Conor Burns appointed minister of state at Northern Ireland Office

The Belfast-born MP Conor Burns is returning to the Northern Ireland Office as a minister of state

Conservative MP Conor Burns has been appointed as minister of state at the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) as part of the prime minister's reshuffle.

Mr Burns, who was born in Northern Ireland, returns to his native Belfast to work alongside Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis.

In a tweet, Mr Burns said he was "pleased to return to government".

He replaces outgoing Northern Ireland Minister of State, Robin Walker, who is going to the Department for Education.

Mr Lewis said Mr Burns "will be a super asset for us in Northern Ireland".

Mr Burns, 49, has been the MP for Bournemouth West since 2010.

He was born in Belfast in 1972 but his family moved to England when he was a child and he grew up in Hertfordshire.

He is an ally of Boris Johnson and campaigned for Brexit during the EU referendum in 2016.

When Mr Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, he appointed Mr Burns as a junior minister in the Department for International Trade.

Conor Burns with Boris Johnson at the 2018 Tory conference

However, Mr Burns resigned from that post in May 2020 following controversy over his intervention in a family financial dispute.

A parliamentary watchdog found that Mr Burns had used his position as an MP to intimidate a member of the public.

The Commons standards watchdog said the MP made "veiled threats" to use parliamentary privilege to "further his family's interests" in a financial disagreement involving his father.

Three months earlier, Mr Burns had written to a member of the public connected to a company with whom his father was in dispute over the repayment of a loan.

Using House of Commons-headed notepaper, Mr Burns wrote: "I am acutely aware that my role in the public eye could well attract interest especially if I were to use parliamentary privilege to raise the case."

Parliamentary privilege protects MPs from being sued for defamation for speeches made in Parliament.

The Committee on Standards concluded that the letter was an abuse of his position as an MP and called for him to be suspended from Parliament for seven days.

Mr Burns said he accepted the sanction "unreservedly" and resigned from his ministerial post, spending more than a year on the back benches.

Following the prime minster's wide-ranging reshuffle this week, Mr Burns tweeted that he was "pleased to return to government".

"Northern Ireland has always been one of the places I consider home. Much to do to support and promote this amazing part of our UK and provide security for all people here."

'I'm a Catholic and a Unionist'

Mr Burns has previously worked in the Northern Ireland Office when he was appointed as parliamentary private secretary to the then NIO minister of state, Hugo Swire.

His biography on his personal website reveals he is a snooker fan and a "life long watcher of Coronation Street" who has visited the set of the TV soap twice.

It also says the MP has "gained a reputation for speaking his mind".

Last year, when Joe Biden tweeted that the US could not allow Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement "to become a casualty of Brexit", Mr Burns offered to discuss the issue with the then US presidential candidate.

Responding on Twitter, Mr Burns told Mr Biden: "It is also called the Belfast Agreement so it doesn't offend both traditions. Did you actually know that? I was born in NI and I'm a Catholic and a Unionist. Here if you need help."

In Downing Street on Thursday, Brexit's effect on the Good Friday Agreement was again raised by a senior US politician.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, reiterated her support for Northern Ireland's 1998 peace deal during a meeting with the prime minister.

• What is the Good Friday Agreement?

"Respectful of the will of the British people and Brexit, I reiterated the strong bipartisan support that the Good Friday Accords continue to enjoy in the United States Congress and our hope that the ongoing negotiations will yield a positive outcome that recognises this landmark agreement," she said.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Mr Johnson had discussed with Ms Pelosi the UK government's concerns about the operation of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol and the "impact it is having on the people of Northern Ireland".

The protocol was part of a UK/EU trade agreement in 2019 which aimed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.

This means goods checks are carried out at Northern Ireland's ports instead of along its land border with the Republic of Ireland, but many unionists fear the protocol is damaging Northern Ireland's position within the UK.

"The prime minister and Speaker Pelosi both agreed on the importance of preserving peace in Northern Ireland," Downing Street's spokesperson said.

Ms Pelosi tweeted she was honoured to meet the prime minister and "celebrate the special relationship between America and the United Kingdom".