Who is Britain’s ambassador to the US? What you need to know about Sir Kim Darroch

"Excellent" job: Sir Kim Darroch was appointed Britain's ambassador to the US in February
Larry French/Getty Images f
Jamie Bullen22 November 2016

Nigel Farage may have been earmarked by Donald Trump to be Britain’s man in Washington but that is one role the President-elect is not able to fill.

Sir Kim Darroch, the current British ambassador to the US, was only appointed in February and was said by Downing Street sources to be doing an “excellent” job.

With a career spanning three decades, Sir Kim was chosen by the Foreign Office to succeed former US ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott in what is considered one of the most prestigious roles in the diplomatic service.

So who is Sir Kim Darroch and how did he become Britain’s representative to the US government.

Background

Sir Kim was born in South Stanley, County Durham in April, 1954.

He studied zoology at Durham University and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1977.

He married his wife, Vanessa, in 1978 and the couple have two children, Simon and Georgina.

Career

Earlier on in his career, he served in a range of roles including as private secretary to the Minister of State responsible for the Middle East, and head of the Adriatic Department during the Dayton Accord talks, a peace agreement signed in 1995 that ended the Bosnian war.

He was also the head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office news department.

From 2007 to 2011, Sir Kim served in Brussels as the UK Permanent Representative to the European Union. He represented British interests in areas including enlargement and European integration.

In January 2012, Sir Kim was appointed as then Prime Minister David Cameron’s national security advisor acting as secretary of the National Security Council.

Issues he led the security team on included the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Russian aggression in the Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear threat and the collapse of the Libyan government.

He left that role in September 2015 before he was appointed Britain’s ambassador to the US.

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