London: David Cam-eron's trusted policy guru Steve Hilton is returning to Downing Street to sit on a new advisory panel almost a year after he left for a sabbatical in America.
Mr Hilton, known for his casual dress and reforming zeal, will become an unpaid member of David Cameron's new Conservative Parliamentary Advisory Board.
The group has been set up to inject fresh ideas into Number 10, led by new policy chief Jo Johnson, the brother of London Mayor Boris Johnson, along with MPs Jane Ellison, Paul Uppal, Nick Gibb, Margot James, George Eustice, Peter Lilley and Jake Berry.
Mr Hilton, who left Downing Street last summer, originally planned to come back to help Mr Cameron full-time after a year in America with his wife, Rachel.
However, he is now intending to stay longer in America, flying back for some meetings of the new board.
The strategy chief left Downing Street amid frustration about the pace of reforms in Whitehall. He was rumoured to have been fed up after a series of more radical policies were blocked or watered down by the Liberal Democrats.
Since his departure, some Tories have worried that Downing Street has been lacking in new ideas and focus.
Mr Hilton is one of the most colourful figures in Downing Street, wearing trendy clothes and walking around the office without shoes on. During Barack Obama’s visit to London, a White House aide, after walking past Mr Hilton, asked “who is the beach bum?”.
He is credited with a series of “blue sky” ideas including scrapping maternity leave, suspending consumer rights legislation and using an internet blog to make government announcements, rather than Whitehall press officers.
He also proposed privatising the M25 - to the shock of some ministers - and urged the Prime Minister simply to ignore some European regulations.
Mr Hilton’s approach has even spawned a fake Twitter account - Steve Hilton Guru - which purports to describe his day and invites people into his “wigwam of trust”.
Some of the entries have proved so close to the truth that senior ministers monitor the account.
He is also thought to be the inspiration behind a character in Armando Ianucci's The Thick of It.
During his year out, Mr Hilton has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University. |
