Who is the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland?

The Conservative MP for Great Yarmouth replaces Julian Smith who held the office for 204 days.

Mr Lewis becomes the fourth Northern Ireland secretary in four years.

In a tweet, Mr Lewis said that he “was honoured to have been appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland by the Prime Minister. This is an exciting time for Northern Ireland & I follow fantastic colleagues as predecessors, whose work I hope we can continue to build on.”

Married with two children, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland originally qualified as a barrister and has a BSc Economics and LLB Hons (Law) from the University of Buckingham and an LLM in Commercial Law from King’s College London.

He was first elected as Member of Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth in May 2010 and has remained as the MP for the constituency since then.

In 2012, He was promoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government where he had responsibilities for local councils, as well as the fire service.

In 2014, Mr Lewis was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government accountable for Housing and Planning.

Following Theresa May’s appointment as Prime Minister in July 2016, Mr Lewis was asked to become Minister of State at the Home Office with responsibility for the Police & Fire services.

In January 2018 he was promoted to Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was tasked with organising the election process to elect a new Conservative leader, following Mrs May’s resignation. The ex-Prime Minister appointed him a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in her Resignation Honours List.

In 2019, he was appointed Minister of State at the Home Office, with responsibility for national security, in Boris Johnson’s first Cabinet.

On the matter of Brexit, he campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum in 2016 but later said he would support leaving the EU as he was “first and foremost a democrat”.

Outside of politics, Mr Lewis completed the London marathon in 2005 and 2008. He may find that he needs to hit the ground running in his new role as Northern Ireland Secretary of state. His predecessor Julian Smith was largely praised for his efforts in the post. Especially in restoring a power-sharing executive at Stormont.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said Mr Lewis would face a “very large in-tray” and could not “let the grass grow under his feet”.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he hoped Mr Lewis would act with “fairness and integrity” in his work in Northern Ireland.