On Tuesday 24th June, we were very pleased to welcome to GSF Jenny Bates, Heywood Fellow 2025-2026; and Director General in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (2020-2025). She discussed ‘The UK And The EU In The New Global Economic Order’ in an event chaired by GSF Co-Chair, the Rt Hon the Lord Hammond of Runnymede PC (Chancellor of the Exchequer, 2016-2019; Foreign Secretary, 2014-2016; Defence Secretary, 2011-2014).

Ten years ago, on 23rd June 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union after more than four decades of membership, setting the country on a new and uncharted economic path. Since then, the global economy has been buffeted by shocks, from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and now the current US-Iran war. At the same time, the post-Cold War consensus in favour of globalisation has come under increasing challenge as governments have adopted more interventionist, protectionist and tariff-based policies, most notably, the Trump administrations in the US.

Jenny Bates, the current Heywood Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, argues that against this backdrop, it is time for the UK to rethink its economic strategy. Her Heywood Fellowship project has been to research and articulate a refreshed approach for the UK in the new global economic order. In January, Jenny published an Anchor Paper and four future scenarios on an array of hypothetical ruptures and realignments in the global economic order to stimulate discussion. Since then, much of what at first felt far-reaching has accelerated in real-time. The proposed strategic framework, to be published this autumn, argues the UK must place balanced emphasis on resilience, agency and competitiveness. For the EU, this framework offers a different starting point for future-oriented strategic collaboration beyond debate on the Customs Union or Single Market.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

JENNY BATES is the fourth Heywood Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government. Her career has spanned more than two decades of economic policymaking in the British government (in FCDO, BEIS and HM Treasury), working across the intersection of international and domestic economic issues. Jenny is a professional Economist and has led interdisciplinary analytical teams – as well as leading policy work on topics including trade and economic security, industrial strategy, climate and the energy transition and development finance. Jenny was Director General in the FCDO from 2020 to 2025, undertaking two roles focused on China and the Indo Pacific and then more recently on Economics, Climate and Global Issues. Prior to joining FCDO, Jenny led the Smith Commission Secretariat on the devolution of further powers to Scotland. She started her career at HM Treasury working on global economic issues and engaging with groupings like the Paris Club, OECD, G20 and G7 and had a period focused more on domestic policy, leading a team with responsibility for UK budget delivery. Jenny has spent significant time in Washington DC, both through a posting to the British Embassy in Washington from 2005-2009 and, before joining government, working on trade policy issues at the Progressive Policy Institute from 1998 to 2001.