He was brought into government to deal with the handover of the Chagos Islands, but within months Jonathan Powell became a near ubiquitous figure in UK diplomacy.
The former chief of staff for Tony Blair left office after 10 years in 2007 but is now back as National Security Adviser, involved in issues ranging from the war in Ukraine, Bangladesh’s corruption probe and Palestinian statehood recognition.
Mr Powell, who led the Good Friday negotiations on Northern Ireland, was appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in November last year. The experienced diplomat, who led his own conflict mediation charity until his appointment to government in 2024, appears to have quietly taken on a central role normally reserved for the foreign secretary.
It was Mr Powell who met Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus during his first official visit to the UK last month. He was in Istanbul the week that the PKK announced its intention to disarm, where he was pictured with the high-level delegation from Ukraine as it arrived for peace talks with Russia. He had been in Kyiv days before to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ahead of the now-cancelled UN peace summit on Israel-Palestine, Mr Powell was tasked with briefing MPs about the UK’s future recognition of the Palestinian state.
In the Middle East, his track record borders on the mythical. It is said that he persuaded the PKK to dissolve, and that he whispered the values of western governance to an obscure Islamist rebel years before he became Ahmad Al Shara, President of Syria. Former close colleagues of Mr Powell are now acting in an advisory role as the fledging administration finds it feet in Damascus.
“Jonathan Powell played an important role in terms of dealing with these very sensitive issues,” said a Turkish source. “He is like a foreign minister. In the Middle East, Powell plays a more important role than David Lammy.”
A former UK diplomat who served across the Middle East agreed. “Yes,” they told The National, when asked whether Mr Powell could be the UK's unofficial foreign secretary.
Well-networked, well-travelled, Mr Powell navigates the UK's overseas matters seamlessly. Unburdened by politics as an elected MP would be, he can take more risks.
Mr Powell’s charity Inter/Mediate, which he co-founded in 2011, played key mediation roles in the Turkish conflict with the PKK, and the rebel-led opposition government of Idlib before the toppling of president Bashar Al Assad last year. Mr Powell reportedly met Mr Al Shara in May 2021, in person.
Mr Powell stepped down from the charity after his return to government and there is no suggestion that he has been involved in Inter/Mediate since then. Severing links with a charity in UK law means the former executive has no remaining interest in the operation.
The latest accounts filed to the Charity Commission show the company's assets had grown to £1,625,316 from £668,745 a year earlier. It had increased its employees by two to 13 and adopted an investment plan of up to £1.75 million in the business over five years.
It said it had exceeded its fundraising targets and gained from a “greater commitment from the [Foreign Office] through a new partnership agreement with the Office of Conflict and Stabilisation”.
An examination of Inter/Mediate's involvement in conflicts in the Middle East shows the legacy of “third rail diplomacy” that Mr Powell has brought with him into the National Security Adviser role.
It raises questions about the influence that former New Labour figures play in Mr Starmer's government.
Many of them were brought in to fill key roles in the administration, such Peter Mandelson, a former cabinet minister in Mr Blair's government who is now the UK's Ambassador in Washington.
Mr Starmer is said to have told his cabinet to reject some of the core principles of Blairism, such as unquestioning globalisation and free-flow immigration. In the rank and file of the parliamentary party there are concerns, not only about the power of Mr Powell but also about Liz Lloyd, the Director of Policy Delivery, who was once Mr Powell's deputy.
Speculation is rife that Tim Allan, the founder of PR firm Portland, is being wooed to accept a new role as permanent secretary of a department of communications to sharpen the government's message and take on disinformation.
Turkey's peace
Mr Powell became involved in the Turkey-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) conflict in 2013, when the Turkish government initiated a peace process.
A delegation of Turkish and Kurdish MPs travelled to the UK and Ireland that year to learn about the Good Friday Agreement. One Kurdish MP, Ayla Akat, recalled Mr Powell comparing negotiations to a bicycle: “you’ve got to keep pedalling or you fall over”.
The thorny issue was amplified by the US arming the armed wings of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in north-east Syria in the fight against ISIS in 2017, which also saw Mr Powell offer his expertise. Turkey continued to view the group as an extension of the PKK, and felt deeply betrayed by the new US alliance.
Working with the UK-based think tank the Democratic Progress Institute, Mr Powell and his team developed a programme which drew on the lessons from Northern Ireland. They briefed Turkish MPs from the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP).
“The American thinking was one day there will be a withdrawal from Syria. When that day comes they didn’t want the Syrian Kurds to enter a conflict with Turkey. They wanted to prepare ground work for that,” the source said.
Under the Biden administration, the US reached out to Turkey to propose a deal with the PYD, a source said. The overall situation has moved quickly to become a fully fledged peace process. Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, made his first appearance on camera this month in more than two decades. He told the group to lay down its weapons and move towards non-violent politics as its “national liberation war strategy” had “come to an end”.
The UK also become involved in these talks, and Mr Powell's Inter/Mediate has a long history of involvement, under contract with the UK, with the PYD and Turkey.
Syria rebuild
Mr Powell first met Ahmad Al Shara – who formerly went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani – in 2015. Western governments at the time were seeking ways to maintain a footing within Syria, having severed ties with the Assad regime.
After Al Shara moved on to Damascus, two consultants from Inter/Mediate followed to the Presidential Palace, supplementing a role the charity had in what appears to have been a legacy contract. Inter/Mediate's executive director Claire Hajaj and long-term projects director Lucy Stuart have been advising the president’s office in Damascus as it looks to restore government to Syria, multiple sources said.
Though widely praised, the under-the-radar nature of that work is also contributing to conspiracy theories about how a western-backed push for regime change eventually achieved its goals.
When Donald Trump visits the UK he will do so in a private capacity. That means Mr Starmer's visit to the US President at his golf course, expected early next week, must take place without officials.
Mr Powell's status as a special adviser to the Prime Minister has been controversial within the Whitehall system. But as his visit to China last week demonstrated, as well as one-on-one meetings with India's Foreign Minister and others, he can take on a public role.
It should mean that under the rules he can be at the Prime Minister's side as the UK leader drops in unofficially on Mr Trump.
