David Frost Keynote Speaker

David Frost, the Rt Hon Lord Frost of Allenton CMG, was Chief Negotiator and Europe adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson (2019-21) and then Cabinet Minister responsible for EU relations (2021). He is an engaging speaker on British and European politics, economics and foreign policy, and speaks to his experiences of working inside and outside Government and as the key British player in Brexit talks.

He led the negotiations which broke the political deadlock over Brexit, finally took the UK out of the EU, and put in place the world’s broadest free trade agreement.  He began the work of post-Brexit reform and of dealing with the problems of the Northern Ireland Protocol, but left the Government over policy differences in December 2021.

David Frost is one of those rare individuals in the UK system who has been all three of Minister, special adviser, and professional diplomat and civil servant.  He was Boris Johnson’s political adviser on foreign policy in the Foreign Office and before that was British Ambassador in Denmark, Europe Director and head of Policy Planning in the Foreign Office, and Britain’s chief trade negotiator and member of the EU’s Trade Policy Committee.

He also has trade experience outside Government as CEO of one of the UK’s biggest trade associations, the Scotch Whisky Association (2013-16), and in that capacity was closely involved in the politics around the 2014 Scotland independence referendum.

He speaks to varying degrees French, German, Greek, Danish, and Russian and has smatterings of other European languages.