Andrew Lansley, the former health secretary, has been rebuffed in his attempts to rebuild his career in the international arena after failing in his bid to replace Lady Amos as the UN emergency relief co-ordinator. Lansley appeared to have won David Cameron’s support for the job, but the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, announced that he would appoint the former UK international development minister Stephen O’Brien.
Lansley, who said after he was dropped from the cabinet last year that he would seek to take a role in “international public service”, had made preparations for the move to New York by announcing last year that he would stand down as Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire at the general election.
The former health secretary, who was demoted to the role of leader of the House of Commons in 2012 after a backlash against his health reforms, had hoped to become Britain’s next commissioner.
The UN hailed the appointment of O’Brien, who served as international development minister in 2010-12. Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, told journalists in remarks reported by Reuters: “Mr O’Brien is expected to bring innovative and strategic ideas as a strong humanitarian advocate with more than 20 years of experience in international development and health care.”
O’Brien, who was born in Tanganyika four years before its independence as Tanzania and who was educated in Mombassa, was a highly respected international development minister. He was appointed as the prime minister’s envoy to the Sahel after his sacking.
O’Brien’s appointment as successor to Amos as under-secretary-general and emergency relief coordinator is a blow to Lansley. As parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for International Development O’Brien was two rungs on the ministerial ladder below Lansley, who ran the Department of Health as secretary of state.
The prime minister was obliged to submit three names to the UN secretary general. It is understood that the secretary general was not persuaded that Lansley’s career, which has focused almost entirely on domestic matters as a politician and a civil servant, was the appropriate preparation for such a high-profile international role.
Lansley was clear after his sacking from the cabinet that he would like to take an international role. In a letter to the prime minister he wrote: “I am grateful to you now for expressing your support to me to take such a role in international public service in the months ahead.”
Cameron wrote back: “You have much more to give in terms of public service, and I look forward to being able to support you in doing so in the months and years ahead.”
The appointment of O’Brien creates a vacancy in his safe Cheshire seat of Eddibsury just weeks before the dissolution of parliament.
