently has 354 members of Parliament, 260 members of the House of Lords, 9 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Welsh Parliament, 4 directly elected mayors, 30 police and crime commissioners, and around 5,647 local councillors. It holds the annual Conservative Party Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Duncan Smith</span> British politician, former Leader of the Conservative Party

Sir George Iain Duncan Smith, often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Chingford and Woodford Green, formerly Chingford, since 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Duncan</span> British Conservative politician

Sir Alan James Carter Duncan is a British former Conservative Party politician who served as Minister of State for International Development from 2010 to 2014 and as Minister of State for Europe and the Americas from 2016 to 2019. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton from 1992 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Osborne</span> Former Conservative politician, newspaper editor

George Gideon Oliver Osborne is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 2001 to 2017. He was editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Gale</span> British Conservative politician

Sir Roger James Gale is a British politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for North Thanet since 1983. He had a career in journalism and broadcasting from 1964, around the same time as he joined the Conservative Party, until 1983. He was knighted in 2012. He was a prominent and vocal critic of Boris Johnson during his leadership of the Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic Grieve</span> British politician

Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 and was the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2015 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Jenkin</span> British Conservative politician

Sir Bernard Christison Jenkin is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich and North Essex since 2010. He also serves as chair of the Liaison Committee. He was first elected to represent Colchester North in 1992, and went on to represent North Essex before the Harwich and North Essex constituency was created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Social Justice</span>

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.

<i>Spiked</i> (magazine) British Internet-based magazine

Spiked is a British Internet magazine focusing on politics, culture and society. The magazine was founded in 2001 with the same editor and many of the same contributors as Living Marxism, which had closed in 2000 after losing a case for libel brought by ITN.

18 Doughty Street was a British internet-based political broadcaster that hosted a webcast as its chief product. It began broadcasting at 18:55 on 10 October 2006, from its studio at 18 Doughty Street in the Bloomsbury area of London, and ceased broadcasting at 23:00 on Thursday 8 November 2007. It claimed to be Britain's first internet-based TV station.

ConservativeHome is a British right-wing blog which supports the Conservative Party. It was first established by Tim Montgomerie in 2005 with the aim of arguing for a broad conservative spectrum, which is serious about both social justice and a fair competitive economy. A second aim of the blog is to represent grassroots Conservatives, and is supportive of the Conservative Party

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Johnson</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023, having previously been MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Conservative Party leadership election</span> British Conservative Party leadership election

The 2016 Conservative Party leadership election was held due to Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation as party leader. He had resigned after losing the national referendum to leave the European Union. Cameron, who supported Britain's continued membership of the EU, announced his resignation on 24 June, saying that he would step down by October. Theresa May won the contest on 11 July 2016, after the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom left her as the sole candidate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Conservative Party leadership election</span> British Conservative Party leadership election

The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as prime minister of the United Kingdom once a successor had been elected. Nominations opened on 10 June; 10 candidates were nominated. The first ballot of members of Parliament (MPs) took place on 13 June, with exhaustive ballots of MPs also taking place on 18, 19 and 20 June, reducing the candidates to two. The general membership of the party elected the leader by postal ballot; the result was announced on 23 July, with Boris Johnson being elected with almost twice as many votes as his opponent Jeremy Hunt.

Racism is alleged to have existed in the Conservative Party since at least 1964. Conservative shadow defence minister Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech in 1968 was both influential and widely regarded as anti-immigrant with racist overtones; the party's leader at the time, Edward Heath, condemned it, although some Conservative MPs defended Powell's speech. Since then, accusations have been made about several leading members of the party and its policies; these have related to prejudice against non-white people.

Allegations of Islamophobia in the UK Conservative Party have been made, including against senior politicians, such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith.

Since the founding of the Conservative Party in 1834, there has been a wide variety of both proven and unproven anti-semitic accusations linked to the Conservative party leaders and other party figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrie Johnson</span> Media advisor and wife of former British prime minister Boris Johnson

Caroline Louise Beavan Johnson is an English media consultant and the wife of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson. She is the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Kruger</span> British Conservative politician

Daniel Rayne Kruger is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Devizes in Wiltshire since 2019.

The July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Boris Johnson's announcement on 7 July 2022 that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, after a series of political controversies.

