UK names new EU ambassador ahead of Brexit talks

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Europe

D‍owning Street on Wednesday appointed Tim Barrow as the UK’s new envoy to the EU, in a quick response to Ivan Rogers’ shock resignation as the country’s top man in Brussels the previous day.

Barrow, a former ambassador to Russia who will now have to lead crucial Brexit negotiations with the EU, is “a seasoned and tough negotiator”, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said upon his appointment.

Sir Tim Barrow is pictured during a EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on July 18, 2016. /CFP Photo

“I look forward to joining the strong leadership team at the Department for Exiting the EU and working with them and the talented staff at UKREP to ensure we get the right outcome for the United Kingdom as we leave the EU,” Barrow later said.

Rogers’s surprise resignation on Tuesday came just weeks after he warned that it could take up to 10 years for Britain to negotiate a new trade deal with Europe following Brexit, causing a furor in London.

In his long resignation letter to staff with the UK Permanent Representation to the EU, Rogers said: “I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power.”

Sir Ivan Rogers is pictured leaving the EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, on June 28, 2016. /CFP Photo

“Good to see that the government have replaced a knighted career diplomat with…a knighted career diplomat,” Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party and Brexit campaigner, tweeted following Barrow’s appointment .

He added Rogers should have stepped down the day after the Brexit referendum.

“We need somebody who is committed to Brexit, who is not going to get obsessed by process,” Farage said.

Nigel Farage waits for the start of a debate on the last European Summit at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on October 26, 2016. /CFP Photo

The Guardian newspaper said Barrow’s appointment showed May, who is determined to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of March to start the leaving process, ignored calls from within her own Conservative Party to appoint a wholehearted Brexiter.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also welcomed Barrow’s nomination in a brief statement.

Barrow was appointed last year as Political Director at the Foreign Office, after serving as ambassador to Russia from 2011 to 2015. He has also worked as a representative to various bodies of the EU.