Who is Northern Ireland's new Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris?

House of Commons official portrait
Chris Heaton-Harris is the third Conservative MP to take on the role of Northern Ireland Secretary in as many months Credit: House of Commons

While the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, had been selecting her cabinet, there were reports that she'd struggled to find a candidate willing to take on one particular post - that of Northern Ireland Secretary.

Late on Tuesday however, news broke of an appointment. Mr Chris Heaton-Harris.

But just who is the Conservative MP and what will he bring to the post?

Chris Heaton-Harris is a keen footballer - a qualified referee at that - something which might come in handy when trying to work with parties at Stormont.

He's the 24th person to take on the position, replacing Northern Ireland's shortest ever serving secretary, Shaliesh Vara, who had held the post for only 62 days.

Mr Heaton-Harris is also the third Conservative MP to take the job in as many months.

The fifty-four year old, who previously acted as his party's former chief whip, was first elected to represent the constituency of Daventry in England back in 2010.

On his website, Mr Heaton-Harris describes himself as a "fierce Eurospectic".

From June 1999 to June 2009, he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for East Midlands.

Between 2010 and 2016 he as the chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) which is made up of pro-Brexit Conservative MPs.

In 2017 he faced backlash from some lecturers after sending a series of letters to UK universities seeking a list of names of academics teaching courses on Brexit and requesting links to their courses.

He was part of Theresa's May government line up but in April 2019 left his ministerial role as Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) due to her approach towards Brexit.

Shortly after his appointment, Mr Heaton-Harris tweeted that he was "honoured" to take on the role and was looking forward to answering questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday about his new brief.


Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.