Since the abolition of the Department for Exiting the European Union in 2020, government responsibility for our relations with Europe has been scattered around Whitehall. Now the government is recruiting a Permanent Secretary. The new person will lead a team of civil servants, coordinating government’s work on European issues, and act as ‘sherpa’ for international negotiations on Europe and wider economic issues. For those who desperately want to see us drawing closer to the EU, this might be a small glimmer of hope.
A new Permanent Secretary
This post is a new Permanent Secretary. He or she will join the 40 or so most senior civil servants in the UK. Most government departments have one such ‘Sir Humphrey’, though a few larger departments have two. Permanent Secretaries advise their Ministers on all aspects of the brief, and lead the work of their departments: in this case around 100 civil servants, including the EU Relations Secretariat.
They meet weekly, together with the heads of some other agencies, like the Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Statistician, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (in which role, Keir Starmer will have met them all regularly).
The new post will be based at the centre of government in the Cabinet Office. They will act as the principal adviser to the prime minister and to the minister for EU relations (Nick Thomas-Symonds) on relations with the EU, and on international economic issues. They will also oversee and lead policy development on key questions of UK-EU trade, collaboration and engagement, “working hand-in-hand with relevant departments”.
A sherpa
The word ‘sherpa’ entered the English language in 1953 with the first successful ascent of Everest. The Sherpas are the local people of the Everest region. Familiar with the mountains and adapted to the altitude and climate, they did, literally, the heavy lifting of the expedition: ensuring equipment and resources were in place, helping select routes and advising on when to go, and not to go. And when Edmund Hillary stood on the summit, at his side was Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
International diplomacy has much in common with a mountain expedition, and the term was adopted by the European Union for a key role in international diplomacy. Before a grand public meeting like the European Council or the G7, each country will have identified a ‘sherpa’, someone who knows their government’s positions, where the real ‘red lines’ are, where there is scope for negotiation and on what terms. The sherpas for the countries will have worked together so that by the time the Ministers arrive, they will have agreed the agenda, and what will and will not be discussed. They have probably prepared a draft agreement, which the principals may amend and finally sign. Individual sherpas may well have drafted the public speeches which their Ministers make beforehand, during and after the formal meeting.
So the sherpa is absolutely critical to the diplomatic process. They must have the absolute confidence of their government, while remaining on good terms with their opposite numbers in the other governments (whatever public disagreements their principals may have).
The Starmer approach
This person will work closely with the Prime Minister, who has had a complex relationship with Europe. In 2016 he campaigned for Remain and later for a second referendum on EU membership. However, by the time he became leader of the Labour Party in 2020, Britain had left the EU and he took the view that the decision could not be reversed.
As his biographer Tom Baldwin points out, Starmer is by nature a man who believes in progressing gradually in small steps, rather than laying out grand visions. To the disappointment of many Europhiles, he has spent more time, before and after his election as Prime Minister, discussing small, undramatic improvements with European leaders in Brussels and Member States, than making visionary speeches about Britain in Europe.
The new role seems likely to fit with this approach, coordinating, making allies, and moving us slowly forward.
Are we really serious?
Jill Rutter, who is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and at the academic think tank UK in a Changing Europe, has welcomed the move, saying that:
the government has basically lost its coordination capacity since the referendum. This [appointment] puts a very big figure at the centre of government. Someone who can take the PM’s message out to other EU governments and help knock heads together across Whitehall to prepare for EU Council meetings and EU negotiations.
This is a big and complex job. The final appointment will be made by the Prime Minister, advised by the Cabinet Secretary and the First Civil Service Commissioner.
Whoever is appointed will play a large part in determining Britain’s future in Europe, beginning with the formal EU-UK reset talks which are set to begin in the spring. Then perhaps we will see how serious the UK really is about a new and better place in Europe.
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