Crawford Falconer, the Department for Business and Trade second permanent secretary, has not been sacked, business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs.
DBT confirmed earlier this month that Falconer would be leaving the department in December and that his second perm sec role would be retired.
Falconer was asked by Business and Trade Committee chair Liam Byrne about the "benefits" of not replacing Crawford Falconer in light of the huge question marks hanging over UK-US trade ahead of Donald Trump's return to the White House.
"To use an American sports phrase, is that not sacking your quarterback on the morning of the Superbowl?" he said.
Reynolds said: "Crawford's contract is coming to an end. There's been no change from the new government in terms of those contractual relationships.
“I think Crawford is a remarkable person, a brilliant person to talk to on trade. And I think his job has been to fundamentally build up the capacity of the department, which I've a lot of confidence now exists.
“But there's no conscious decision to sack anyone from myself as the secretary of state or the new government. It's simply that those arrangements have come to the end of their contractual position.”
Gareth Davies, the department’s permanent secretary, said Falconer came in as second perm sec in 2017 with the responsibility of building up the trade team “because this is a team sport”.
“These negotiations aren’t just one person, this is a whole team,” he added. “We now have over 400 to 500 people in the department who now have significant experience of multiple deals that have been negotiated over the last five years, obviously most notably CPTPP [the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership], and seeing those through.”
Falconer's contract was twice extended by one year when the Conservative Party was in power. The decision by Keir Starmer's government not to renew Falconer’s contract again was criticised earlier this month by shadow business and trade secretary Andrew Griffith.
“It is staggering that at this crucial time following the US elections, the government has dispensed with the services of its chief trade negotiator, an independent civil servant with direct experience negotiating across the Atlantic,” he said.
Davies told the committee that Falconer’s contract was extended beyond its initial five-year term so that he could stay on until the process for the UK joining the CPTPP was completed. The UK is set to join the CPTPP next month, when Falconer will depart.
Committee member John Cooper asked why someone from the trade team wasn't replacing Crawford as "chief trade negotiator" and if the role had been "retired".
Davies said Amanda Brooks – director general, trade negotiations – is now responsible for “building capability and leading our negotiations” and pointed out that Falconer's role has actually been "chief trade negotiation adviser".
Reynolds added that Falconer was not personally responsible for conducting negotiations, with each trade deal having a specific negotiator assigned to it.