The Rt. Hon. The Lord Browne of Belmont

Lord Browne

Wallace Hamilton Browne, Baron Browne of Belmont (born 29 October 1947) is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician, who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2006, and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 2007 to 2011.

Browne, a long-serving member of the DUP Central Executive was a member of Belfast City Council for the Victoria electoral area from 1985 until 2010.

During his time on Belfast City Council, Browne was High Sheriff of the City in 2002 and Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2005–06.

In 2007, Browne was elected in the Assembly elections for the East Belfast seat. He remained a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2011. During his time in the Assembly, he represented his party on various committees, including the Justice Committee, Culture and Arts Committee and the Audit Committee. Browne also served as Chairman of the Assembly Procedures Committee.

Since 2006, he has served in the House of Lords. He was one of the first three members of the DUP to be introduced to the second chamber as a life peer, giving the party its first-ever representation in the House of Lords. The other two being Maurice Morrow, the chairman of the DUP, and Eileen Paisley, the wife of the late Leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley - all became 'working' life peers. Browne was raised to the peerage as Baron Browne of Belmont, of Belmont in County Antrim on 12 June 2006.

Browne has been an active working peer during his time in the House of Lords, regularly contributing to debates on a range of issues including: Restoration of the Devolved Institutions in Northern Ireland, Armed Forces Veterans, Military, Brexit, Historical Abuse and Gambling.

In 2017, Browne secured the first focused debate in the House of Lords on the issue of online gambling.

In 2021, Browne was appointed to the Board of Trade of the British Commonwealth and became a non-executive director of the Commonwealth Foudnation.

You may contact the person at email wallace.browne@bcommonwealth.uk