Peter Ricketts

Last updated

The Lord Ricketts
Official portrait of Lord Ricketts crop 2.jpg
British Ambassador to France
In office
2012–2016

Ricketts began his career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1974 and served as the Assistant Private Secretary to former Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe. He later served as the Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels. Apart from Brussels, he has been posted to Singapore, Washington DC and Paris.

He served under Prime Minister Tony Blair as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, leading him to give evidence to The Iraq Inquiry ("The Chilcot Report") in November 2009. [3] From 2006 to 2010, Ricketts served under Blair and Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the Permanent Secretary for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

He served under Prime Minister David Cameron as the UK National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2012. He replaced Peter Westmacott as HM Ambassador to France effective January 2012, with Kim Darroch taking Ricketts's old role as National Security Adviser. [4]

In January 2016, he stepped down as the UK Ambassador to France and retired from the Diplomatic Service. [5]

Public life

He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours and was created Baron Ricketts, of Shortlands in the County of Kent, on 17 October. [6] [7] He now sits as a crossbencher.

Between 2016 and January 2022 he was a Strategic Adviser to Lockheed Martin UK. [8]

In October 2020 a cross-party group of MPs and peers, backed by Lord Ricketts, planned to take legal action against Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his government's refusal to order an inquiry into Russian interference in UK elections. The move followed the publication in July 2020 of the Russia report by parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC), which found that the government and its intelligence services had failed to investigate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 EU referendum vote. The high court claim named Prime Minister Johnson as defendant. [9]

In April 2022, Ricketts called Marine Le Pen's proposal for a Franco-British defence cooperation treaty "ignorant and dangerous." [10]

Honours

He was appointed CMG in the 1999 Birthday Honours, Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 2003, [11] Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 2011 New Year Honours, [12] and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 2014. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladwyn Jebb</span> British diplomat (1900–1996)

Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb, 1st Baron Gladwyn was a prominent British civil servant, diplomat and politician who served as the acting secretary-general of the United Nations between 1945 and 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Manning</span>

Sir David Geoffrey Manning, is a former British diplomat, who was the British Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007. He authored the so-called "Manning Memo", that summarized the details of a meeting between American president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Until 2019, he was appointed to the Household of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antony Acland</span> British diplomat (1930–2021)

Sir Antony Arthur Acland was a British diplomat and a provost of Eton College.

On 18 September 2004 the British Daily Telegraph ran two articles titled "Secret papers show Blair was warned of Iraq chaos" and 'Failure is not an option, but it doesn't mean they will avoid it' by reporter Michael Smith, revealing the contents of six leaked British government documents – labelled "secret" or "confidential" – concerning the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Holmes (British diplomat)</span> British diplomat

Sir John Eaton Holmes is a British former diplomat who is the current Chairman of the Electoral Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Westmacott</span> British diplomat

Sir Peter John Westmacott is a senior British diplomat, who was British Ambassador to Turkey, then Ambassador to France and finally Ambassador to the United States from January 2012 to January 2016, succeeding Sir Nigel Sheinwald, a posting announced by the Prime Minister's Office on 24 June 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Wright, Baron Wright of Richmond</span> British diplomat (1931–2020)

Patrick Richard Henry Wright, Baron Wright of Richmond, was a British diplomat who served as Head of HM Diplomatic Service.

Sir Robert John Sawers FRUSI is a British intelligence officer, diplomat and civil servant. He was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a position he held from November 2009 until November 2014. He was previously the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2007 to November 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Sheinwald</span>

Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald is a former senior British diplomat, who served as Ambassador to the United States of America between October 2007 and January 2012. He was appointed "Special Envoy on intelligence and law enforcement data sharing" in September 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Fraser (diplomat)</span> British diplomat

Sir Simon James Fraser is a British former diplomat who served as the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from August 2010 to July 2015, having served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from May 2009 to August 2010. Sir Simon is a Trustee of the Patchwork Foundation, founded by Harris Bokhari. Sir Simon is currently Deputy Chairman of Chatham House and serves as Adviser to the Europe Programme. He is also Managing Partner of Flint Global.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Darroch</span> British diplomat (born 1954)

