“I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power,” he wrote.
“I hope that you will support each other in those difficult moments where you have to deliver messages that are disagreeable to those who need to hear them.”
Sir Ivan unexpectedly quit just months after he sparked controversy by
warning the Government that a post-Brexit trade deal could take a decade to finalise, and even then may fail to get ratified by member states.
The former permanent secretary to the Treasury called Sir Ivan’s resignation a “wilful and total destruction” of expertise amid fears he has been “hounded out” by hostile pro-Brexite
Sir Ivan said unlike in Brussels, “serious multilateral negotiating experience is in short supply in Whitehall”.
“Increasing market access to other markets and consumer choice in our own, depends on the deals, multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral that we strike, and the terms that we agree.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-brexit-negotiations-article-50-a7508251.html