Early diplomatic career (1986–2000) Barrow joined the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1986 and worked as a desk officer in the Western European Department from 1987 to 1988 and the
United Nations in
New York. He then did
Russian language training for a year before taking part in the British Days Exhibition in
Kyiv, the capital of
Ukraine, in 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was the second secretary at the
British Embassy in Moscow, and then returned to London where he was head of the Russia Section in the Foreign Office for a year. From 1994 to 1996, he was private secretary to a
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Barrow was then appointed as a first secretary of the United Kingdom Representation to the European Union, serving from 1996 to 1998, before returning again to London as a private secretary to
Robin Cook the
Foreign Secretary.
London, Brussels, Kyiv and Moscow (2000–2017) In 2000, Barrow was appointed as head of the Common Foreign and Security Department at the Foreign Office, and in 2003 was appointed as the assistant director of the Europe Directorate - External, including during the UK's
presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2005. He was also involved in negotiations over the
Treaty of Lisbon at this time. Barrow served as deputy political director at the Foreign Office from 2005 to 2006 before his appointment as
Her Majesty's Ambassador to Ukraine in 2006. He took up the post in July that year and held it until 2008 when he returned to Brussels as UK Representative to the
Political and Security Committee and Ambassador to the
Western European Union. Shortly after his arrival, he oversaw the visit of
David Cameron, the
Prime Minister, to Russia. This was part a wider policy implemented by Cameron for a "reset" in relations with Russia following the fallout of the
poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. In February 2015, following the murder of opposition politician
Boris Nemtsov, Barrow hosted the former Prime Minister
John Major. He also attended Nemtsov's wake with Major and joined other Western ambassadors in laying flowers at a tribute to him near
Red Square.
Politico reported that he was a "low-key" ambassador, which allowed him to avoid some of the vilification aimed at other Western diplomats. However, this masked some significant achievements that he made in a tenure marked by Russian military interventions in
Ukraine and
Syria and a crackdown on dissent by
Vladimir Putin.
Aleksey Pushkov, who led the
State Duma foreign affairs committee during Barrow's tenure, commented that "He created the impression of a real professional who was able to advocate the positions of his own government, while also striving to find out and understand Russia’s positions." This role included overseeing international organisations, multilateral policy, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, South Asia and Afghanistan. The next day, Barrow was appointed to replace him. A Downing Street spokesman said Barrow was "a seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels." The
Financial Times reported that Barrow's appointment was opposed by
Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the
Department for Exiting the European Union, who wanted to take control of negotiations with the EU himself. However, the Foreign Office overruled him. Barrow appointed two senior civil servants to his team in Brussels in March 2017. They were
Katrina Williams, a director-general at the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy who was appointed as deputy permanent representative, and
Simon Case,
Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, who was appointed as head of the UK-EU Partnership. On 20 March, Barrow appeared before the
European Scrutiny Committee to give evidence on UK-EU relations prior to the
invocation of
Article 50. During the hearing, he warned that it may not be possible to leave the European Union without paying anything, as some Conservative MPs had suggested, and that "other legal opinions" offered "a different interpretation". Barrow was responsible for handing over the letter of
United Kingdom's invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in Brussels on 29 March 2017 to
European Council President Donald Tusk. On 17 October 2018, Barrow accompanied British Prime Minister
Theresa May to the
European Council summit in Brussels. After the Council meeting, Barrow wrote to the Secretaries General of the Council and Commission of the European Union on behalf of the UK. His letters stated that the UK had no doubt over its sovereignty of Gibraltar, including British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, and that Gibraltar's sovereignty would never be transferred against the democratically expressed wishes of its citizens.
Ambassador to the EU (2020–2021) After the
UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, Barrow's portfolio changed to
British Ambassador to the European Union effective 1 February, being succeeded in 2021 by
Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby.
Ambassador to the United States He was appointed as UK ambassador to the
United States but following the
2024 United Kingdom general election, his appointment was annulled by the new Labour government.
House of Lords On 17 June 2025, it was announced that he was to be awarded a
life peerage, and would sit in the
House of Lords as a
crossbencher. He was created
Baron Barrow,
of Penrith in the County of Cumbria on 18 July 2025. He was
introduced to the Lords on 24 July 2025. ==Honours==