Ex-Brexit negotiator to become Foreign Office chief
Former Brexit negotiator Sir Oliver Robbins has been appointed as the top civil servant at the Foreign Office.
He will take over from Sir Philip Barton, who became permanent secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in 2020 but decided to step down this month before the end of the full five-year term achieved by his predecessors.
It is understood Sir Oliver did not initially apply for the role, but will now return to the civil service to take the job - having left in 2019 after overseeing the Brexit negotiations.
Sir Oliver said he takes on the role with "huge excitement".
Foreign Secretary David Lammy called Sir Oliver "exactly the person" to help "rewire" the FCDO.
In a statement, Sir Oliver said he had worked alongside FCDO officials for "most of my civil service career" and seen "our extraordinary diplomatic and development capabilities first hand from Washington DC to Mogadishu, Dublin to Sana'a and Abuja to New Delhi".
He added: "After five years out of the Civil Service I return believing more strongly than ever in the value of those capabilities and the public service principles that underpin them."
Lammy said Sir Oliver's "extensive experience of economic and security issues, gained across a range of Whitehall departments, will stand us in good stead as we reorient the FCDO to focus on growth and migration, while continuing to double down on national security".
Lammy also thanked Sir Philip for "his many years of dedicated public service".
Sir Oliver's appointment, first reported by The Guardian, may ruffle feathers in the Foreign Office as he will be seen as an outsider having not worked for the department before.
Before leaving the civil service, he was seen as a high-flier having served as principal private secretary for Sir Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown.
Sir Oliver then became deputy national security adviser, deputy permanent secretary at the Home Office and head of the Department for Exiting the European Union.
Sir Philip decision to stand down early comes after he was criticised by MPs in 2022 for his handling of the chaotic withdrawal of UK staff after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
During the evacuation, Sir Philip took a 17-day holiday - which he told the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee he regretted.
Sir Philip claimed it was not clear Kabul would fall so quickly when he went on leave, but his absence was viewed as a failure of leadership, and he was criticised for weakening the FCDO’s response.
In his four years as head of the Diplomatic Service, Sir Philip served under five foreign secretaries: Dominic Raab, Liz Truss, James Cleverly, Lord Cameron and David Lammy.
He has previously held a number of public service roles, including as the Foreign Office's director general, consular and security, and as the acting chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the Cabinet Office.
He was also the former high commissioner to Islamabad, deputy head of mission in Washington, and the director of foreign policy and coordinator for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a social media post, Sir Philip said: "I wish Olly all the best as he leads the department into its next chapter."