MP to go to senior UN role

Local MP Stephen O'Brien has been appointed to Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations. He will be in charge of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief.

This is a very senior post and the job was advertised world wide. Mr O'Brien was delighted and surprised to be appointed.

This means that Stephen O'Brien will not be standing at the General Election in May and that the Conservative Party will need to appoint a new candidate in the next couple of weeks.

The Eddisbury MP will succeed former Labour minister Baroness Amos, who is stepping down from the role in May.

Mr O'Brien was an international development minister from 2010 to 2012 and recently has been David Cameron's special envoy to the Sahel region.

The UN said Mr O'Brien, who has been the local Eddisbury MP since 1999, would bring "extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy and advocacy" to the influential role.

"Mr O'Brien is expected to bring innovative and strategic ideas as a strong humanitarian advocate with more than 20 years of experience in international development and health care," it said in a statement.

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