London — Britain’s European Union ambassador, Ivan Rogers, has resigned his post unexpectedly. Rogers, appointed by former Prime Minister David Cameron, was a key figure in the attempt to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU before last June’s referendum, announced on Tuesday afternoon that he would leave his post early, said Britain’s foreign office. Last month, Prime Minister Theresa May’s office played down Rogers’s remark that it could take 10 years to negotiate a free-trade deal with the EU and that even then, the EU Parliament could scupper it. Rogers was appointed to the post in November 2013. Charles Grant, head of the London-based Centre for European Reform, tweeted: "Ivan Rogers’s resignation makes a good deal on Brexit less likely." Grant said Rogers was one of very few senior British officials who understood the EU. Bloomberg
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