Cameron crony’s our new man in Paris
DAVID Cameron was facing a fresh cronyism row last night after his former chief of staff was appointed as Britain’s ambassador to France.
Ed Llewellyn, a contemporary of Mr Cameron at Eton, was nominated for the plum role by the former prime minister during his final days in Downing Street. Whitehall insiders believe serving ambassador Sir Julian King may even have been moved to Brussels to enable Mr Llewellyn to take up his dream job.
Sir Julian was appointed as Britain’s EU Commissioner following the abrupt resignation of Lord Hill, another friend of Mr Cameron.
Lord Llewellyn’s appointment is highly unusual, given that he is a serving Conservative peer, after being handed a peerage in Mr Cam- eron’s controversial resignation honours last month. The move, along with those of Sir Julian and Lord Hill, is now set to be investigated by the Commons foreign affairs committee.
Crispin Blunt, the committee’s Tory chairman, said he had been ‘disappointed’ by the decision of Lord Hill to quit in the immediate wake of the EU referendum with a £250,000 payoff, adding: ‘We need to get to the bottom of why he decided to go.’
Mr Blunt said he was not convinced Lord Hill had quit to make way for Lord Llewellyn, but said MPs would look at whether Sir Julian was then moved to create a vacancy for him.
Ukip MP Douglas Carswell dubbed Lord Llewellyn a ‘Cameron flunky’ and questioned whether a man who was at the heart of the campaign to keep Britain in the EU was the right choice to help negotiate our exit with the French.
He said: ‘What kind of country are we where key offices of state are personal gifts to be handed out by the sofa gang at No 10?
‘Ed Llewellyn was one of the chief architects of Project Fear, and he had a key role in the disastrous renegotiation that David Cameron engaged in.
‘If we are going to be leaving the EU we need good relations with France – surely we can do better than this.’
Lord Llewellyn is expected to ask for a ‘leave of absence’ from the Lords – just a month after his ennoblement – meaning he will not be expected to take part in votes while serving in Paris.