AS David Cameron’s chief speech writer and director of strategy, Ameet Gill’s influence in Downing Street was such that he was described by the Mail on Sunday as ‘the most influential figure from an ethnic minority background in British politics’.
He played a central role in the successful campaign against independence during the Scottish Referendum of 2014 and helped Cameron win the General Election of 2015. When Cameron resigned after losing the EU Referendum vote of 2016, Gill left Downing Street to set up a consultancy firm called Hanbury Strategy with Paul Stephenson, who had been the head of the Vote Leave communication team.
Though the pair had been on opposite sides in the Tory civil war over Brexit, they have continued to be a joint force in helping shape the peace, advising companies how to handle the sweeping changes now in the offing, directing political campaigns on their messaging, and helping businesses and investors to navigate their way through many complex policy problems in domestic and international politics.
Gill was credited with writing the landmark speech in which David Cameron famously described the battle against terrorism as the “struggle of our generation”. According to Number 10 insiders, the vast bulk of the speech was a reflection of Gill’s personal views. “Extremists do not represent Islam. But, because the Islamists selfidentify as Muslims, we need to challenge them.
And that needs help from Muslim communities, and from Muslim scholars who can say they are wrong… It is right to say these people have nothing to do with the true nature of Islam. But that, on its own, is not enough. We need to go further.”
Hanbury was in the news in September 2020 after it emerged the consultancy had been awarded a government contract worth a reported £580,000 to carry out research into “public attitudes and behaviours in relation to” the pandemic. However, it should be pointed out that under emergency rules introduced at the start of the pandemic, the government was allowed to bypass the standard procurement rules requiring an open competitive tendering process.
Gill tells GG2 Power List: “I was very fortunate and privileged to work on David Cameron’s re-election campaign of 2015. It was also a huge privilege to work in Number 10 for six years, and work on policies and programmes I really cared about."
