Victoria Woodcock
Victoria Woodcock was the Operations Director for the Vote Leave campaign for the referendum vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Dominic Cummings and Paul Goodman claim Woodcock was a key person to the success of the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit.[1][2]
Victoria Woodcock | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1987 (age 33–34) |
| Other names | Vics[1] |
| Education |
|
| Alma mater | University of Southampton |
| Known for |
|
| Title | Operations manager |
| Movement | Vote Leave |
Biography
Early life
Woodcock was born in 1987.[3] She began her post-school studies at the University of Southampton in 2005 and achieved a BSc degree in Sociology and Social Policy in 2008. She went on to complete an MSc in Social Statistics in 2010.[4]
Government
Woodcock's early career was as a civil servant in the Department of Education where she worked on a variety of policies including Schools, Academies and the Spending Review. She became Private Secretary to the Secretary of State and then took a role as Strategic Analyst. From 2014 she worked for a while as adviser to the Government Chief Whip. From 2015 she advised the Head of Strategic Events, delivering and coordinating the VE Day 70th anniversary celebrations.[5]
Vote Leave
Woodcock was both the Company Secretary and Operations Director for the Vote Leave campaign.[5] Dominic Cummings has credited Woodcock with being the most indispensable person in the campaign. Woodcock was responsible for managing the creation of the Voter Intention Collection System (VICS), a bespoke canvassing software system used to model and target the campaign.[1] She has been described as pivotal to the running of Vote Leave, and noted for not seeking the limelight.[6]
In March 2017 with the Electoral Commission opening as investigation into particular donations relating to Vote Leave an account by the name Victoria Woodcock deleted computer files useful to the investigation from the shared drive. Woodcock stated in June 2018 that the account was an administrative one that she had used to set up the drive and that she had handed over access to Vote Leave on 17 March 2017 at a point in time prior to the deletions taking place and did not have access to the drive at that time.[7] Paul Goodman blogging in Conservative Home also claims Woodcock was responsible at the last minute for identifying that Vote Leave's application to run the leave campaign had not been drafted against the assessed criteria, and without a rewrite against that criteria vote Leave would have lost out against the BeLeave with, in Goodman's opinion, the consequence the Britain Stronger in Europe would have prevailed to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union.[2]
In 2019 the drama Brexit: The Uncivil War depicted the activity of the Vote Leave campaign. Woodcock was played by Kate O'Flynn in the drama.[8]
References
- Cummings (2016).
- Goodman (2016).
- Companies House (2019).
- University of Southampton (2020), Our Graduates.
- Information, Knowledge and Systems Manager (2017), Appendix A4.
- Channel4 (2018).
- Cadwalladr, Graham-Harrison & Townsend (2018).
- Graham & Haynes (2019), 92m.
- Founders4Schools (2017), Victoria Woodcock.
- Cadwalladr, Carole; Graham-Harrison, Emma; Townsend, Mark (24 March 2018). "Revealed: Brexit insider claims Vote Leave team may have breached spending limits". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
- Channel4 (28 December 2018). "Brexit: The Uncivil War - character biographies". Channel4 (Press release). Victoria Woodcock. Archived from the original on 29 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
- Companies House (2019). "Vote Leave Limited — Company number 09785255 — People". Companies House. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
- Cummings, Dominic (29 October 2016). "On the referendum #20: the campaign, physics and data science – Vote Leave's 'Voter Intention Collection System' (VICS) now available for all". dominiccummings. Archived from the original on 26 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- Founders4Schools (6 March 2017). "Inspiring Women" (PDF). Founders4Schools. London Stock Exchange. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
- Goodman, Paul (23 December 2016). "Five people who made the Brexit vote happen 5) Victoria Woodcock". Conservative Home. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
- Graham, James; Haynes, Toby (2019). Brexit: The Uncivil War. Event occurs at 92m. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
Cast in order of appearance ... Victoria Woodcock - Kate O'Flynn
- Information, Knowledge and Systems Manager (13 December 2017). "FOI 195/17 European Resesarch Group Response" (PDF). Letter to (redacted). The Electoral Commission. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- University of Southampton (2020). "The Civil Service". Economic, Social and Political Sciences. Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.