Nick Timothy is the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Timothy won 15,814 votes (34.3%). The Labour candidate, Rebecca Denness, received 12,567 votes (27.2%), while the Reform UK candidate David Bull secured 9,623 votes (20.8%). Timothy was duly elected with a majority of 3,247 votes.

The West Suffolk constituency is located in the East of England. It has been represented by the Conservative Party since its creation in 1997. Timothy’s immediate predecessor as the MP for West Suffolk was Matt Hancock, the former health secretary.

Political Career

Timothy currently serves as shadow justice secretary on the conservative forntbench appointed by Kemi Badenoch (since January 2026). He succeeded Robert Jenrick, who left the post upon defecting to Reform UK.

Timothy previously served as an opposition assistant whip (2024-2026).

In March 2026, Keir Starmer, the prime minister, called on Badenoch to sack Timothy after he described a mass Muslim public prayer as an “act of domination and division”.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Timothy said: “Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination.”

He added: “Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions.”

Timothy delivered his maiden speech on 22 July 2024 during a debate on the economy, welfare and public services.

In it, he said: “We need to drastically cut immigration, not just for the economic and cultural reasons that should by now be obvious, but to limit new demand for housing.”

He added: “We need to question economic theory, challenge Treasury orthodoxy and think beyond the intellectual limits of ideological liberalism.

“Theories like comparative advantage have led us to offshore industry and grow dependent on hostile states, like China. But international trade is neither free nor fair, and net zero cannot mean sacrificing our prosperity and security.

“Being a services superpower is a great advantage, but alone it is not enough. We need a serious strategy to reindustrialise, narrow the trade deficit and rebalance the economy.”

Before entering parliament, Timothy held senior positions as a political advisor. Most notably, he served as joint chief of staff to Theresa May as prime minister from 2016 to 2017.

The 2017 general election, in which Timothy played a prominent role behind the scenes, resulted in a hung parliament – a shock outcome that saw the Conservative party lose its parliamentary majority. In the aftermath of the election, both of May’s joint chiefs-of-staff, Timothy and Fiona Hill, resigned. They were viewed as crucial in persuading the prime minister to call the snap election and were blamed for the disastrous campaign that followed.

Timothy was reportedly responsible for the Conservative Party’s social care policy, dubbed the “dementia tax”. In an article for ConservativeHome, published in the wake of the campaign, Timothy took responsibility for the party’s botched social care announcement.

He wrote: “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.

“But I would like to make clear 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.”

Upon his selection as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in 2023, the Guardian described him as the “architect of Theresa May’s 2017 election failure”. Timothy was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in May’s resignation honours.

After leaving Downing Street in 2017, Timothy became a columnist for newspapers including the Daily Telegraph and the Critic. Previously, Timothy was a special adviser to May during her tenure as home secretary (2010-2015).

Timothy also held roles at the Conservative Research Department, first as a researcher (2001-2004) and latterly as director (2008-2010).

Political Views

Leadership elections

Tory leadership 2024: Timothy supported Tom Tugendhat’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Rishi Sunak following the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election. Tugendhat, the then-shadow security minister, was eliminated in the third parliamentary ballot on 8 October 2024 after receiving 20 votes.

Timothy went on to endorse Robert Jenrick’s candidacy. Jenrick, a former immigration minister, positioned himself on the right wing of the party, advocating for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He emerged as an early frontrunner, topping the first two parliamentary ballots.

After reaching the final two, Jenrick was defeated in the membership vote by Kemi Badenoch, receiving 41,388 votes (43.5%) compared to Badenoch’s 53,806 (56.5%).

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Timothy voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the 10-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union.

Assisted dying

Timothy voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Timothy voted against a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Foreign policy and security

IPAC: Timothy is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) – an international, cross-party network of legislators from democratic countries focused on relations with the People’s Republic of China. The alliance, established on 4 June 2020, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, was formed to unite “lawmakers worldwide, promoting democracy and addressing threats to the rules-based and human rights systems posed by the rise of China.”

Before Politics

Timothy was born in Birmingham in March 1980. He attended King Edward VI Aston School.

Timothy studied politics at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 2001. He was the first member of his family to attend university.

Timothy was a policy adviser at the Association of British Insurers from 2005 to 2006. He was director of the New Schools Network, a charity set up in 2009 to improve educational opportunities for young people, between 2015 and 2016.

Timothy was a non-executive director at the Department for Education (2020-2022).

Timothy authored Remaking One Nation: The Future of Conservatism (2020).

Personal Life

Timothy grew up in Birmingham. His father was a steel worker and his mother a school secretary.

Trivia

Timothy is a supporter of Aston Villa Football Club.