Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Jonathan Powell picked as UK national security adviser

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Jonathan Powell, Sir Tony Blair’s former chief of staff and an architect of the Northern Ireland peace process, is to become Sir Keir Starmer’s new national security adviser, as part of a wider move to strengthen his top team.

Powell, a veteran diplomat, will have a key role in building ties with Donald Trump’s new administration as well as shaping the UK’s position on the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

In another sign of Starmer turning to Labour party veterans to beef up his misfiring Downing Street operation, Blair’s former deputy chief of staff Liz Lloyd was on Friday named as director of policy delivery and innovation.

Powell served as Blair’s chief of staff throughout the former Labour leader’s 10-year premiership and played a key role in brokering the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended years of strife in Northern Ireland.

He will replace Sir Tim Barrow as national security adviser and will bring a sharper political edge to the NSA role, Downing Street announced on Friday. Barrow had been in the role since September 2022.

Starmer said of Powell: “He is uniquely qualified to advise the government on tackling the challenges ahead and engage with counterparts across the globe to protect and advance UK interests.”

A colleague of the prime minister said Starmer wanted somebody with a deft political touch to do the job.

“You can see how foreign policy has increasingly become a major domestic political issue,” the ally said, referring to the political anger directed towards Starmer over his stance on Israel’s war in Gaza.

In recent years Powell has led a UK-based charity working on international conflicts and was brought in by Starmer to help negotiate the controversial deal that saw Britain hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in return for securing the future of a UK-US military base.

“His unique combination of policy and political experience will allow him to engage with allies and partners on the full range of issues the UK faces,” said an ally of Starmer.

Rishi Sunak, former Conservative prime minister, had originally intended Barrow to replace Dame Karen Pierce as Britain’s ambassador to the US. But Pierce, dubbed in Whitehall “the Trump whisperer”, is now expected to stay in her post. 

Starmer cancelled his predecessor’s appointment of a top Royal Marine to the role of national security adviser in August, with the aim of making his own selection.

Sunak’s decision to appoint then vice-chief of the armed forces Gwyn Jenkins to the role was controversial among diplomats, who pointed out that it had always previously been filled by officials with civil service experience rather than military personnel.

However Powell’s appointment has also ruffled feathers. He will be the first political “special adviser” to serve as national security adviser since the role was created by former Tory prime minister Lord David Cameron in 2010.

A Conservative spokesman said: “It’s disappointing the government have appointed a Labour apparatchik to a senior role, sidelining an experienced general.”

Meanwhile, Lloyd’s appointment as director of policy delivery and innovation reflected a desire to push the government’s reform agenda from inside Number 10.

Starmer convened his cabinet on Friday and told them he was “going to grip delivery and innovation from the centre”, an ally of the prime minister said.

The prime minister has been stung by criticism that October’s Budget was a traditional “tax and spend” Labour statement; he insists that reforming public services will be a top priority.

Starmer’s allies say the prime minister told cabinet he would focus on two main issues: on delivery and reform, aided by Lloyd, and national and international security, aided by Powell.

Lloyd, who will start her job in January, previously held positions at Standard Chartered and is currently chief investment officer at British International Investment, a government development finance body.

Matthew Doyle, another former adviser to Blair, is already Starmer’s director of communications.

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