Jonathan Powell (civil servant)

Jonathan Nicholas Powell (born 14 August 1956) is a British civil servant and former diplomat who has served as the UK National Security Adviser (NSA) under Keir Starmer since 2024. He previously served as Downing Street Chief of Staff from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair. During this period Powell was also the chief British negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace process. In 2007, Powell joined Morgan Stanley as a full-time senior managing director of its investment banking division. He runs the charity Inter Mediate, which works on armed conflicts around the world. In 2014, David Cameron appointed Powell to be the UK's special envoy to Libya. In 2024, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed Powell as a special envoy to resolve the Chagos Archipelago sovereignty dispute. Following the signing of an agreement in May 2025 in which the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius while retaining a 99-year lease on the Diego Garcia military base he was appointed by Prime Minister Starmer to serve as the UK National Security Adviser.