"Sir Ivan Rogers resigned as UK Permanent Representative to Brussels on 3 January. He did not seek any further civil service appointment and has therefore resigned from the civil service with immediate effect. We are grateful for Sir Ivan's work in Brussels and across a number of other senior positions in the civil service," the spokesperson said in a statement circulated by local media.
Rogers reportedly had a strained relationship with some members of UK Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet, especially after he privately warned the government that a trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union after Brexit may take 10 years to finalize and could still be rejected by the bloc even after a decade of negotiations..
On Thursday, May appointed Tim Barrow, a former UK ambassador to Russia, for the position of UK's Permanent Representative to the European Union. The United Kingdom is expected to begin the formal process of withdrawal from the European Union by the end of this March after London invokes the exit clause of the EU treaty.
