Britain Replaces Its EU Ambassador Who Quit With Someone a Lot Like Its EU Ambassador Who Quit
Sometimes more of the same is your only option when it comes to change.
On Tuesday, Sir Ivan Rogers, Britain’s experienced ambassador to the European Union, quit. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May replaced him with — another experienced ambassador.
May appointed Former Ambassador to Russia Sir Tim Barrow as the new British ambassador to the EU, frustrating those Brexit hardliners who called for a leadership change in Brussels.
On Tuesday, Sir Ivan Rogers, Britain’s experienced ambassador to the European Union, quit. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May replaced him with — another experienced ambassador.
May appointed Former Ambassador to Russia Sir Tim Barrow as the new British ambassador to the EU, frustrating those Brexit hardliners who called for a leadership change in Brussels.
When Rogers quit, Brexit supporters saw an opportunity to, as Michael Heaver of UKIP tweeted, “get someone who believes in Brexit.” Nigel Farage suggested that the whole foreign office be ousted.
Theresa May took a decidedly different tack. She chose Barrow, who has paved an extensive career path as a foreign diplomat, most recently serving as the British Ambassador to Russia from 2011 to 2015. He has also served in two senior roles in Brussels, and has a reputation for being pragmatic and levelheaded.
In other words, he is not the change in representation Brexit supporters wanted.
“Good to see that the government have replaced a knighted career diplomat with…. a knighted career diplomat,” tweeted Nigel Farage, former head of the UKIP who also earlier called for May to choose someone of a different mold.
Why might May go against Farage in this? Aside from the fact that he is not her boss and that he is partly responsible for a referendum she did not support but the result of which she must now carry out, May’s choice may be an acknowledgment that the person who will bring Britain into the unknown needs to know what he’s doing. May has promised to trigger Article 50, which will officially start Brexit negotiations, by the end of March. Perhaps it makes sense, then, to have someone in charge who knows the way in which Brussels operates in the two to six (or, as Rogers predicted, ten) years to complete Britain’s divorce from the EU.
Photo credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images
