Not many people in Northern Ireland will have heard the name Alex Burghart.
The Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar knows his history, having read the subject at Oxford and completed a PhD on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia — now the Midlands.
His familiarity with history will be useful in his current role as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a region with its own eventful history.
Burghart was made Shadow SoS for NI by the Conservative Party following Labour’s landslide general election victory back in July and is now being kept on in the role by new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Born in Dorset in 1977, Burghart first dipped his toes in the world of politics in 2008, when he became an advisor to the Shadow Minister for Children and Young People Tim Loughton.
Four years later he was the Director of Policy and the Centre for Social Justice, eventually becoming a member of Prime Minister Theresa May’s policy team in 2016.
His first bid to enter electoral politics came when he stood against Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North in 2015. Burghart raised a few eyebrows when he told the Islington Gazette he would “dance a jig (and try to resuscitate Jeremy Corbyn)” if he overturned the Labour MP’s huge majority.
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In the end, Burghart failed to capture the seat, but he was successful when he was selected for the Conservative safe seat of Brentwood and Ongar in the 2017 general election, going on to secure a 24,000 vote majority.
He went on to serve as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley. From July 2019 to September 2021 he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Burghart served in various roles in the Johnson administration, becoming a Minister for Skills with the Department for Education, before he resigned from Government in July 2022 over Johnson’s handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.
He jumped ship alongside fellow ministers Neil O’Brien, Lee Rowley, Julia Lopez and Kemi Badenoch, the latter who was crowned the new Conservative Party leader at the weekend.
Burghart was one of the minority of Tory MPs who kept their seat in July’s general election, after which Rishi Sunak appointed him Shadow SoS for Northern Ireland.
Since taking on the Northern Ireland portfolio, Burghart has spoken publicly about the region on a few occasions. In September he accused Labour of being “nervous” about advocating for the union.
He pointed to former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s comments that the Irish unity must be an “objective” and not an “aspiration” for whoever is in charge after the next Irish election, as well as Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald stating that she would appoint a “Minister for Reunification” if the party gets into government.
Burghart said: “This is obviously the nationalist parties thinking Labour might be a soft touch.”
He added: “The truth is Labour is much more nervous of being an open advocate for the union.“
Last week, Burghart drew the incredulity of some after he defended not having visited Northern Ireland in his Shadow SoS role by claiming getting funding for such trips had “not been as easy” as he would have liked. Return flights from London to Belfast are typically around £70 on average.
Will Burghart be able to gather the funds to cross the Irish Sea in the future? We’ll see.