LAST UPDATE | 5 Jul 2024

VETERAN LABOUR MP Hilary Benn was comfortably re-elected in the Leeds South constituency, taking home a 54% share of the vote.

Benn has held that seat since 1999, and is the son of Tony Benn, who was also a veteran MP who held the seat at Westminster for 47 of the 51 years between 1950 and 2001.

However, Hilary Benn (70) did not inherit all the beliefs of his father and once described himself as a “Benn, but not a Bennite”.

While his father Tony, who died in 2014, was an anti-war campaigner, Hilary Benn supported the Iraq war while serving in Tony Blair’s government and later defied then-leader Jeremy Corbyn to back military action against the Islamic State in Syria.

Hilary Benn was Secretary of State for International Development from 2003-2007 under Blair and was Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2015-2016.

He lost this role after a failed coup against then-leader Corbyn in 2016.

Following a reshuffle of the Labour Shadow Cabinet last September, Benn was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Today, he was appointed as the Government’s Secretary for Northern Ireland.

Hilary Benn pictured at Stormont last year after meetings with the five main NI political parties. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

This appointment was welcomed by Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie, who said it was “an indication of the importance (Starmer) places on Northern Ireland”.

It’s highly likely Benn will continue in this role with Labour in power.

Troubles Legacy Act

On 1 May, the new Troubles Legacy Act came into effect in the North, something Amnesty International labelled “complete affront to justice”.

The Act resulted in new civil litigation being barred, while inquests into Troubles deaths which had not concluded oral hearings have been stopped.

The PSNI will no longer have responsibility for investigating unsolved crimes relating to the Troubles and those investigations have switched to a new commission – the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The body has taken on the remit to investigate hundreds of unresolved legacy deaths and cases of serious harm which happened before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Benn said he would retain this body but wanted to see if it could command the confidence of victims’ families.

Benn said a Labour government would restore legacy inquests and the ability for Troubles victims to bring civil cases.

Related Reads

Emma DeSouza: Brighter times could be ahead for Northern Ireland under Labour

Analysis: Disaster for DUP as Sinn Féin becomes the North’s largest party at Westminster

Alliance confident of taking Westminster seat Jeffrey Donaldson has held for almost three decades

He added that Labour would not scrap a new truth recovery body set up to investigate unresolved Troubles deaths, but wanted to see if it could command the confidence of victims’ families.

Benn told BBC Radio Ulster that the Act is “painful” for victims’ families and that it marked a “door being slammed shut in their faces”.

He added that a Labour Government would remove a controversial part of the Act designed to provide conditional immunity for some Troubles offences.

That element of the Act has already been struck out after it was ruled unlawful by the High Court in Belfast, although the UK Government began an appeal against that ruling last month.

Benn said he would restore civil cases and inquests.

He added that he wanted to go back to the approach to legacy set out in the Stormont House Agreement which envisaged separate bodies for information recovery and investigations.

“The fundamental problem with the Legacy Act, which is supposed to deliver for families, is that families do not have confidence in it,” said Benn.

“If you have a system that doesn’t command confidence then you have a problem which needs to be fixed.”