David Frost stays in the Brexit driver’s seat

LONDON — David Frost’s appointment as Brexit and international policy representative to the U.K. government proves that, contrary to what Boris Johnson has said, Brexit is not done and dusted.

The prime minister’s plan, back in June last year, had been for the U.K. Brexit negotiator to eventually leave behind the tussle of working out Britain’s relationship with Brussels once a deal was concluded and become the U.K.’s national security adviser, replacing Mark Sedwill. As such, he would remain in Johnson’s inner circle. But following significant pushback, Johnson has created a new job for Frost that’s more in line with his foreign policy expertise.

Frost, a passionate Brexiteer, will remain in No. 10, heading a new international policy unit and reporting to the prime minister. His main task will be to oversee the institutional and strategic relationship with the EU, and maximize any opportunities derived from Britain’s new position outside the bloc’s single market. Johnson’s expectation is that Frost will help to strike new free-trade deals and spot ways to boost the economy.

However, a senior government official said “Frost will not seek to build bridges with Brussels for a number of years,” pointing back to his zealous advocacy of a Canada-style trade deal during the Brexit negotiations and his wish for regulatory autonomy from the EU.

Parliament will not be able to directly scrutinize his position.

The national security adviser role will instead go to Stephen Lovegrove, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defense since 2016. As the top mandarin at the defense department, he has been the government’s main adviser on defense, finance and planning.

With so much work related to Brexit left to be done, Frost is expected to work across Whitehall, and particularly with the Treasury, the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In a statement, Frost gave an early indication of how he sees his new role, saying he will help the prime minister to “define what we stand for as a country internationally.”

No. 10 confirmed that Frost, who received a life peerage last year, will continue his “leave of absence” from the House of Lords. This means he is unlikely to be promoted to a ministerial role soon, fueling speculation that it will be someone else who represents the U.K. on the new EU-U.K. Partnership Council, a position expected to be at ministerial level. The council has been established to settle any trade disputes between the two sides, with European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič representing Brussels.

Observers have suggested Frost’s new appointment is as much a recognition of pending Brexit work as a nod to those who, like former Prime Minister Theresa May, suggested Frost lacked national security expertise and rejected him as a political appointee.

“Brexit is a continuing relationship with the EU and that is a full-time job. But the real driver behind this is that Johnson had second thoughts about David Frost being a national security adviser, because he really doesn’t have the background,” said Peter Ricketts, chair of the House of Lords’ EU security and justice subcommittee.

Others, such as the Treasury’s former permanent secretary, Nick Macpherson, think the changes are a consequence of last month’s departure from No. 10 of Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former chief aide, who had championed Frost’s appointment as national security adviser. “The grown-ups are back in charge of the state apparatus,” he said.

But Downing Street rejected those interpretations, stressing it is Johnson who makes the appointments.

“It is the case that the prime minister has been considering the appropriate division of responsibilities since the successful completion of our negotiations with the EU,” the PM’s official spokesman said Friday. “With that agreement in place we have huge opportunities to boost wealth.”

Lovegrove steps in

Lovegrove, who got the national security adviser job instead, is well regarded in Whitehall and defense circles. He is credited with pushing hard to balance the Ministry of Defense’s books and persuading ministers that the department could spend more efficiently the extra £14.5 billion allocated to defense for the next four years.

Lovegrove’s background is in economics and communications, having spent 10 years at Deutsche Bank in the City of London. He was also a board member of the organizing committee of the 2012 London Olympics, at a time when Johnson was the capital’s mayor.

One of Lovegrove’s first tasks will be to contribute to a major review of the U.K.’s defense and foreign policy, which is meant to shed light on how Britain should reform its armed forces. He has been deeply involved in the review since it started, and also took part in its 2015 forerunner. He will have to build strong ties with Jake Sullivan, the new national security adviser to the Biden administration in the U.S., as well.

Ricketts said Lovegrove is “an excellent choice” as national security adviser and a refreshing appointment after the first four job holders were recruited from the Foreign Office.

“It means that the U.K. will once more have a full-time, top-level professional with real expertise in this key job,” he said. “It also means that David Frost’s position is much clearer as a political adviser to the PM.”

Officials will be relieved the national security adviser position has reverted to being a civil service job. But as Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the RUSI think tank, put it, the move also “reinforces the point that the job is no longer a Foreign Office fiefdom.”

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