Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
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.
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.
The return of the 68-year-old Powell to the heart of government will considerably beef up Starmer’s Downing Street operation, which had been criticised for being underpowered since Labour’s July 4 election win.
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.
“International relations and national security are ever more deeply linked to the political choices that the government faces in its economic and domestic policy.”
Powell said he was honoured to take up the role: “National security is at the heart of this country’s response to the many challenges we face and having an integrated response will be crucial to our success,” he said.
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.