The new NI Secretary hosted the region’s First and deputy First Ministers at Hillsborough Castle on Saturday evening.
New Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said his priority is to establish a new relationship between the UK Government and Stormont’s powersharing Executive.
He said: “I wanted to get to work as quickly as possible and was therefore pleased to be able to hold these initial discussions with the First and deputy First Ministers and representatives from the other parties. Mr Benn had been serving as the shadow NI secretary since 2023 and was chairman of the Brexit Select Committee for years.The Leeds MP was among new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet appointees.
He takes over from the Conservatives’ Chris Heaton-Harris, who has been in the role for almost two years and did not contest the General Election. The Northern Ireland Secretary said his meeting with Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly was “very constructive”.Ms O’Neill said she had made the case for “fair funding” for health, education and public services in Northern Ireland during her party meeting with Mr Benn.“We also reiterated the need for immediate funding to be released to build Casement Park. This would allow us to seize the enormous economic opportunities created by Euro 2028.
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