References

  1. ↑ Greenslade, Roy (11 March 2014). "Tim Montgomerie resigns as The Times's comment editor". The Guardian .
  2. ↑ Montgomerie, Tim (18 February 2016). "Enough. I'm quitting the Conservative party". The Times . Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 Goodman, Paul (20 September 2019). "Good luck, Tim Montgomerie". ConservativeHome. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  4. 1 2 Finkelstein, Daniel (13 October 2009). "The coup behind the Tories' clap for poverty". The Times.
  5. ↑ Helm, Toby (12 February 2012). "Tim Montgomerie, the man who takes the Conservative pulse". The Observer . Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  6. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "The NS Interview: Tim Montgomerie". New Statesman . 12 March 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Beckett, Andy (23 October 2012). "Tim Montgomerie: pushing for a rightwing Tory party – with a heart". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  9. ↑ Eaton, David (8 March 2012). "The softly spoken assassin feared by David Cameron". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  10. ↑ Olasky, Marvin (22 July 2006). "A new fab four". World . Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  11. ↑ Cohen, Nick (1 May 2000). "Onward, Christian Tories". New Statesman. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  12. 1 2 Grice, Andrew (15 September 2015). "Prominent Tory disowns 'religious right' and supports gay marriage" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  13. ↑ Conference Chairs / Facilitators / Presenters Speakers Specialist
  14. ↑ Happold, Tom (4 September 2003). "Blue heaven: now, at last the Tories have a prayer". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  15. ↑ Hinsliff, Gaby (13 October 2002). "Devout whiz-kid seen as Tory saviour". The Observer. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  16. ↑ Vass, Steven (10 April 2005). "Bloggers ready for general election debut". Sunday Herald . Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  17. ↑ Bennett, Rosemary (2 June 2005). "Davis has eyes on 'common ground'". The Times. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  18. ↑ "New Model Tories: Tory tribes" . The Independent. 23 September 2006. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2006.
  19. ↑ Cowell, Alan (3 October 2006). "New Leader Tries to Update Conservatives' Image". The New York Times . Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  20. ↑ Tories vow to learn over A-list BBC News, 31 May 2006
  21. ↑ Tories 'failing to recruit women' – BBC, 14 July 2006
  22. ↑ "Cameron set to avoid tax giveaway". BBC News. 1 October 2006. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  23. ↑ "Tories to use US internet tactics to target BBC" . Financial Times . 10 February 2006.
  24. ↑ Tory activists may get blog spot BBC News, 8 June 2006
  25. ↑ Battle of the conference blogs BBC News, 15 September 2006
  26. ↑ 18 Doughty Street Archived 25 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ Joseph Willits joins ConservativeHome World Magazine, 22 July 2006
  28. ↑ Falling short
  29. ↑ "Opinion: 'Cultural Marxism' is a far-right conspiracy in murky internet forums – so why is a Tory MP now using it?" . The Independent. 27 March 2019. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  30. ↑ "All articles by Tim Montgomerie". journalisted.com.
  31. ↑ "Tim Montgomerie". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 August 2011.
  32. ↑ "Tim Montgomerie: Why The Telegraph is "sh*tbagging" me". Conservative Home. 19 October 2011.
  33. ↑ "81. Tim Montgomerie". The Guardian. 16 September 2012.
  34. ↑ "Tim Montgomerie moving to become Comment Editor of The Times (but he'll still be writing for ConservativeHome)". Conservative Home. 27 February 2013.
  35. ↑ "Tim Montgomerie finds a new home at the Times". The Guardian. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  36. ↑ Goodman, Paul. "Can UnHerd gain Moo-mentum?". Conservative Home. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  37. ↑ Mayhew, Freddy (25 September 2018). "Former Times columnist Tim Montgomerie leaves Unherd news website he founded last year". Press Gazette.
  38. ↑ "Tim Montgomerie Twittter account". Twitter. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  39. ↑ "Why I broke with Boris Johnson". www.newstatesman.com. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  40. ↑ "Boris Johnson government should have 'special relationship' with far-right Hungarian regime, PM's ex-aide says" . The Independent. 7 January 2020. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  41. ↑ Philips, Aleks (7 January 2020). "Boris Johnson aide says he hopes UK will have 'special relationship' with Viktor Orbán's Hungary". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  42. ↑ "A Top Boris Johnson Aide Says the UK Will Have A "Special Relationship" with Viktor Orbán's Hungary After Brexit". buzzfeed.com. 6 January 2020.
  43. ↑ Parker, George (6 January 2020). "Boris Johnson adviser under fire for praise of Hungary's Viktor Orban". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  44. ↑ "Is Tim Mongomerie the most powerful man in politics?". tatler.com. 30 May 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.