The new power broker

Ed Llewellyn, David Cameron’s chief of staff, is going to be one of the most influential people in Downing Street these next few years. He has already played a crucial role in the negotiation between the Tories and the Lib Dems; having worked for Paddy Ashdown in Bosnia and being friends with Nick Clegg’s wife from his Brussels days he has good relations with the Lib Dems.  

Llewellyn has extensive links across government and it is telling that Sir Peter Ricketts, who was appointed as the national security advisor this morning, has worked with Llewellyn twice. He was Hong Kong desk officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when Llewellyn was in Chris Patten’s office in Hong Kong. Then, Llewellyn and his paths crossed again when he was the UK’s permanent representative to Nato when Llewellyn was working for Ashdown in Bosnia, who had a large amount of Nato peacekeepers at his disposal.