LONDON — The U.K.’s newly-merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will be led by a career diplomat who has most recently served as London’s ambassador in India.
Philip Barton, who also served as the U.K.’s deputy head of mission in the U.S. from 2011 to 2013, will become the new department’s first permanent under-secretary — replacing Simon McDonald, who is standing down after five years leading the Foreign Office.
Barton said he was looking forward to “bringing together our diplomats and development experts to deliver for the people of the U.K. and act as a force for good around the world.” He will take up his post on September 1.
The merger of the FCO with the Department for International Development, announced in June, proved controversial with aid charities and opposition parties warning that it could presage a shift in U.K. aid policy to only focus on areas where spending could be tied to foreign policy goals.
Barton, who also served as acting chair of the Cabinet Office’s Joint Intelligence Committee from 2016 to 2017 and as High Commissioner in Pakistan from 2014 to 2016, takes up his post in the middle of a major review of the U.K.’s foreign, defense, security and aid policy, carried out by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s foreign policy adviser John Bew.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Barton was an “outstanding public servant and diplomat with experience across all areas of foreign policy.”
Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, the U.K. government’s most senior official, who is also standing down in the fall, said he was “confident that the new [department] will strengthen the U.K.’s global leadership by aligning our development and diplomatic efforts to bring more coherence to our international presence.”
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