Hilary Benn

The Right Honourable Hilary Benn MP
Official portrait, 2024
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 July 2024
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Chris Heaton-Harris
Chair of the Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union[a]
In office 19 October 2016 – 16 January 2021
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	David Miliband
Succeeded by	Caroline Spelman
Secretary of State for International Development
In office 6 October 2003 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	The Baroness Amos
Succeeded by	Douglas Alexander
Shadow Cabinet portfolios Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland In office 4 September 2023 – 5 July 2024 Leader Keir Starmer Preceded by Peter Kyle Succeeded by Alex Burghart Shadow Foreign Secretary Acting 11 May 2015 – 26 June 2016 Leader Harriet Harman (Acting) Jeremy Corbyn Preceded by Douglas Alexander Succeeded by Emily Thornberry Shadow First Secretary of State In office 11 May 2015 – 13 September 2015 Leader Harriet Harman (Acting) Preceded by Harriet Harman (Shadow Deputy Prime Minister) Succeeded by Angela Eagle Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government In office 7 October 2011 – 11 May 2015 Leader Ed Miliband Preceded by Caroline Flint Succeeded by Emma Reynolds Shadow Leader of the House of Commons In office 8 October 2010 – 7 October 2011 Leader Ed Miliband Preceded by Rosie Winterton Succeeded by Angela Eagle Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs In office 11 May 2010 – 8 October 2010 Leader Harriet Harman (Acting) Ed Miliband Preceded by Nick Herbert Succeeded by Mary Creagh
Junior ministerial offices Minister of State for International Development In office 13 May 2003 – 6 October 2003 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Sally Keeble Succeeded by Gareth Thomas Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probations In office 29 May 2002 – 13 May 2003 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Keith Bradley Succeeded by Fiona Mactaggart Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development In office 11 June 2001 – 28 May 2002 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Chris Mullin Succeeded by Sally Keeble
Member of Parliament for Leeds South Leeds Central (1999–2024)
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 June 1999
Preceded by	Derek Fatchett
Majority	11,279 (35.6%)
Personal details
Born	Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (1953-11-26) 26 November 1953 (age 71) Hammersmith, London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Rosalind Retey ​ ​ (m. 1973; died 1979)​ Sally Clark ​ ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	4
Parents	Tony Benn Caroline DeCamp
Relatives	Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate (brother) Melissa Benn (sister) Emily Benn (niece)
Alma mater	University of Sussex
Signature
Website	hilarybennmp.com

Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (born 26 November 1953) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds South, formerly Leeds Central, since 1999. He previously served in various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 2001 to 2010.

Born in Hammersmith, London, he is the second son of veteran Labour MP Tony Benn and educationalist Caroline Benn. He studied Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Sussex and went on to work as a policy researcher for two trade unions, ASTMS and MSF. Benn was elected as a councillor on Ealing Borough Council in 1979 and was Deputy Leader of the Council from 1986 to 1990. He was also the unsuccessful Labour parliamentary candidate for the Ealing North constituency at both the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following the 1997 general election, Benn was appointed a special adviser to Education Secretary David Blunkett before winning a by-election in Leeds Central in 1999.

Under Tony Blair, Benn served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development from 2001 to 2002 and for Prisons and Probation from 2002 to 2003. He returned to the Department for International Development as a Minister of State in May 2003. In October 2003, he was appointed to Blair's Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development. In 2007, Benn was a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, but lost to Harriet Harman, finishing in fourth place. Benn later served under Gordon Brown as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2007 to 2010.

Benn returned to opposition following the 2010 general election and became Shadow Environment Secretary in the First Shadow Cabinet of Harriet Harman. Under Ed Miliband, Benn was the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2011, and Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary from 2011 to 2015. After the 2015 general election, Benn became the interim Shadow Foreign Secretary under Harriet Harman before he was reappointed to the role under Jeremy Corbyn. He was dismissed from the position in 2016 after he expressed no confidence in Corbyn's leadership. On the backbenches, he was Chair of the Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union from 2016 to 2021.^[a] He returned to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland under Keir Starmer in the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle. Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Benn was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the Starmer ministry.

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