Hilary Benn

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The Right Honourable Hilary Benn MP
Official portrait, 2020
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 September 2023
Leader	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Peter Kyle
Chair of the Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union[a]
In office 19 October 2016 – 16 January 2021
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	David Miliband
Succeeded by	Caroline Spelman
Secretary of State for International Development
In office 6 October 2003 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	The Baroness Amos
Succeeded by	Douglas Alexander
Shadow Cabinet portfolios Shadow Foreign Secretary In office 11 May 2015 – 26 June 2016 Leader Harriet Harman (Acting) Jeremy Corbyn Preceded by Douglas Alexander Succeeded by Emily Thornberry Shadow First Secretary of State Acting 11 May 2015 – 13 September 2015 Leader Harriet Harman (Acting) Preceded by Harriet Harman (Shadow Deputy Prime Minister) Succeeded by Angela Eagle Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government In office 7 October 2011 – 11 May 2015 Leader Ed Miliband Preceded by Caroline Flint Succeeded by Emma Reynolds Shadow Leader of the House of Commons In office 8 October 2010 – 7 October 2011 Leader Ed Miliband Preceded by Rosie Winterton Succeeded by Angela Eagle Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs In office 11 May 2010 – 8 October 2010 Leader Harriet Harman (Acting) Ed Miliband Preceded by Nick Herbert Succeeded by Mary Creagh
Junior ministerial offices Minister of State for International Development In office 13 May 2003 – 6 October 2003 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Sally Keeble Succeeded by Gareth Thomas Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probations In office 29 May 2002 – 13 May 2003 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Keith Bradley Succeeded by Fiona Mactaggart Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development In office 11 June 2001 – 28 May 2002 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Chris Mullin Succeeded by Sally Keeble
Member of Parliament for Leeds Central
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 June 1999
Preceded by	Derek Fatchett
Majority	19,270 (39.1%)
Personal details
Born	Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (1953-11-26) 26 November 1953 (age 70) Hammersmith, London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Rosalind Retey ​ ​ (m. 1973; died 1979)​ Sally Clark ​ ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	4
Parents	Tony Benn Caroline DeCamp
Relatives	Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate (brother) Melissa Benn (sister) Emily Benn (niece)
Alma mater	University of Sussex
Signature
Website	hilarybennmp.com

Hilary James Wedgwood Benn^[b] (born 26 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2023.^[1][2] A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central since the 1999 by-election. Benn previously served as Environment Secretary and Development Secretary and as Chairman of the Brexit Select Committee.

Born in Hammersmith, he is the second son of veteran Labour MP Tony Benn and educationalist Caroline Benn. He studied Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Sussex and went on to work as a policy researcher for two trade unions, ASTMS and MSF. Benn was elected as a councillor on Ealing Borough Council in 1979 and was Deputy Leader of the Council from 1986 to 1990. He was also the unsuccessful Labour parliamentary candidate for the Ealing North constituency at both the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following the 1997 general election, Benn was appointed as a special adviser to David Blunkett before winning a by-election in Leeds Central in 1999.

Benn served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development from 2001 to 2002 and for Prisons and Probations from 2002 to 2003. He returned to DFID as Minister of State in May 2003. In October 2003, he was appointed to Tony Blair's Cabinet as the Secretary of State for International Development. In 2007, Benn was a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, which he lost to Harriet Harman, finishing in fourth place. Benn later served under Gordon Brown as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2007 to 2010.

Following Labour's defeat at the 2010 general election, Benn served in Ed Miliband's Shadow cabinet as Shadow Environment Secretary in 2010 and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2011. He then served as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2011 to 2015. Following the 2015 general election, Benn was appointed as Shadow Foreign Secretary, retaining this role after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour Leader. After criticising Corbyn's leadership and phoning other Labour MPs to seek to remove Corbyn as leader, he was dismissed from this position by Corbyn on 26 June 2016, precipitating a number of shadow cabinet resignations.

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