Sir Matthew John Rycroft (; born 16 June 1968) is a British civil servant and diplomat who served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from March 2020 to March 2025, appointed following the resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam. Rycroft previously served as Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development (DFID) from 2018 to 2020 and as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2015 to 2018.

Early life and education

The son of Professor Michael Rycroft, Rycroft was born in Southampton, before moving to Cambridge at the age of eleven, when his father joined the British Antarctic Survey. He was educated at the Leys School between 1981 and 1986 and now chairs the school's governing body.

He next studied mathematics and philosophy at Merton College, Oxford, graduating BA in 1989.

Career

Rycroft joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1989.

he was a Third Secretary in Geneva from 1990 to 1991, then was posted to the British Embassy in Paris until 1995. While there he was in the Chancery section and was promoted to Second Secretary. He returned to the FCO as a First Secretary in 1995.

It was in this capacity that Rycroft issued the "Downing Street memo". During his time in Downing Street, in 2003, he was made a CBE.

Rycroft's appointment as Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister ended in 2004. He was British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2005–2008, then until 2011 was back at the FCO as Director for the EU, later Europe. He was Chief Operating Officer at the FCO, 2011–14. serving until

2018.

The memo includes discussion of a "shift of attitude" in the Bush administration which made it appear that at this point, while the public was still being told that Iraq could avoid an invasion by agreeing to abide by UN resolutions,

<blockquote>Military action was now seen as inevitable.</blockquote>

The memo went on to state

<blockquote>Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.</blockquote>

bolstering the assertions of opponents of Bush and Blair that the invasion had been decided a priori, the intelligence to support the invasion had been slanted towards that purpose, and that there had been insufficient planning for the aftermath. This was even more explicitly stated elsewhere in the memo,

<blockquote>The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.</blockquote>

Permanent Secretary at DFID and Home Office

Rycroft was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development with effect from January 2018.

Rycroft replaced Mark Lowcock who ran the department from 2011. He was appointed Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Home Office in March 2020 following the resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam.

In February 2025 Rycroft announced he was retiring as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office.

Honours

Rycroft was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003

References

  • RYCROFT, Matthew John, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013
  • Matthew Rycroft, Esq, CBE Authorised Biography – Debrett's People of Today