The Civil Service Jobs site recently put up a new ad for a new Trade Commissioner for Europe. It has since mysteriously been taken down…
The Trade Commissioner runs a team totalling over 300 people across the continent reporting back to London, with responsibility for furthering UK company access to Europe as well as attracting inward investment and “influencing multilateral trade policy with Europe.” The current Commissioner Chris Barton, who had previous experience in Johnson’s Downing Street running UK-EU goods negotiations, was appointed to the role by then-International Trade Secretary Liz Truss in September 2021. Labour may be seeking to install its own apparatchik to the role…
Neither the Cabinet Office nor DBT commented when approached by Guido. Downing Street may want to begin processsing a new commissioner before Starmer meets with 27 EU leaders next Monday in his much-vaunted EU “reset.” Former Brown aide Michael Ellam has already been appointed lead negotiator for the project. Newly briefed plans to re-link UK and EU emission trading schemes is just the start of Labour’s rejoin project…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”
