That cut short Robbins\u2019 mission to deliver a radical program of departmental reform by 2030 \u2014 and now insiders complain this has left the department, once a prized part of the British government machine, rudderless and fearful for what comes next. This additional pressure comes at an unusually busy time in foreign affairs, when Starmer is keen to project confidence on the world stage.<\/p>\n
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union representing civil servants, said the ministry had \u201clost a really visible leader\u201d and now there was \u201cturmoil, because someone’s now got to try and pick up that mantle not in a planned transfer of power, but in a crisis they didn’t need.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘State of shock’<\/p>\n
Robbins was in charge of the \u201cFCDO 2030\u201d project, which aimed to reduce the department’s overall headcount between 15 and 25 percent \u2014 removing around 2,000 jobs \u2014 by the end of the decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the efficiency drive, staff were forced to reapply for their own roles in a \u201cjob-matching\u201d exercise, which is due to conclude in mid-May, letting people know whether they would continue in post, be moved elsewhere, or made redundant.\u00a0The overall transformation program is expected to go ahead as planned under Robbins\u2019 interim replacement, Nick Dyer.<\/p>\n
One FCDO official, granted anonymity to speak candidly like others in this piece, said staff had been left \u201cin a state of shock\u201d in the immediate aftermath of Robbins\u2019 removal, noting there was already \u201cagitation bordering on grievance\u201d about departmental reforms, with the change of leadership only leading to \u201cmore uncertainty and challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second official said that the mood was \u201cin the toilet\u201d and the department faced \u201closing all the wrong people, and at the same time, I just don\u2019t understand what the priorities are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That cut short Robbins\u2019 mission to deliver a radical program of departmental reform by 2030 \u2014 and now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[157,1355,517,5033,1358,640,710,2403,1486,401,94,2739,162,11394,5035,164,1188,6372,7509,460,593,168,5,523,6,461,2068],"class_list":{"0":"post-25423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-buildings","10":"tag-crisis","11":"tag-dan-bloom","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-department","14":"tag-development","15":"tag-diplomacy","16":"tag-foreign-policy","17":"tag-history","18":"tag-keir-starmer","19":"tag-missions","20":"tag-negotiations","21":"tag-on-the-rocks","22":"tag-peter-mandelson","23":"tag-regions-cohesion","24":"tag-research","25":"tag-resilience","26":"tag-sarah-champion","27":"tag-security","28":"tag-services","29":"tag-trade","30":"tag-uk","31":"tag-ukraine","32":"tag-united-kingdom","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-yvette-cooper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116491400161904416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}