Theresa May must explain the resignation of UK ambassador to EU to MPs, says ex-Foreign Office Minister

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An Ex-Foreign Office Minister has demanded Theresa May’s government explain the resignation of Britain’s top diplomat in Brussels to the House of Commons.

Alistair Burt said the decision of Sir Ivan Rogers to quit as the UK’s ambassador to the EU "shouts a very public warning" about the Government’s approach to Brexit.

He also echoed comments made by the outgoing diplomat, who angered Brexiteers by suggesting a new EU deal could be a decade away, in saying that civil servants should be able to deliver uncomfortable news to ministers in certainty they will be listened to.

Writing for ConservativeHome, he said: "A very senior UK patriot has chosen to leave his post, rather than continue down a path of which he fears for our country. This requires a Government statement and explanation next week – and should induce further urgency into our preparations, and the base for our negotiations.

"MPs will be right to urge that we appoint quickly an ambassador with the ability to understand fully what it is that the Government is looking for, and with the capacity to influence and shape such a position…but also with the certainty of being listened to, however uncomfortable that may be."

Mr Burt, minister until last summer, also said: "The manner of departure and the clarity of Rogers’s concerns over speaking the ‘unvarnished truth’, challenging ‘ill-founded arguments’, and ensuring that there are in place those harnessing the ‘best experience’, shouts a very public warning about what is currently occurring on our nation’s behalf as we enter the most important negotiations of our peacetime life.

"If such warnings from a public servant who has devoted his working life to his country are dismissed simply as coming from a ‘Europhile, who deserves clearing out with the others’ or similar nonsense, then we will all be the losers."

His article won the backing of another former minister Anna Soubry, who retweeted a link to the piece.