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, according to people familiar with the matter.

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 general election victory.

Powell served as Blair’s chief of staff throughout the former Labour leader’s 10-year premiership and played a key negotiating 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, according to Starmer’s allies. Barrow had been in the role since September 2022.

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

Starmer’s allies noted Powell’s “unique and extensive experience” to the role of NSA and said he would be based in Number 10.

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.”

A Downing Street official said Starmer’s first few months in the job had reinforced to him the need to have the strongest possible foreign policy team.