FCDO perm sec Philip Barton to stand down

Top official tells staff he is "handing over the baton knowing that we are settled now as a single department"
Philip Barton appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee. Screenshot: Parliament.tv

By Tevye Markson

05 Nov 2024

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton will step down in January, it has emerged.

The senior civil servant, who is also head of the Diplomatic Service, announced his resignation yesterday in an internal email to staff, seen by CSW.

Barton was the FCDO’s first perm sec when he was appointed in September 2020 following the controversial merger that united the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

His term was due to last until September 2025, but Barton said he had been reflecting on when to hand over to a successor after the new Labour government completed its first 100 days in office. Barton said that he had agreed with the foreign secretary, David Lammy, that standing down in January would be the right moment.

Barton said this will enable his successor to work with the foreign secretary in the years ahead to "deliver his ambitions for the FCDO, in particular the programme of change that will follow the three reviews he has commissioned into the work of the department”.

He said being the FCDO’s first perm sec and head of the Diplomatic Service had been “the honour and privilege” of his 38 years as a diplomat and that he would not change his career for any other. 

Barton said he had pledged on day one of the new department to “put kindness at the heart" of his leadership of the FCDO and that he tried his best to live up to that.

“Every day, I have aimed to do something that helps a colleague,” he said. “Every day, I see colleagues around the world doing the same. Please keep it up.”

Barton has served five foreign secretaries in his time as perm sec: Dominic Raab, Liz Truss, James Cleverly, David Cameron and Lammy. Before becoming perm sec, he held roles including British high commissioner to India and director general positions in the Cabinet Office and Foreign Office. 

During his second year as perm sec, he was criticised after he stayed on holiday 11 days into the fall of Kabul. Barton later apologised, saying, “if I had my time again I would have come back from my leave earlier than I did”.

In his resignation letter to staff, Barton said there had been “tough times and significant challenges” during his tenure, namechecking the fall of Kabul, leading a merger during a global pandemic, dealing with repeated development budget cuts, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and its aftermath.

Barton said FCDO officials “have risen to all of these challenges” and “learnt and improved where necessary”. He said this gives him confidence in the "future of the department" and that the transition to a new perm sec will be a success.

“Such moments can be unsettling,” Barton said. “Old habits and established ways of working need to be replaced with new ones. But they are also moments of opportunity and a chance to look at things afresh.”

While the merger of the FCO and DfID has come in for a lot of criticism and there has been talk that Labour might undo it, Barton’s comments on the FCDO suggested this is unlikely.

Barton said he “looks forward to handing over the baton knowing that we are settled now as a single department”.

The process to appoint a new perm sec will be run the by the first civil service commissioner.

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