Megan BullTimothy Montgomerie was born on 24 July 1970 in Barnstaple, Devon, England, and grew up partly in Germany, where his father was in the military.
He studied Economics and Geography at the University of Exeter, where he was active in Conservative student politics and helped establish the Conservative Christian Fellowship. He began his professional career at the Bank of England before moving into journalism and political activism.
Montgomerie is best known as co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 until 2013, when he left to become comment editor at The Times. He resigned from The Times in March 2014. He later co-founded the online magazine UnHerd.
In September 2019 he was appointed as Boris Johnson’s social justice adviser, working out of the Cabinet Office, and following his departure from that role he wrote regularly for the New Statesman.
Politically, Montgomerie was a member of the Conservative Party from 1998–2016 and again from 2019–2024. In December 2024 he left the Conservative Party and joined Reform UK, a move reportedly driven by dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party’s direction. According to Wikipedia’s current entry, his Reform UK membership is listed as suspended as of 2026. He has continued to work as a freelance media commentator and, per his professional bio at Flint Global, advises clients on engaging with Reform UK.
Throughout his career, he has been associated with “compassionate conservatism,” welfare reform, and efforts to reconnect the Conservative Party with working-class voters, alongside support for Brexit.
