Your guide to the department's cast of ministerial characters, and what’s in their in-trays
With just 185 staff, according to the latest civil service statistics, the Northern Ireland Office is undeniably one of the smallest government departments – dwarfed by many an executive agency. Nevertheless, the profile of its work has been disproportionately large in recent years, evidenced by the fact it retains a permanent secretary as its most senior official, rather than the director-general level posts which top the Welsh and Scottish offices.
The entwined challenges of Northern Ireland’s unique position in relation to the European Union following Brexit and the absence of a Northern Ireland Executive have been high on the NIO’s issue list of late. However, power-sharing resumed at Stormont in February following an agreement between ministers and the Democratic Unionist Party, which was designed to address concerns about the Windsor Framework. The deal also tabled a new financial package.
When Hilary Benn was appointed secretary of state by Keir Starmer on 5 July, it was his third cabinet post in his 25 years as an MP. He was international development secretary under Tony Blair from October 2003 to June 2007, and then environment secretary for Gordon Brown’s three-year term as PM.
Son of stalwart left-wing Labour MP Tony Benn, Hilary worked for the MSF union – one of the organisations that eventually became Unite – for 22 years. He was also deputy leader of Ealing Council in the 1980s and unsuccessfully stood to be member of parliament for Ealing North twice. He was finally elected to parliament as MP for Leeds Central in 1999. Benn now represents Leeds South after the seat was re-established following boundary changes that took effect at the last election.
Benn held numerous shadow cabinet roles in the Labour Party’s most recent period of opposition, initially serving as shadow environment secretary. In 2016, then-leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked Benn for allegedly spearheading a coup against him in the wake of the UK’s referendum on EU membership. Benn returned to the front benches as shadow Northern Ireland secretary in September 2023.
The NIO only has one other minister: Putney MP Fleur Anderson, who had also served as a shadow in the brief since last September. Prior to that she was shadow paymaster general. Before starting her political career as a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth, Anderson worked in international development and environmental advocacy – starting her career working for the charity Christian Aid (where she worked as country head in the Bosnia office in the aftermath of the Bosnian war) and most recently acting as head of global campaigns for WaterAid.
Anderson was elected MP for Putney in the 2019 election, succeeding retiring MP Justine Greening. Her seat represented the only Labour gain in the election.
High on the NIO’s agenda in the coming months and years will be ways that the department can contribute to the government’s five cross-cutting missions – particularly delivering economic growth and stability.
Following the King’s Speech in July, Benn affirmed the government’s commitment to working “collaboratively and effectively” with the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly to generate growth and improve public services.
He added that ministers would also work “with all parties and communities” to uphold the Good Friday Agreement and ensure the stability of devolved government.
On the legislative agenda, the NIO is due to bring forward measures that will repeal and replace the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023.
Benn said in July that victims and survivors of the Troubles had “felt ignored” by the previous government’s approach to legacy issues, with the act’s conditional immunity provisions “opposed by all of the Northern Ireland political parties and by many victims and survivors”. The provisions have also been found to be unlawful by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.
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