Peter Forbes Ricketts, Baron Ricketts, (born 30 September 1952) is a retired British senior

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

and a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

. He has sat as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. They take their name fr ...

in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

since 2016. Ricketts served as chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) under Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

. He was the UK government's first national security adviser from 2010 from 2012, serving under Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

Personal life

Ricketts attended

Bishop Vesey's Grammar School Bishop Vesey's Grammar School (BVGS) is a selective state grammar school with academy status in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England. Founded in 1527, it is one of the oldest schools in Britain, the oldest state school in the West Midlan ...

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield ( ), is a town and civil parish in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south of L ...

, and

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

, where he read English Literature. He married Suzanne Horlington; they have two adult children.

Diplomatic career

Ricketts began his career in the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

in 1974 and served as the Assistant Private Secretary to former Foreign Secretary

Geoffrey Howe Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, (20 December 1926 – 9 October 2015), known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to ...

. He later served as the Permanent Representative to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. Apart from Brussels, he has been posted to Singapore, Washington DC and Paris. He served under Prime Minister

as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, leading him to give evidence to

The Iraq Inquiry The Iraq Inquiry (also referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot)Chilcot Report") in November 2009. From 2006 to 2010, Ricketts served under Blair and Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

as the Permanent Secretary for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He served under Prime Minister

as the UK National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2012. He replaced Peter Westmacott as HM Ambassador to France effective January 2012, with Kim Darroch taking Ricketts's old role as National Security Adviser. In January 2016, he stepped down as the UK Ambassador to France and retired from the

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtain diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

Public life

He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours and was created Baron Ricketts, of Shortlands in the County of Kent, on 17 October. He now sits as a

. Between 2016 and January 2022 he was a Strategic Adviser to Lockheed Martin UK. In October 2020 a cross-party group of MPs and peers, backed by Lord Ricketts, planned to take legal action against Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

over his government's refusal to order an inquiry into Russian interference in UK elections. The move followed the publication in July 2020 of the Russia report by parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC), which found that the government and its intelligence services had failed to investigate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 EU referendum vote. The high court claim named Prime Minister Johnson as defendant. In April 2022, Ricketts called

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician of the far-right National Rally, National Rally party (RN). She served as the party's president from 2011 to 2021, and ran for the French presidency in ...

's proposal for a Franco-British defence cooperation treaty "ignorant and dangerous."

Honours

He was appointed CMG in the 1999 Birthday Honours,

Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...

(KCMG) in 2003, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 2011 New Year Honours, and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 2014.

References

External links