Quitting as Britain's top Brexit negotiator in Brussels, Sir Ivan Rogers has criticised the "ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking" of politicians as he resigned his post
Sir Ivan said the Government's objectives after Brexit were still not known and warned the EU was blessed with greater negotiating talent than Whitehall.
Here is the outgoing EU ambassador's email to staff in full:
Credit: PA I have therefore decided to step down now, having done everything that I could in the last six months to contribute my experience, expertise and address book to get the new team at political and official level under way. This will permit a new appointee to be in place by the time Article 50 is invoked.
Importantly, it will also enable that person to play a role in the appointment of (Shan Morgan's) replacement as DPR (Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU). I know from experience - both my own hugely positive experience of working in partnership with Shan, and from seeing past, less happy, examples - how imperative it is that the PR and DPR operate as a team, if UKREP (the UK's Permanent Representation to the European Union) is to function as well as I believe it has done over the last few years.
Credit: PA My own view remains as it has always been. We do not yet know what the Government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK's relationship with the EU after exit. There is much we will not know until later this year about the political shape of the EU itself, and who the political protagonists in any negotiation with the UK will be.
Credit: PA As I have argued consistently at every level since June, many opportunities for the UK in the future will derive from the mere fact of having left and being free to take a different path. But others will depend entirely on the precise shape of deals we can negotiate in the years ahead. Contrary to the beliefs of some, free trade does not just happen when it is not thwarted by authorities: increasing market access to other markets and consumer choice in our own, depends on the deals, multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral that we strike, and the terms that we agree. I shall advise my successor to continue to make these points.
Meanwhile, I would urge you all to stick with it, to keep on working at intensifying your links with opposite numbers in DEXEU and line Ministries and to keep on contributing your expertise to the policy-making process as negotiating objectives get drawn up. The famed UKREP combination of immense creativity with realism ground in negotiating experience, is needed more than ever right now.
