Brandon Lewis – from council chief to Stormont Castle

Brandon Lewis held the top job at Conservative campaign headquarters – known as CCHQ – during the Tory leadership race last summer.

He was then rewarded with the posts of security minister and deputy for EU exit and no-deal preparation in Boris Johnson’s first government.

Mr Lewis had previously held a number of ministerial positions under Theresa May and David Cameron.

The 48-year-old father of two, who represents Great Yarmouth, will now be responsible for political stability and relations with the Northern Ireland Executive.

“This is an exciting time for Northern Ireland and I follow fantastic colleagues as predecessors, whose work I hope we can continue to build on,” he tweeted.

He replaces Julian Smith, who brokered the deal that restored the power-sharing administration at Stormont.

Before entering Parliament in 2010, Mr Lewis studied economics at the University of Buckingham, worked as a barrister and served as a councillor in Brentwood. He has twice run the London Marathon.

DUP leader Arlene Foster congratulated him on his appointment, adding that he will need to “step up to the mark and show his commitment to the implementation of the New Decade New Approach deal and that he will be a positive voice for Northern Ireland at the Cabinet table”.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said she would be raising with him “the full implementation of the legacy mechanisms agreed at Stormont House”, financial commitments in the latest Stormont deal and “bad faith” on the Troubles pension, which will now exclude those injured by their own hand.

And UUP leader Steve Aiken said Mr Lewis has “a very large in-tray” including the health service, scrapping the proposed Historical Investigations Unit and the need to “push back hard against the worst excesses of the Withdrawal Agreement”.

Alliance leader Naomi Long said she hopes he will show “an early commitment” to following through on the ‘fragile’ deal of last month, with SDLP leader Colum Eastwood adding that he hopes he acts “with fairness and integrity in dealing with the Executive at Stormont and on issues relating to the past”.

Meanwhile, Sajid Javid has quit as chancellor after Boris Johnson set conditions “any self-respecting minister” would reject, he said, as several senior heads rolled in a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle.

The prime minister ordered Mr Javid to fire his closest aides and replace them with advisors chosen by Number 10 if he wanted to remain in post – conditions he said he was “unable to accept”.

Mr Javid chose to quit instead and was replaced by his former deputy at the Treasury, Rishi Sunak, in the biggest shock of the Cabinet shake-up.