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Speaking to Iain Dale's All Talk podcast, Sir Brandon spoke of his time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2020 to 2022 before he stood down from Parliament at the 2024 General Election. He said Peter Mandelson, the Labour politician who himself held the role from 1999 to 2001 spoke highly of the role to him, describing if as the best in government. Sir Brandon said: "I think he's right, it's a phenomenal experience.
You get to live at Hillsborough Castle. You get the ability outside of [being] the Prime Minister to look right across everything, a lot of it was devolved but at that period because of Covid, you still have an interest in it, you want to make sure the people of Northern Ireland get support." The role was "difficult" but he added "the Northern Ireland job is such a special job, it's such a special place and amazing people".
He said: "One of the things I'm very proud of is getting access to healthcare and abortion care for the women of Northern Ireland, who just didn't have it - I'm very proud of that." In May 2022 Sir Brandon announced he would invoke his powers to compel Stormont’s Department of Health to start providing abortions for women up to 24 weeks pregnant in line with United Nations’ recommendations accepted by Britain. Sir Brandon was previously Minister of State for Security and said Operation Arbacia, a major undercover surveillance operation by MI5 and police at the time, was therefore of great interest to him.
He described it as "probably the biggest takedown of terrorism in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement". "Seeing that process through was quite fascinating, seeing what the PSNI and their partners do to keep people safe, it's quite phenomenal and quite humbling." His only frustration upon being told by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson he was being appointed to the role is that he wanted to go to Northern Ireland straight away.
It was "unexpected" to be given the Northern Ireland job as "I didn't particularly expect Boris to promote me to be a Secretary of State," Sir Brandon added. Instead, he had to attend cabinet and celebrate a dinner party with his wife ahead of being invested as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). "We had dinner that night and I was running late, the next day I went from cabinet straight to the airport.
I was really excited," he said. On recent visits to Northern Ireland for work purposes, Sir Brandon said it's been "slightly emotional". "People were coming and saying we missed you.
" Speaking of a colleague who also had the role, the late James Brokenshire, Sir Brandon said people in Northern Ireland also had fond memories of his time there. "People would like James because he was a great guy and a great secretary of state," he said..
