Brexit, Devolution and the General Election: Philip Rycroft to deliver 2019 Annual Lecture

The UK’s former leading Brexit civil servant will deliver the 2019 Wales Governance Centre Annual Lecture.

Philip Rycroft, former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU and head of the UK Governance Group in the Cabinet Office, will speak about the impact of Brexit on inter-governmental relations within the UK and what Brexit means for the future of devolution. He will ask whether the current constitutional order can endure the pressures it now faces?

Director of Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre, Professor Richard Wyn Jones, commented:

“We are delighted to have secured as our Annual Lecturer the person who was not only, until just a few months ago, overseeing the preparations for Brexit, but was also known throughout Whitehall and well beyond as the senior civil servant who ‘got’ devolution and the UK’s territorial constitution. This will be first time that Philip Rycroft has spoken at length about the specific challenges Brexit poses for us in Wales and we are looking forward very much to hearing what he has to say.”

“That he will be speaking against backdrop of a UK General Election campaign in which the future of the Union is sure to feature prominently only serves to emphasise timeliness of the lecture.”

The Llywydd of the National Assembly, Elin Jones AM, is sponsoring the lecture which takes place on Monday 9th December at 18:00, at the Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay. Registration is available here.