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{{short description|British senior diplomat and life peer}}
{{Essay-entry|Peter Ricketts}}
{{For|the American businessman and politician|Pete Ricketts}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = The Lord Ricketts
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|GCVO}}
| image = Official_portrait_of_Lord_Ricketts_crop_2.jpg
| office = [[British Ambassador to France]]
| monarch = [[Elizabeth II]]
| primeminister = [[David Cameron]]
| term_start = 2012
| term_end = 2016
| predecessor = [[Peter Westmacott]]
| successor = [[Julian King (diplomat)|Julian King]]
| office1 = [[National Security Council (United Kingdom)#National Security Advisor|United Kingdom National Security Advisor]]
| term_start1 = 12 May 2010
| term_end1 = 23 January 2012
| predecessor1 = ''Position established''
| successor1 = [[Kim Darroch]]
| primeminister1 = [[David Cameron]]
| office2 = [[Permanent Secretary]], [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]]
| term_start2 = 2006
| term_end2 = 2010
| predecessor2 = [[Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme|Michael Jay]]
| successor2 = [[Simon Fraser (civil servant)|Simon Fraser]]
| primeminister2 = [[Tony Blair]]<br />[[Gordon Brown]]
| office3 = [[Members of the House of Lords|Member]] of the [[House of Lords]]<br />{{small|[[Lord Temporal]]}}
| term_start3 = 17 October 2016<br />{{small|[[Life Peerage]]}}
| term_end3 =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1952|09|30|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Sutton Coldfield]], [[Warwickshire]], England, UK
| birthname = Peter Forbes Ricketts
| nationality = {{Flagicon|UK}} [[British nationality law|British]]
| spouse = Suzanne Ricketts
| children = 2
| education = [[Bishop Vesey's Grammar School]]
| alma_mater = [[Pembroke College, Oxford]]
| occupation = Diplomat
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
}}
 
'''Sir Peter Forbes Ricketts, KCMGBaron Ricketts''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCMG|GCVO}} (born 30 September 1952)<ref>Foreign isPolicy thein [[Permanentan UnderEra Secretary]]of Globalisation. Institute of theDiplomacy and [[Foreign andRelations. CommonwealthThursday Office]],15 2009.</ref> is a retired British senior diplomat and a [[Britishlife Civilpeer]]. Service|civilHe servanthas sat as a [[crossbencher]] in the [[UnitedHouse Kingdomof Lords]] since 2016.
 
Ricketts served as chair of the [[Joint Intelligence Committee (United Kingdom)|Joint Intelligence Committee]] (JIC) under Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]]. He was the UK government's first national security adviser from 2010 from 2012, serving under Prime Minister [[David Cameron]].
He was educated at [[Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School]] [[Sutton Coldfield]], and [[Pembroke College, Oxford]] where he read English Literature. He joined the FCO in 1974 and his early postings were to Singapore and the UK Delegation to [[NATO]] in Brussels (where he met and married Suzanne, also then a member of the FCO, now a teacher of English as a Foreign Language).
 
== Personal life ==
In the early 1980s he worked on the Arab/Israel desk at the time of the Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon, then as an Assistant Private Secretary to [[Sir Geoffrey Howe]], where the Middle East, the Falklands and the future of Hong Kong were his main focus.
Ricketts attended [[Bishop Vesey's Grammar School]], [[Sutton Coldfield]], and [[Pembroke College, Oxford]], where he read English Literature. He married Suzanne Horlington; they have two adult children.<ref name=PFRvolgensWhosWho>{{cite book|title= Who's Who 2001|year=2001 |publisher=A&C Black, London |page=1751 |isbn=0-7136-5432-5 |id= Accessed 2 August 2016}}</ref>
 
== Diplomatic career ==
Then he and his family spent four years in Washington, before he returned to the FCO for spells on Security Policy and as Head of Hong Kong Department in the early period of [[Chris Patten]]’s governorship.
{{BLP sources section|date=October 2022}}
Ricketts began his career in the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] in 1974 and served as the Assistant Private Secretary to former Foreign Secretary [[Geoffrey Howe]]. He later served as the [[Permanent Representative]] to [[NATO]] in [[Brussels]]. Apart from Brussels, he has been posted to Singapore, Washington DC and Paris.
 
He served under Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] as Chairman of the [[Joint Intelligence Committee (United Kingdom)|Joint Intelligence Committee]], leading him to [[List of witnesses of The Iraq Inquiry#November 24|give evidence to]] [[The Iraq Inquiry]] ("The [[Chilcot Report]]") in November 2009.<ref name="BBC I">{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8375439.stm|title=Iraq inquiry told of 'clear' threat from Saddam Hussein|date=24 November 2009|work=[[BBC News]]|publisher=[[BBC]]|accessdate=27 January 2010}}</ref> From 2006 to 2010, Ricketts served under Blair and Prime Minister [[Gordon Brown]] as the [[Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs|Permanent Secretary for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office]].
In preparation for a posting to Paris as Economic and Finance Counsellor in 1995, Peter spent several months on secondment to the Treasury, followed by a short course on economics at the LSE. After two years in Paris, he returned to the FCO as Deputy Political Director, dealing particularly with the Balkans. He led the FCO team dealing with the Kosovo conflict and the arrival of NATO peacekeeping troops.
 
