Matthew Rycroft
Sir Matthew Rycroft Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department | |
|---|---|
| Assumed office 23 March 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Boris Johnson Liz Truss Rishi Sunak |
| Home Secretary |
|
| Preceded by | Her Majesty's Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| In office 1 March 2005 – 30 July 2008 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | Ian Cliff |
| Succeeded by | Michael Tatham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 June 1968 Southampton, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford (BA) |
Sir Matthew John Rycroft
Early life and education
Rycroft was born in Southampton, before moving to Cambridge at the age of eleven. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Merton College, Oxford.[2]
Career
Rycroft joined the
In 1998, he joined the British embassy in the
It was in this capacity that Rycroft issued the "
From March 2005 to July 2008, Rycroft served as
Downing Street memo
Rycroft's name became familiar to the general public as the author of a
The memo includes discussion of a "shift of attitude" in the
Military action was now seen as inevitable.
Furthermore, the memo went on to state,
Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
bolstering the assertions of opponents of Bush and Blair that the invasion had been decided a priori, the intelligence to support the invasion had been slanted towards that purpose, and that there had been insufficient planning for the aftermath. This was even more explicitly stated elsewhere in the memo,
The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
Permanent Secretary at DFID and HO
Rycroft was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development with effect from January 2018.[8] Rycroft replaced
Rycroft was appointed
References
- ^ "Appointment of Matthew Rycroft as Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^ "Matthew Rycroft - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^ Ames, Chris; Norton-Taylor, Richard (29 August 2011). "Blair and Bush planned Iraq war without second UN vote, letter shows". The Guardian.
- ^ "No. 57100". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 October 2003. p. 11.
- ^ Matthew Rycroft, gov.uk
- ^ Change of UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 7 October 2014
- ^ Blair planned Iraq war from start, The Sunday Times, London, 1 May 2005, page 7(subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the UK)
- ^ "Appointment of Matthew Rycroft as Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development". Department for International Development. 29 September 2017. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N4.
External links
- RYCROFT, Matthew John, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013
- Matthew Rycroft, Esq, CBE Authorised Biography – Debrett's People of Today
- Appearances on C-SPAN
