Christopher Heaton-harris

Christopher Heaton-Harrisis an English politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 6 September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as Government Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from February to September 2022. Heaton-Harris has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry since 2010. He was Minister of State for Europe under Foreign Secretary Liz Truss from 2021 to 2022 and Chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2010 to 2016. He was also a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands from 1999 to 2009.

Heaton-Harris was a whip in Theresa May's government from 2017 to 2018. He served as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Comptroller of the Household from January to June 2018. He was a Brexit Minister from 2018 to 2019, before resigning to support Andrea Leadsom's second Conservative leadership bid, which she lost to Boris Johnson. On 25 July 2019, he was appointed by Johnson as the Minister of State for Transport.

He was appointed Minister of State for Europe on 19 December 2021 when ministerial responsibility for Europe was transferred out of the Cabinet Office and to the Foreign Office. In February 2022, he was appointed by Johnson as Chief Whip of the Conservative Party. Following Liz Truss's appointment as Prime Minister in September 2022, he was promoted to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. On 8 September he made his first visit to Northern Ireland.