“If I could sum up my philosophy in a sentence,” Andrew Gilligan told a journalist after his stint as Boris Johnson’s cycling adviser, “it’s do something properly or not at all.”
Gilligan, who is now back in No 10 advising Rishi Sunak and widely thought to be instrumental in convincing the prime minister that he should cut HS2, was often the focal point for controversy over the delivery of London’s first European-style cycle lanes.
Describing a period with clear parallels to the current furore over HS2, Gilligan said there always came a moment when politicians had to ignore complaints and compromises and just do what they believed was right. That was the true test of a politician’s effectiveness, he said: “What happens when the flak starts flying.”
Sunak is said to have long been concerned about the soaring costs involved in delivering the multibillion-pound project. Sources suggest Gilligan is now whispering in the prime minister’s ear to convince him to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg.
Gilligan’s appointment as Johnson’s transport adviser in London had initially made waves: he was a journalist with no apparent qualifications for the role beyond being a midlife convert to cycling and close to the then mayor.
City Hall insiders said “almost everybody” was opposed to his appointment, yet two sources said Gilligan went ahead and announced it in the Evening Standard anyway. “Nobody then had the guts to say no,” one added.
But he proved hugely effective, specialising in the knotty logistics of cycle routes and, when needed, sometimes brutal persuasion, described by one recipients as “basically putting councils in a headlock till they agreed to do what he wanted”.
When Johnson went to No 10, Gilligan followed as a transport adviser, one given so much leeway and power that it became an open secret that some Department for Transport announcements were essentially written by Gilligan and passed to Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, to sign.
Much of Gilligan’s time was spent on ambitious plans to improve bus services, not usually a central part of Conservative ideology but one of his main interests that also fitted in neatly with Johnson’s levelling up agenda. He was also a keen advocate of active travel.
He also had plenty to say on England’s rail network. Senior rail industry figures suggested that his “interference” with Johnson’s integrated rail plan in 2021 led to criticism that it was unambitious and incoherent – despite costing £96bn.
Rail industry sources say Gilligan was behind the decision to appoint Lord Berkeley, a civil engineer, as deputy of the Oakervee review of HS2 in 2020, which concluded that HS2 should go ahead in full. Berkeley quit, arguing the line was the “wrong and expensive solution”.
One Tory insider who has worked with Gilligan said it was obvious that he was always 100% opposed to HS2, and pushed Johnson hard to change his mind about the project. Two separate sources said the pair briefly fell out about it.
Gilligan argued internally that the scheme was a costly white elephant. He made his case publicly in a paper for Policy Exchange last November in which he said scaling back HS2 could save £3bn a year by 2027-28.
By then he had left No 10, a casualty of Liz Truss’s clear-out when she took over as prime minister, and was working as a senior fellow at the thinktank. He quietly returned once Sunak was in charge, telling colleagues that he was taking on a strategy role. One source said this involved industrial relations policy.
Gilligan was a controversial figure long before he got anywhere near London’s City Hall. He first rose to prominence on 29 May 2003 when, as a BBC defence correspondent, he broadcast claims that Downing Street had “sexed up” an intelligence report on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities.
His report, parts of which he later admitted had been wrong, eventually sparked the Hutton inquiry, which investigated the controversial circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, Gilligan’s source. Gilligan resigned from the BBC the following year after Lord Hutton questioned the reliability of his evidence.
His rehabilitation as a journalist was aided by Johnson, then editor of the Spectator, who had been a key supporter during the inquiry and who immediately afterwards offered him a job.
Later in 2004, Gilligan joined the Evening Standard, where his exposés about Ken Livingstone and his team were regarded as instrumental in helping Johnson secure the 2008 London mayoralty.
“He is incredibly driven,” said one ex-colleague. “He makes his case with figures and can be very persuasive. It’s no surprise that Rishi is listening to him.”
