Profile: Tom Fletcher, the man with ‘the toughest job in the world’

Illustration by Andy Bunday

By contrast, last week Fletcher was once again taken to task for his comments on Gaza – he claimed that the majority of UN aid that gets into the territory reaches civilians.

The heated online response was as nothing compared to the furious reaction to his address to the UN Security Council back in May, when he said that one in five Gazans faced starvation and called for action “to prevent genocide”. Unless the restrictions were lifted, he went on to warn in a BBC interview, “14,000 babies would die within the next 48 hours”.

That claim, based on a misinterpretation of a report, was later withdrawn, but not before the Israel foreign ministry tweeted: “When Tom Fletcher @UNReliefChief, Head of @UNOCHA, ignores Hamas’ atrocities but echoes their propaganda – it’s not humanitarian work, it’s blood libel.”

“It was an unfortunate mistake,” says one former senior UN figure. “Israel will continue to ram that down his and the UN’s throat, but I doubt it has made any difference to the degree of practical cooperation there would have been.”

An extremely well-informed and media-literate figure, Fletcher was well aware of the reactions he was likely to provoke, but for a career diplomat he has seldom been shy of controversy. Back in 2003, when the now 50-year-old was still in his 20s, he was private secretary to the then foreign office minister, Chris Mullin.

The former Labour minister and celebrated diarist recalls him as “bright, personable, optimistic and slightly irreverent – which is a plus in my book”.

Mullin was deeply impressed and thought the young man would “go all the way”, by which he meant to one of the top ambassadorial postings, like Washington or Beijing. As things turned out, after serving as a foreign policy adviser to three prime ministers (Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron), Fletcher’s career as an ambassador got no further than Beirut, where his unconventional approach to the job made him something of a local celebrity.

He outlined his opposition to fustiness in a blog, later published as a book, entitled The Naked Diplomat. Against protocols and platitudes, he argued for stripping away formalities and “to focus on what we do best, which is trying to find new ways to stop people killing each other”. At the core of this philosophy was a willingness to exploit new technology such as social media, an outlook that was inevitably referred to as “digital diplomacy”. The blog was turned into a book under the same title and received rave recommendations from Brown and Cameron, both of whom found Fletcher indispensable as a foreign policy adviser. He has also written two well-received novels set in the world of international diplomacy.

But for all his well-placed fans and connections, Fletcher’s own brand of diplomacy – prioritising direct communication with the masses over backroom discussions with elites – may have been viewed as unsuited to more senior postings. In an otherwise positive book review of The Naked Diplomat, Mullin suggested there were limits to the upfront approach, although he does not think that was the reason that no major diplomatic posts were offered to Fletcher. “I hesitate to say this, but there was a period when they were only appointing women to the top ambassadorships,” he says. “And as someone said at the time in relation to Tom, a public school-educated woman trumped a state-educated male.”

Fletcher, who is married to a psychologist and has two boys, attended Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone, Kent. He got a first in modern history from Hertford College, Oxford, where he served as principal for four years before he took the UN job in October last year. That appointment was not without its detractors.

It has been suggested that UN secretary general António Guterres delayed the process to enable Keir Starmer, who was expected to win the general election last year, to make his choice.

Fletcher is the sixth Briton in a row to occupy the position. His predecessor, Martin Griffiths, who stepped down in May 2024, joined a chorus of voices arguing against British domination of the role when he said it was “too crucial a job to be left to favouritism”. An open letter signed by a number of dignitaries was sent to Guterres, calling for a “merit-based appointment”, and both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who supply large amounts of foreign humanitarian aid but have a poor reputation for human rights, put forward rival applications. “Between the Saudis and Tom,” observes Mullin dryly, “I’d choose Tom.”

Aside from those complaints, Fletcher’s appointment coincided with a particularly challenging time in humanitarianism that has been declared a “reset”. “There has been an explosion of humanitarian need and, owing to budgetary stringency, that is not being matched by humanitarian funding,” says Ian Martin, chair of the United Nations Association-UK.

Some humanitarian workers and old-timers within the UN initially had Fletcher down as a slick PR man. He quickly turned that opinion around because, as Mark Lattimer, executive director of the civilian rights organisation Ceasefire and a longtime humanitarian activist puts it, “he’s working his guts out on the side of the angels”.

But while there is little doubt that Fletcher is committed to saving lives, humanitarianism is an arena in which good intentions often suffer from a strained relationship with good results. Recognising the new budgetary constraints, he has called for a reduction in bureaucracy and inefficiency, but ultimately he doesn’t have many cards to play with.

In Gaza, for example, he has appealed for the unconditional release of the hostages and full access for aid, but neither side is rushing to respond. It’s an impossible job that tends to be judged by degrees of failure, rather than success.

Fletcher, however, is renowned for his unceasing optimism and is rarely daunted by the job in hand. After all, this is the man who relished working for Gordon Brown, arguably the most demanding and prickly prime minister of recent times.

Mullin thinks Fletcher may well return to the foreign office in the future. “I would expect him to be very high up the tree,” he says. “In fact, it wouldn’t be of interest to him if he wasn’t.”

Before that there is Sudan, Gaza, Yemen and Ukraine to take care of. If he manages to make headway in those benighted lands, he should forget diplomacy and become prime minister.

Born 27 March 1975

Alma mater Hertford College, Oxford

Work UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs

Family Married with two sons