UK envoy to EU quits post and damns May’s tactics
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BRITAIN’S outgoing ambassador to the European Union has strongly criticized the government’s approach to Brexit negotiations in a blistering farewell e-mail to his staff.
Ivan Rogers said Prime Minister Theresa May’s government had been hindered by “ill-founded arguments” and “muddled thinking” in its approach to pull Britain out of the EU.
His harsh critiques, likely to embarrass the government in the run-up to complex negotiations with the other 27 members of the EU bloc, were made public when the e-mail was published by British media yesterday.
Rogers’ abrupt departure leaves the United Kingdom without an envoy to the EU bloc and reveals the deep uncertainties within the government about how to best protect Britain’s national interest as it leaves.
In a damning passage, Rogers said senior civil servants didn’t know what the government’s priorities were in the talks, which would set the course for Britain’s relations with Europe once out of the bloc.
“We do not yet know what the Government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK’s relationship with the EU after exit,” he wrote. That implies he is unsure whether May seeks to keep Britain in the single market or the customs union, or to have the country sever those economic relationships.
Rogers also said that Britain, unlike its EU adversaries, did not have the “serious multilateral negotiating experience” needed for the task.
The e-mail was sent on Tuesday, when Rogers resigned months earlier than expected.
May took over after Prime Minister David Cameron resigned following his failure to convince Britons to remain in the EU in last June’s referendum. She says Britain will formally trigger Article 50 the legal process to kick off the process of leaving the EU, by the end of March.
May has repeatedly refused to spell out the government’s goals, saying to do so would weaken its hand in negotiations.
Her government faces a lawsuit that would require it to obtain parliamentary approval before starting the process.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether to overturn a lower court’s ruling that Parliament must approve before Article 50 is invoked.
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