FIND A BREXIT BELIEVER!
Our man in Brussels quits ... to avoid axe Successor ‘must stand up for Britain’ Bitter envoy in ‘speak truth to power’ jibe
THERESA May was last night hunting for an EU ambassador who ‘believes in Brexit’ after the sudden resignation of the UK’s ‘gloomy’ man in Brussels.
Sir Ivan Rogers, 56, quit the top post without warning yesterday – only three months before Britain’s talks on leaving the EU are due to begin.
In his resignation note, he told staff to keep challenging ‘ illfounded arguments’ and ‘muddled thinking’. Sir Ivan also said ministers needed to hear unvarnished and uncomfortable views and diplomats must ‘never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power’.
The Brussels veteran opted to walk after being cut adrift by Theresa May and her top team. His contract was up in November – and he did not expect it to be renewed.
The timing of his resignation triggered claims of chaos and ‘amateurism’ in No 10.
But diplomatic sources said Sir Ivan, who presided over David Cameron’s botched negotiations with Brussels, had decided to go only after it was made plain to him that his ‘days were numbered’.
Senior figures in No 10 and David Davis’s Brexit department were said to have been ‘baffled’ that Sir Ivan did not resign at the same time as Mr Cameron. Allies of the former prime minister blamed Sir Ivan for being too ‘happy to take no for an answer, happy to believe things weren’t possible when they could be possible’. Aides of Mr Cameron claimed the envoy had repeatedly threatened to resign during the EU negotiations before June’s referendum if his advice was ignored.
Senior ministers and officials privately insisted Sir Ivan’s departure was ‘no loss’. They said his resignation provided Mrs May with an opportunity to appoint a replace- ment who ‘believes in Brexit’. One said: ‘The view of Government is that we are going to make a success of Brexit. We want somebody in post who shares that view.’
Tensions with No 10 came to a head last month when Sir Ivan’s prediction that Brexit could take up to a decade was leaked. It overshadowed an EU meeting attended by Mrs May, and caused huge irritation in Government. Downing Street is accused by Sir Ivan’s allies of standing back at the summit and allowing him to be ‘ripped to shreds’ by senior Tory MPs who accused him of ‘gloomy pessimism’.
The ambassador irritated No 10 by giving unauthorised briefings to Brussels journalists before a summit in October, and delivering blunt warnings about the dangers of Brexit.
Sir Ivan is understood to have sent a message to Downing Street and the Foreign Office that he was bailing out yesterday morning. He then emailed his staff in Brussels, who leaked the news. A search will now begin for a successor – open to candidates inside and outside the Civil Service, which is accused by many Tory MPs of being ‘institutionally pro-Brussels’.
Sir Bill Cash, chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, said: ‘No 10 will have had something to do with it along with David Davis. There was a lot of pressure on him, and quite rightly. His background was completely inappropriate.’
Tory MP Dominic Raab said: ‘He didn’t exactly hide the fact his heart wasn’t in Brexit … I don’t think it is frankly wholly surprising that either he has stepped down, or that this will be quietly, cautiously and respectfully welcomed at the top of Government.’ Pro-Leave Tory MP John Redwood said he hoped the Government would appoint someone who ‘ really believes we have a great future as an independent country’.
Ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the Foreign Office needs a ‘complete clear-out’ and a ‘tough Brexiteer’ should replace Sir Ivan.
He added: ‘It would be appropriate if a lot more British ambassadors left. The world has changed.’
Ex-Lib Dem leader Mr Clegg, who once worked with Sir Ivan, said: ‘If the reports are true that he has been hounded out by hostile Brexiteers in Government, it counts as a spectacular own goal.’
Former EU commissioner Lord Mandelson said: ‘In terms of knowledge and experience of the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers is second to none in Whitehall. His resignation is a serious loss … everyone knows civil servants are being increasingly inhibited in offering objective opinion and advice to ministers.’ No 10 had expected Sir Ivan to go before his tenure was up, as early as the middle of this month.
Brussels sources suggested he would have been willing to stay through the two-year Brexit negotiations, set to begin in March. But while his personal relations with Mrs May remained cordial, it was made plain to him this was not going to happen. In the wake of the December summit, he is said to have told colleagues of his plans to go early as he was ‘surplus to requirements’.
Lord Macpherson of Earl’s Court, until last year George Osborne’s permanent secretary at the Treasury, wrote on Twitter: ‘Ivan Rogers huge loss. Can’t understand wilful & total destruction of EU expertise.’ He branded it ‘amateurism’.
Sir Ivan’s friends accused ‘thinskinned’ No 10 of being unwilling to accept his analysis of Brexit. His ex-spokesman Aled Williams said: ‘He never sugar-coated his advice.’
Comment – Page 14
‘Spectacular own goal’