He served under Prime Minister [[David Cameron]] as the UK National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2012. He replaced [[Peter Westmacott]] as [[List of ambassadors from the United Kingdom to France|HM Ambassador to France]] effective January 2012, with [[Kim Darroch]] taking Ricketts's old role as [[National Security Adviser (United Kingdom)|National Security Adviser]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news/2011/06/senior-diplomatic-appointments-65056|title=Senior Diplomatic Appointments|date=24 June 2011|work=[[10 Downing Street|Number 10]]|accessdate=25 June 2011}}</ref>
Then in quick succession he was Director International Security before being seconded to the Cabinet Office as Chairman of the [[Joint Intelligence Committee]]. He left that job one week before 9/11 to come back to the FCO as Political Director. His two years in that job were dominated by crisis management and post-conflict work: the military action in Afghanistan, then the UN diplomacy on Iraq followed by the war, with plenty of activity as well on EU foreign, security and defence policy.
 
In January 2016, he stepped down as the UK Ambassador to France and retired from the [[Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service|Diplomatic Service]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/change-of-her-majestys-ambassador-to-france |title=Change of Her Majesty's Ambassador to France |publisher=Foreign & Commonwealth Office |date=18 December 2015}}</ref>
From July 2003 he was UK Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels, where he led an integrated team of FCO and MOD staff and military officers pursuing UK interests in NATO from the military deployment in Afghanistan to the future membership prospects of Ukraine.
 
==Public life==
Before Ricketts took over the position on the retirement of [[Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme|Sir Michael Jay]], he served as the [[Permanent Representatives from the United Kingdom to NATO|Permanent Representative to NATO]] in [[Brussels]].
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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Resignation Peerages 2016 |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/543973/resignation_peerages_2016.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=61738 |date=21 October 2016 |page=22392 }}</ref> He now sits as a [[crossbencher]].
 
Between 2016 and January 2022 he was a Strategic Adviser to Lockheed Martin UK.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ricketts-peter-ambassador-to-france-and-monaco-acoba-recommendation/summary-of-business-appointments-applications-sir-peter-ricketts|title=Summary of business appointments applications - Sir Peter Ricketts}}</ref>
Peter was born in 1952. He and Suzanne have a son of 23 and a daughter of 19.
 
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]] 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.<ref>{{cite web | last1=Harding | first1=Luke | title=Legal action taken against PM over refusal to investigate Kremlin meddling | url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/29/legal-action-taken-against-pm-over-refusal-to-investigate-kremlin-meddling | date=29 October 2020 | work=[[The Guardian]] | access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref>
Source: www.fco.gov.uk (slightly adapted)
 
In April 2022, Ricketts called [[Marine Le Pen]]'s proposal for a Franco-British defence cooperation treaty "ignorant and dangerous."<ref>{{cite web | last1=Wintour | first1=Patrick | title=Le Pen's plans for post-Brexit treaty 'ignorant and dangerous' | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/13/le-pen-plans-post-brexit-treaty-ignorant-dangerous | date=13 April 2022 | work=[[The Guardian]] | access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Politics of the United Kingdom]]
 
== Honours ==
[[Category:Living people|Ricketts, Peter]]
He was appointed CMG in the 1999 Birthday Honours, [[Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]] (KCMG) in 2003,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=57100 |date=31 October 2003 |page=10 |supp=y}}</ref> [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]] (GCMG) in the 2011 New Year Honours,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=59647 |date=31 December 2010 |page=3 |supp=y}}</ref> and [[Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order]] (GCVO) in 2014.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=60916 |date=27 June 2014 |page=12742}}</ref>
[[Category:British civil servants|Ricketts, Peter]]
 
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George|Ricketts, Peter]]
== See also ==
* [[Politics of the United Kingdom]]
 
== References ==
<references />
 
==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
 
{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box
| title=Chairman of the [[Joint Intelligence Committee (United Kingdom)|Joint Intelligence Committee]]
| years=2000–2001
| before=[[Michael Pakenham]]
| after=[[John Scarlett]]
}}
{{succession box
| title=Director-General, Political of the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]]
| years=2001–2003
| before=[[Emyr Jones Parry]]
| after=[[John Sawers]]
}}
{{s-dip}}
{{succession box
| title=[[List of Permanent Representatives of the United Kingdom to NATO|Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council]] ([[NATO]])
| years=2003–2006
| before=[[Emyr Jones Parry]]
| after=[[Stewart Eldon]]
}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box
| title=[[Permanent Under-Secretary of State]]
| years=2006–2010
| before=[[Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme|Michael Jay]]
| after=[[Simon Fraser (civil servant)|Simon Fraser]]
}}
{{succession box
| title=[[National Security Council (United Kingdom)|Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser]]
| years=2010–2012
| before=New position
| after=[[Kim Darroch]]
}}
{{s-dip}}
{{succession box
| title=[[British Ambassador to France]]
| years=2012–2016
| before=[[Peter Westmacott]]
| after=[[Julian King (diplomat)|Julian King]]
}}
{{s-prec|uk}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Nick Macpherson|The Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom|Gentlemen]]'''<br />''Baron Ricketts'' '''}}
{{s-fol|after=[[Edward Llewellyn, Baron Llewellyn of Steep|The Lord Llewellyn of Steep]]}}
{{s-end}}
 
{{NSA}}
 
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricketts, Peter}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Crossbench life peers]]
[[Category:Diplomatic peers]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:People educated at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Members of HM Diplomatic Service]]
[[Category:Private secretaries in the British Civil Service]]
[[Category:Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs]]
[[Category:Chairs of the Joint Intelligence Committee (United Kingdom)]]
[[Category:Permanent Representatives of the United Kingdom to NATO]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to France]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order]]
[[Category:20th-century British diplomats]]
[[Category:National Security Advisers (United Kingdom)]]
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