May's 2 closest advisers quit after election debacle

British Prime Minister Theresa May's two closest advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, resigned on Saturday after taking responsibility for the poll debacle for the Conservative Party which lost its majority in the House of Commons.

Timothy and Hill, considered part of May's inner circle of confidants as her joint chiefs of staff, quit their Downing Street top jobs after coming under fire as the duo responsible for convincing May to call a snap general election with claims that she was assured a landslide victory.

According to reports, May had been given an ultimatum by her own Conservative party colleagues that the pair had to go if she wanted to avert a leadership challenge on Monday.

The duo are widely credited with running May's election campaign, which focused attention entirely on May rather than the Cabinet, a move that clearly did not pan out well as the Tories ended up losing their majority in the House of Commons and winning just 318 seats, well short of the 326 overall majority and forced to form a minority government with the support of Northern Ireland's regional Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Timothy accepted responsibility for his role in the Conservative party manifesto, criticised by many party MPs for its policies on social care and pension, which are believed to have cost heavily in the polls.

In a statement confirming his departure, Timothy said: "Clearly, the general election result was a huge disappointment. I take responsibility for my part in this election campaign.

"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," he said.