You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is one of the

Mandarin class of top UK civil servants who followed a well-trodden career path,

an Oxbridge degree followed by a long climb up the civil service ladder. In Peter Ricketts's

case, his home department was the Foreign Office. He served as ambassador to NATO and to France.

He was permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office

and National Security Advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron. Like many of his fellow retired

senior ambassadors and mandarins, Lord Ricketts has thrown off the obligation to stay out of politics

which came with active service. He has very publicly

condemned the current government's handling of Brexit negotiations as a fiasco. He sees Theresa May's

deal as utterly inadequate, and he publicly expresses fears that Brexit will leave Britain

permanently and significantly weakened. This public airing of views has created

the impression that the supposedly apolitical civil service, particularly the foreign office,

is institutionally and temperamentally opposed to Brexit. So does this represent a real problem

in Britain's democracy and the relationship between the people

and the government. Well, Lord Ricketts joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. How hard did you

have to think before you took the decision to enter the political fray on this vexed issue of Britain and Brexit, because you had spent your

entire working life being, if I may say so, faceless, apolitical, Mandarin, diplomat, civil servant.

So you are doing something entirely new.

Well, first of all, I would regard myself as still apolitical. I'm not part of any political party.

That, if I may say it, is a very different thing.

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