Chancellor said his role had not been the ‘one I would have liked it to be’ and refused to say how long he believes Theresa May will remain in No10
PHILIP Hammond is the latest senior Tory to twist the knife into Theresa May over her disastrous election campaign – claiming she failed to talk about the economy enough.
The Chancellor fired another broadside against the Prime Minister by claiming his role had not been the "one I would have liked it to be".
And he refused to say how long he believes she will remain in Number 10 as Mrs May struggles to keep a lid on Cabinet splits and a potential vote of no confidence in her.
Mr Hammond, who was barely visible in the run up to the June 8 vote, said the Conservatives would have "probably done better" if they had focused on its economic record.
After being asked if he had put these concerns to the PM, he told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I'm not going to repeat to you the private conversations I had with Theresa May on Friday.
"Yes, it's true that my role in the election campaign was not the one I would have liked it to be.
"I did a lot of travelling around the country. I met lots of very interesting people, I heard lots of interesting stories.
"I would have liked to have made much more of our economic record, which I think is an excellent one, creating 2.9 million new jobs, getting the deficit down by three quarters."
Asked if Mrs May's former aides Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill had kept him off the airwaves, he replied: "I'm not going to speculate about what happened inside the campaign leadership team.
"The end result is, in my judgment, we didn't talk about the economy as much as we should have done.
"We didn't put enough energy into dismantling Jeremy Corbyn's economic proposals and his spending plans, which would be catastrophic for this country and we will now do that."
And in a later interview he was forced to insist he had been "not quite in a cupboard" over the course of the election.
He told ITV's Peston on Sunday: "I think it was a mistake of the campaign not to focus more on an area where we have a great story to tell; our record on the economy since the great recession."
And asked how long Mrs May had left in number 10, he replied: "I think what the country needs now is a period of calm while we get on with the job at hand."
"Theresa is leading the Government and I think the Government needs to get on with its job."
There had been rumours Mrs May was set to kick Mr Hammond out of No11 Downing Street if she was returned to the flat next door with a massive majority in the snap election.
It followed an awkward campaign appearance with Mrs May where the PM refused to say if he would remain in post as he stood by her side.
The press conference at Canary Wharf had been staged to allow the Conservatives to attack Labour's economic plans, but instead the pair face questions about their working relationship.
He remained low-profile for the rest of the campaign, and himself pointed out today this was his first media appearance since the election.
