UK’s remain-backing ambassador to EU quits after rowing with No10 – just weeks before Brexit negotiations start

THE UK’s top EU diplomat dramatically quit yesterday just months before the triggering of the official Brexit process.

Skilled EU Ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers walked out just 86 days before the PM’s deadline to fire the Article 50 starting gun.

The expert mandarin, who infuriated Leave campaigners late last year by declaring our EU exit could take ten years, threw in the towel amid claims of clashes with No10 aides.

The unexpected departure of “our man in Brussels” delighted Brexiteers but left the PM with a massive New Year headache.

Despite being caught off guard by the walkout, Downing Street stressed Sir Ivan was only resigning “a few months earlier” than his scheduled November departure.

Staff returning to work at the offices UK’s Permanent Representation in Brussels were left gobsmacked by the news.

A spokesman insisted: “Sir Ivan has taken this decision now to enable a successor to be appointed before the UK invokes Article 50 by the end of March.”

But last night a government aide told The Sun that Sir Ivan’s “face did not really fit” following Britain’s historic referendum result.

And the source described Sir Ivan’s renegotiations with the EU on behalf of David Cameron as “calamitous” claiming they “arguably cost him the referendum and the Premiership.”

Whitehall insiders insisted his departure would not destabilise the Government’s Brexit timetable and last night the race was on to appoint a replacement immediately.

, which will kick off two years of talks with the EU, by the end of March.

But Ivan Rogers was at the centre of a row last December when he warned Brexit would likely take a DECADE instead.

His leaked comments prompted Leave backers to brand him a “gloomy pessimist” sparking a tense meeting with the PM on her visit to Brussels last month.

No10 sources said they “did not recognise the suggestion that there was any clash” between him and Brexit Minister David Davis or Downing Street officials.

Sir Ivan spent most of his term trying to negotiate a new deal with the EU under David Cameron, but was accused of being “out of his comfort zone” once the UK had voted for Brexit.

Former Tory Minister Dominic Raab said Sir Ivan was “scarred by his own pessimistic advice in the past”.

Last night the prominent Leave supporter welcomed Sir Ivan’s decision to resign, telling The Sun: “He didn’t exactly hide the fact that his heart wasn’t in Brexit, and he was due to step down in the autumn anyway.”

He added: “Sir Ivan is a distinguished diplomat with a long record of public service,” but claimed “it makes sense all round to give the Ambassador who will see the negotiations through some lead time.”

But Nigel Farage blasted Sir Ivan as a “fanatical Remainer” and claimed he should have quit as soon as the UK voted to Leave.

The ex-Ukip chief added: “He’s gone now, it’s a good thing and it’s an opportunity for the PM to put someone in place who believes what the country voted for.”

Mr Farage’s call for a Brexit backing new ambassador was echoed by Tory MPs.

Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg said: “It is crucial that whoever represents us in Brussels is wholly committed to Brexit.

“Sadly the impartiality of the civil service came into question during the referendum campaign which made the position of the highly intelligent Sir Ivan difficult.”

The Somerset MP also said that if Sir Ivan had “resigned because he does not support government policy he ought never to have been there in the first place.”

“The civil service is there to implement policy, not impose its own views without going to the trouble of being elected.”

But fellow Tory MP Nicholas Soames hit back calling it a “bad day”.

The Tory grandee said: “It’s a great shame, in my view, that someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Sir Ivan felt that he had to leave.

“”I think it’s bad news and I hope that he will be promptly and swiftly replaced with someone of equal calibre, but they don’t grow on trees, and his experience doesn’t grow on trees, and I think our efforts will be the poorer without him.

But he added: “However, as always happens, we will make do and mend and get on with it.”

Last night a former boss of the Treasury blasted the “amateurism” of letting Sir Ivan leave.

Ex-Permanent Secretary Lord Macpherson also hit out at the “wilful and total destruction of EU expertise” across Whitehall.