Hilary Benn appointed Northern Ireland Secretary

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Hilary Benn has been appointed Northern Ireland Secretary as part of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Government.

Mr Benn had been serving as the shadow secretary since 2023 and was chairman of the Brexit Select Committee for years.

He has previously said a Labour government would repeal the controversial Legacy Act, introduced by the Tories to address Troubles legacy issues and widely opposed by all main political parties in Northern Ireland.

Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP @hilarybennmp has been appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland @NIOgov. pic.twitter.com/mJrIHtlRgZ

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) July 5, 2024

The Leeds MP was also vocal in urging the powersharing institutions to be revived during the three-year hiatus.

He served in Gordon Brown’s government as environment secretary and was a candidate to be deputy leader of Labour in 2007.

Best known in the earlier stages of his career as the son of Tony Benn – the long-serving Cabinet minister, anti-war campaigner and pivotal figure on the Labour left – Mr Benn has not inherited all of his father’s beliefs.

During the 1999 contest for the Leeds Central seat that he would go on to represent for decades, Mr Benn described himself as a “Benn, but not a Bennite”.

He supported the Iraq war while serving in Sir Tony Blair’s government and later, as shadow foreign secretary, defied then-leader Jeremy Corbyn to back military action against the so-called Islamic State in Syria.