Nigel Kim Darroch, Baron Darroch of Kew, is a former British diplomat. He served as the British Ambassador to the United States between January 2016 and December 2019, and previously as National Security Adviser and UK Permanent Representative to the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Sedwill</span> British diplomat and civil servant (born 1964)

Mark Philip Sedwill, Baron Sedwill, is a British diplomat and senior civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service to Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson from 2018 to 2020. He also served as the United Kingdom National Security Adviser from 2017 to 2020. He was previously the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010 and the NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan in 2010. He was the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from February 2013 to April 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian King (diplomat)</span> British diplomat (born 1964)

Sir Julian Beresford King is a British diplomat and civil servant who served as the final British European Commissioner from 2016 to 2019 prior to Brexit, having previously served as the British ambassador to Ireland (2009–2011) and France (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Security Adviser (United Kingdom)</span> Official in the British government

The National Security Adviser (NSA) is a senior official in the Cabinet Office, based in Whitehall, who serves as the principal adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Cabinet of the United Kingdom on all national security issues. The NSA post was created in May 2010 as part of the reforms that also saw the creation of the National Security Council. There have been six holders of the office to date, of whom two served more than three years in the post.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Gass</span> British Civil servant, former British diplomat

Sir Simon Lawrance Gass is a British civil servant. Since 2019, he has chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee and he also served as the British Prime Minister's representative on Afghanistan from 2021 to 2022 concurrently. Between 2018 and 2019, he was the Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies. During his diplomatic career, he served as British ambassador to Greece and to Iran. In May 2023, it was announced he was stepping down as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and succeeded by Madeleine Alessandri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Barrow</span> British diplomat (born 1964)

Sir Timothy Earle Barrow is a British diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the European Union from 2017 to 2020 and as the British Ambassador to the European Union from 2020 to 2021. He currently serves as National Security Adviser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon McDonald, Baron McDonald of Salford</span> British diplomat

Simon Gerard McDonald, Baron McDonald of Salford, is a British former diplomat who was the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until September 2020. He was the last professional head of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office before the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He has been the Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, since September 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours</span>

The 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours are honours awarded following the July 2016 resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron. The life peerages and other honours were issued as two separate lists by the Cabinet Office on 4 August 2016 and all honours were gazetted as one list on 16 August 2016. This was the first Prime Minister's Resignation Honours since 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Reynolds (civil servant)</span> British civil servant and diplomat (born 1969)

Martin Alexander Baillie Reynolds is a British civil servant who served as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2022. Reynolds previously served as British Ambassador to Libya under Prime Minister Theresa May and as the principal private secretary to Johnson when he served as Foreign Secretary in May's government.

References

  1. Foreign Policy in an Era of Globalisation. Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations. Thursday 15 2009.
  2. Who's Who 2001. A&C Black, London. 2001. p. 1751. ISBN   0-7136-5432-5. Accessed 2 August 2016.
  3. "Iraq inquiry told of 'clear' threat from Saddam Hussein". BBC News . BBC. 24 November 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  4. "Senior Diplomatic Appointments". Number 10 . 24 June 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  5. "Change of Her Majesty's Ambassador to France". Foreign & Commonwealth Office. 18 December 2015.
  6. "Resignation Peerages 2016" (PDF).
  7. "No. 61738". The London Gazette . 21 October 2016. p. 22392.
  8. "Summary of business appointments applications - Sir Peter Ricketts".
  9. Harding, Luke (29 October 2020). "Legal action taken against PM over refusal to investigate Kremlin meddling". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  10. Wintour, Patrick (13 April 2022). "Le Pen's plans for post-Brexit treaty 'ignorant and dangerous'". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  11. "No. 57100". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 October 2003. p. 10.
  12. "No. 59647". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2010. p. 3.
  13. "No. 60916". The London Gazette . 27 June 2014. p. 12742.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Peter Ricketts at Wikimedia Commons

Government offices
Preceded by Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee
2000–2001
Succeeded by
Preceded by Director-General, Political of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
2001–2003
Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council (NATO)
2003–2006
Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Permanent Under-Secretary of State
2006–2010
Succeeded by
Preceded by
New position
Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser
2010–2012
Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by British Ambassador to France
2012–2016
Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Ricketts
Followed by