UK has lost ‘one of the greatest experts’ on EU, says ex-Foreign Office chief

The UK has lost “one of the greatest experts” it has on European matters with the sudden resignation of its ambassador to the EU, the former head of the diplomatic service has warned.

Sir Ivan Rogers stepped down on Tuesday, weeks before the start of negotiations of Brexit, using a resignation email to urge fellow British civil servants in Brussels to assert their independence by challenging “ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking”.

Sir Simon Fraser, who was permanent secretary to the Foreign Office from 2010 to 2015, said Rogers’ departure was a significant blow to the UK before the talks on leaving the EU.

“I do think that his sort of in-depth knowledge and expertise is a loss as we go into what is going to be, as David Davis himself has said, a very complex set of negotiations,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Curated from UK has lost ‘one of the greatest experts’ on EU, says ex-Foreign Office chief

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