The only mystery about Sir Ivan Rogers is why he was still in his job

The wonder about Sir Ivan Rogers’s resignation as Britain’s ambassador to the EU is that he was still in the job. He may have possessed useful knowledge about the workings of the EU, but he was also heavily associated with a failed way of conducting negotiations with it. It was he who advised David Cameron last February on his unsuccessful renegotiations of Britain’s relationship with the EU, which failed to convince the British people to vote to remain in the union. It would have been better and less disruptive had he resigned in the wake of the referendum last June, along with the Prime Minister.

That Sir Ivan was not the man to work on Brexit negotiations is clear from the email he sent to colleagues as he resigned, and which it is impossible to believe that he did not intend to be leaked. ‘I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking,’ he wrote, ‘and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power.