Robin Swann (born 24 September 1971) is a politician from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Northern Ireland's Minister of Health from Jan 2020 to Oct 2022, he was the leader of the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

from 2017 to 2019."Ulster Unionist Party confirm Robin Swann as new leader"
BBC News, 8 April 2017, accessed 11 April 2017 Swann was first elected to the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...

at the 2011 election, representing North Antrim, and was re-elected in

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2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and

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. From 6 April 2012, he served as

Ulster Unionist Chief Whip This is a list of people who served as Chief Whip of the Ulster Unionist Party in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Parliament of the United Kingdom :1886: William Elliso ...

, a position he retained until he was elected unopposed as UUP leader in April 2017. He resigned as UUP leader in November 2019. Swann stood as the UUP candidate in North Antrim in the December 2019 general election, which saw their vote more than double to 18.5%, taking the party to second place in the constituency. In 2020, he was appointed

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

and presided over the response of the

Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the ter ...

to the

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Political activity

Elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 7 May 2011, he successfully defended his seat in the 2016 Assembly election and at the snap election in March 2017, where he was the first unionist elected in North Antrim. During the short 2016 Assembly mandate he was Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee which commenced the Inquiry into the RHI scandal. He also served as Chairman of the

Committee for Employment and Learning The Committee for Employment and Learning was a Northern Ireland Assembly committee established to advise, assist and scrutinise the work of the Department for Employment and Learning and Minister of Employment and Learning. The committee also ...

on 27 February 2013, a position he held until the committee was dissolved on 30 April 2016. He is a member of Kells & Connor Community Association and has served as a board member of the Volunteer Development Agency in Northern Ireland. Swann has served as president and County Antrim Chairman of the Young Farmers' Clubs of Ulster. He has chaired the YFCU's National Executive and Rural Affairs Committees and has been Chairman of the Rural Youth Europe organisation. In the 2022 election Swann went on to top the North Antrim poll. His increased vote was attributed to his work as health minister during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Swann credited his success to the work of those in the health service. Swann was Awarded Politician of the Year 2022, by Civility in Politics, an award he shared with Chris Bryant MP. He nominated three local charities to receive the financial part of the award, Good Morning Ballymena, Good Morning Ballycastle and CAN Ballymoney.

Threats & Court cases

On 2 February 2022 a 44-year-old man was charged with threatening to kill Swann, harassment and improper use of a telecommunications network.

Family and personal life

He and his wife Jennifer have a daughter and a son. Their son was born with a congenital heart defect, and while in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

where a corrective procedure was performed, Swann recorded the events in a personal blog.

References

External links

Northern Ireland Assembly profileThey work for you - Assembly appearancesUlster Unionist Party profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swann, Robin 1971 births Living people Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 21st-century politicians from Northern Ireland Leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party