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Britain’s Ambassador to the EU Quits, Britain Remembers Brexit Is Real

Some bemoan the loss of EU expertise. Others are Nigel Farage.

By , a global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews.
may-day
may-day

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s long march toward Brexit just got a little longer.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s long march toward Brexit just got a little longer.

On Tuesday, Britain’s top diplomat in Brussels, Sir Ivan Rogers, quit. Rogers repeatedly threatened to do so at various points under former Prime Minister David Cameron. And now, weeks before May is to trigger Article 50 and officially start Britain’s divorce from Europe, he’s finally made good on his threat.

Some worry the move will be bad for Britain. Nicholas Macpherson, formerly the top civil servant in the Treasury Department, bemoaned on Twitter the “wilful & total destruction of EU expertise,” while former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called Rogers’ departure “a body blow.”

Others, however, see opportunity. Michael Heaver of UKIP, the right wing Euro-skeptic party,  tweeted that May should “get someone who believes in Brexit.” Nigel Farage, the man who championed UKIP before resigning as head of the party because he wanted his “life back,” took time out of that life to tweet, “I welcome the resignation of UK ambassador to Brussels … the Foreign Office needs a complete clear out.” (It wasn’t clear if Farage’s “clear out” includes new Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a relative latecomer to the Brexit bandwagon.)

But any clear out would likely just make a negotiated Brexit more difficult, and likely harder for Britain to keep some of its EU trade benefits. Rogers’ exit probably will: He’s been in Brussels as the permanent representative since 2013, but has worked on and off for various governments on EU issues since 1996.

That is, if Brexit happens. May has said she will trigger Article 50 — the legal mechanism by which a member state starts negotiations to leave the EU — by the end of March. But Britain’s Supreme Court is currently deciding whether that’s the purview of her government, or of parliament.

Separately on Monday, Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia which, until Jan. 1, held the rotating EU presidency, said, “I am asking EU leaders to stop with adventures like the British and Italian referendums (…) on domestic issues which pose a threat to the EU.”

May, presumably banging her head on her desk and trying to put out the dumpster fire she inherited, might just agree.

Photo credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Emily Tamkin is a global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews. Twitter: @emilyctamkin

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