Michael Ellam tapped up to be UK’s next ‘EU sherpa’

Gordon Brown’s former communications chief has been tapped up for the role of “EU sherpa”, leading the UK government’s reset talks with Brussels, as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer looks to strengthen his core team.

Michael Ellam, a former Treasury official who left the civil service in 2013 to join HSBC bank where he remains a senior executive, is the “clear frontrunner” to take the role, according to several senior Whitehall officials.

If appointed, Ellam would be the latest in a series of New Labour-era officials hired by Starmer. Recent recruits include Jonathan Powell as national security adviser and Liz Lloyd as director of policy delivery and innovation; both served in senior Downing Street roles under Tony Blair.

The role of sherpa will be critical in the formal EU-UK reset talks, which are expected to start in late spring, but the successful candidate will also be the principal adviser to Starmer on all international economic issues.

The advert for the job, with a salary of between £153,000 and £200,000, says it will “receive significant public scrutiny and public attention”. Negotiations between London and Brussels are the subject of fierce media debate, with Brexit the subject of continued divisiveness in the UK.

Ellam, who served as spokesperson for Brown during his time in Downing Street, declined to comment, but five people with knowledge of the discussions confirmed that preliminary talks over the role had taken place.

The Cabinet Office said it did not comment on live recruitment processes and that applications for the post — officially “second permanent secretary, European Union and International Economic Affairs” — did not close until December 8.

The job is a recreation of the powerful international “sherpa” role previously held by Treasury heavyweights such as Sir Tom Scholar, Sir Ivan Rogers and Sir Jon Cunliffe, and the successful candidate will play a key role at Starmer’s side.

Sir Olly Robbins, another former EU sherpa, is now on the shortlist to become the next cabinet secretary.

Meanwhile, a new unit staffed by officials from across Whitehall has been set up at the heart of government to handle the EU negotiations under Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds. 

It has involved several dozen civil servants in the EU directorate who were previously based in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office decamping permanently to 70 Whitehall, where the Cabinet Office is based. The machinery of government change was completed this month, four months after Labour took power.

In his 20-year civil service career Ellam held a number of senior positions, including chair of the EU’s financial services committee, working with officials from 27 other member states to hammer out financial regulations. 

At the time of his appointment in 2011, then Tory chancellor George Osborne described Ellam as one of the UK’s “top policymakers” who was at the centre of making and implementing EU financial rules.

“Ellam is a heavyweight,” said one of the people with knowledge of the EU sherpa discussions. “Everyone knows that this is going to be a tricky negotiation, so it needs someone who gets how the [EU] system works.”

If appointed, Ellam would face the challenge of extracting an improved trade and security deal from Brussels within the “red lines” set by the Labour government. It has said it will not rejoin the EU single market, customs union or accept free movement of people.

In its general election manifesto, Labour said it would seek a veterinary agreement to reduce trade frictions for food importers and exporters, a better deal for travelling artists and the mutual recognition of professional qualifications between the EU and UK.

According to internal documents seen by the Financial Times, the EU has already ruled out loosening curbs on musicians because the necessary changes to rules on customs and road haulage were impossible under Labour’s red lines.

The EU Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has also already rejected attempts by the previous government to obtain a “mutual recognition” deal for architects to practice in the UK and EU.

There is also continuing debate in the cabinet over whether the UK can strike a deal on a “youth mobility scheme” to enable 18 to 30-year-olds to live and work in the EU and UK between two and four years.

EU member states have made clear that improved access to the UK, including universities, must be part of any wider “reset” in relations.

Starmer has repeatedly ruled out such a deal in public, although some ministers have privately said that “landing zones” can be found.