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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

Chris Heaton-Harris named as new Northern Ireland secretary

Chris Heaton-Harris has been appointed by Prime Minster Liz Truss as the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a government minister has said.

He replaces Shailesh Vara, who had been in post for just 61 days after Brandon Lewis resigned during the turmoil that ended Boris Johnson's premiership.

Mr Heaton-Harris is MP for Daventry and was previously chief whip for the government.

Read more: Analysis: Liz Truss success or failure in Northern Ireland still shaped by Brexit fall-out

A former of chair of the Brexit-backing European Research Group of Conservative MPs, he is considered one of the party's leading long-time Eurosceptics.

He was previously Minister of State for Europe, assisting Ms Truss as Foreign Secretary on discussions over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.

Conor Burns, a minister in the Northern Ireland Office, tweeted his congratulations to Mr Heaton-Harris.

He said: "Chris is a good man and a friend. Look forward to supporting him in the chamber."

The appointment follows claims that Ms Truss, who earlier formally became Prime Minister, had been "struggling" to fill the Secretary of State post.

Tory leadership contender Penny Mordaunt, former Health Secretary Sajid Javid and MP Robert Buckland had all turned down the role, according to Politico's Playbook.

"It appears no-one wants to get Brexit done after all," the politics news platform reported.

During a Conservative leadership hustings outside Belfast last month, Ms Truss said the person she would appoint as Secretary of State would be the "absolute best at delivering for the people of Northern Ireland".

She was responding after a local Tory member asked: "Are you just going to give us another fly-in, fly-out, absentee political landlord?"

The departure of Mr Vara means he is Northern Ireland's shortest serving Secretary of State, beating Francis Pym's previous record of three months and two days.

Mr Vara, who backed Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race, said on Twitter it had been a "great privilege and honour" to serve as Northern Ireland secretary.

He sent his best wishes to the new Prime Minister and said he looked forward to supporting the government from the backbenches.

His predecessor Mr Lewis has been appointed Justice Secretary in Ms Truss' new Cabinet.

Last week, Mr Vara warned he would have to call a snap Assembly election at the end of October if devolved government in Northern Ireland was not restored.

Stormont has been in limbo since February after the DUP withdrew its First Minister from the power-sharing Executive in protest over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.

Attempts to restore the institutions since May's election have failed as the DUP has blocked the election of a Speaker, meaning no further business can be discussed.

In a speech to the British-Irish Association in Oxford, Mr Vara said an election was "not something that the people of Northern Ireland want or need, especially given the present economic circumstances".

Shortly after his appointment, Mr Vara moved to strongly deny claims that he once asked an official if he "needed a passport to go to Derry".

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