Rooker did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2001 general election and was immediately created a life peer where he continued to serve in the government under several ministerial portfolios until 2008,including as Deputy Leader of the House of Lords and Minister of State for Sustainable Food,Farming and Animal Health from 2005 to 2008. He resigned the Labour whip in 2009 after being appointed chair of the Food Standards Agency. He sat as an independent member in the House of Lords until 2013 when,standing down as chair of the FSA,he took up the Labour whip once again.
Rooker graduated with an undergraduate degree from Aston University in the city of Birmingham and he served as editor of the Birmingham Student Union News (SUN) from 1963 to 1964.[1] He later received a postgraduate degree from the University of Warwick in industrial relations. In 1966,he was an unsuccessful candidate for membership of Birmingham City Council.
Rooker achieved a measure of national prominence in June 1977 while still a backbencher. With fellow MP Audrey Wise,he introduced the so-called Rooker–Wise Amendment to the Budget. This linked personal tax allowances to the rate of inflation,thereby preventing the erosion of non-taxable income. The BBC has described the amendment as "a rare example of direct backbench influence on the Budget".[2]
Beginning in 1998,Rooker led an unsuccessful attempt to prosecute World War II German general Wilhelm Mohnke for his alleged role in war crimes inflicted on British troops at Wormhoudt in 1940.[3]
On 6 May 2006,Rooker was appointed Minister of State for Sustainable Food,Farming and Animal Health at the Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs. He was a controversial choice as minister responsible for animal welfare due to his well-known pro-hunting views. In 2007,following Rooker's appointment,numerous complaints from animal welfare campaigners were sent to the Labour Party. He later also became deputy leader of the House of Lords. He retained both these roles when Gordon Brown became Labour leader and Prime Minister in 2007 and showed himself to be outspokenly in favour of genetically modified (GM) foods at the September 2008 Labour Party Conference,when he accused people opposed to GM foods of "ignorance".[5] Rooker's ministerial appointed ended at a reshuffle in October 2008.[6]
Later career
Rooker is a vice president of The Birmingham Civic Society. As of January 2008,he is a lay governor of Aston University. In July 2009,he was appointed as chair of the Food Standards Agency and resigned the Labour party whip for the duration until he ceased to be chair in 2013.[7]
In December 2015,Rooker called for Jeremy Corbyn to be removed as Labour Party leader before 2020.[8]
Rooker married Angela Edwards in 1972 in Paddington,London,who died in January 2003;he married second wife Helen Hughes on 5 February 2010 in a private ceremony in Christchurch,New Zealand.[10] In 2001,he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aston University of which he is an alumnus.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
