Richard Burden | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield | |||||||||
In office 9 April 1992 –6 November 2019 | |||||||||
Preceded by | Roger King | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Gary Sambrook | ||||||||
Chair of the West Midlands Regional Select Committee | |||||||||
In office 12 March 2009 –6 May 2010 | |||||||||
Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Office abolished | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||
Born | Liverpool,Lancashire,England | 1 September 1954||||||||
Political party | Labour | ||||||||
Alma mater | University of York (BA) University of Warwick (MA) | ||||||||
Richard Haines Burden (born 1 September 1954) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Northfield from 1992 to 2019. He served as a Shadow Transport Minister from 2013 to 2016 and again from 2016 to 2017. [1] After the 2017 general election,he returned to the backbenches and served as a member of the House of Commons International Development Committee.
Burden was born in Liverpool. He attended the Wallasey Technical Grammar School;Bramhall Comprehensive School;St John's College of Further Education,Manchester;the University of York,where he obtained a degree in Politics and was the president of the Students' Union in 1976;and then the University of Warwick where he received a master's degree in Industrial Relations.
On leaving university he was appointed the branch organiser in North Yorkshire in the National and Local Government Officers' Association in 1979,becoming the district officer for the West Midlands in 1981,a position he held until his election to Westminster. He is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union which he joined in 1979.
He contested the parliamentary seat of Meriden at the 1987 general election,where he was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Iain Mills by a margin of 16,820. He was then selected to fight the Conservative-held marginal seat of Birmingham Northfield at the 1992 general election. Burden defeated the sitting Tory MP Roger King by just 630 votes and became a Labour MP. He made his maiden speech on 19 May 1992. [2]
After Labour formed the government following the 1997 general election,Burden was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture,Fisheries and Food and fellow Birmingham MP Jeff Rooker,and he remained Rooker's PPS when he became the Minister of State at the Department of Social Security.
Following the 2001 general election Burden became a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee,and after the 2005 election moved to the International Development Committee.
His Birmingham Northfield constituency was long dominated by the local car manufacturer MG Rover,which went into administration after negotiations with Chinese car manufacturer Shanghai Automotive failed in April 2005. [3] The site has since been sold to Chinese car company Nanjing Automotive. [4]
He was present at the meeting in Birmingham with the Labour government's leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown along with Tony Woodley on 8 April 2005 when the future of MG Rover was decided. The Labour government decided not to give further support to MG Rover and consequently the company entered into administrative receivership,with 6,500 employees being made redundant in addition to many other employees of its car dealerships and component suppliers in the United Kingdom. Burden,as the MP for Northfield which included Longbridge,raised the issue in Parliament from time to time,in relation to the local economy,jobs and skills. [5] [6]
Burden voted against his own Labour government on a few occasions,most notably on the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the 2005 anti-terror bill,which included a provision to hold terrorist suspects for 90 days without trial.
He was re-elected at the May 2010 general election. [7] He was not invited to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Longbridge in June 2011 and complained bitterly to the local press at being excluded;it is not known why he was 'excluded',when other leading local politicians were invited,though he suggested it was a decision made by the then-Conservative-run City Council. [8]
Together with his friend and fellow ex-Young Liberal Peter Hain MP,he was an enthusiastic supporter of the unsuccessful Alternative Vote system in the May 2011 referendum.[ citation needed ]
Burden became Shadow Transport Minister under Ed Miliband in 2013,with responsibility for roads and road safety,motor agencies,cycling and future transport. [9]
He retained a Shadow Ministerial role under Jeremy Corbyn after he was elected as party leader in 2015. [1] Burden resigned from this position following a vote of no confidence in Corbyn by members of the Parliamentary party,telling Corbyn he was "making a bad situation worse" by choosing to remain Labour leader. [10] He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. [11] He rejoined the frontbench as Shadow Transport Minister in October 2016,with responsibility for aviation,maritime,roads and future transport. He stayed in this post until the 2017 general election,after which he stood down from the frontbench to join the International Development Committee.
In the 2016 United Kingdom referendum on membership of the European Union he supported Remain;however,the majority of his constituents in Birmingham Northfield voted Leave (61.8% Leave,38.2% Remain,with all 4 wards in the constituency voting Leave).[ citation needed ]
In the United Kingdom general election held on 12 December 2019,he stood for re-election and was one of the many Labour MPs to be defeated,losing his seat to the Conservative candidate,Gary Sambrook,who won by a majority of 1,640 votes;Burden received 18,317 votes to Sambrook's 19,957 votes. [12]
Burden was Chair of the Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group and frequently asked questions of ministers on issues relating to the Middle East conflict. He was one of the most prominent parliamentary critics of Israeli policy in the region,particularly with regard to its expansion of settlements in the West Bank. He was also Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Motor Group. [13]
He speaks French and is an avid motorsport fan. In 2002 he became the special advisor to the Minister of Sport,Richard Caborn,on motorsport.[ citation needed ]
Maria Eagle is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry in the Ministry of Defence since 2024. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood,now Liverpool Garston,since 1997. She served in the Shadow cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.
Clive Stanley Efford is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Eltham and Chislehurst,previously Eltham,since 1997.
Kevan David Jones is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Durham from 2001 to 2024.
Christopher Michael Leslie is a British business executive and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party,he defected to form Change UK and later became an independent politician.
Robert Howard Marris is a British Labour Party politician,who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South West. He first held the seat from 2001 until his defeat in 2010. He regained at the seat at the 2015 general election,but stepped down at the 2017 general election.
Jon Hedley Trickett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton and Hemsworth since 1996. He was Shadow Lord President of the Council from 2016 to 2020 and served as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2013 and 2017 to 2020. He was the Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator under Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 to 2017.
John Francis Spellar is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Warley,formerly Warley West,from 1992 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party,he previously represented Birmingham Northfield from 1982 to 1983. He served as a minister in numerous departments between 1997 and 2005 and later served as Comptroller of the Household in the Whips' Office between 2008 and 2010. After Labour entered opposition,he served as a shadow Foreign Office minister from 2010 to 2015.
Birmingham Northfield is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Laurence Turner,a Labour politician. It represents the southernmost part of the city of Birmingham.
Robert Charles Douglas Flello is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent South from 2005 to 2017. He lost his seat at the 2017 general election to Conservative Party candidate Jack Brereton.
Patrick Bosco McFadden is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party,he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South East since 2005. McFadden has previously held various junior ministerial positions and shadow portfolios in his parliamentary career between 2005 and 2024.
Longbridge is an area in the south-west of Birmingham,England,located near the border with Worcestershire,historically being within it.
John Eugene Joseph Dromey was a British politician and trade unionist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Erdington from 2010 to 2022. A member of the Labour Party,he served as Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and later Unite from 2003 to 2010.
Gavin Shuker is a British former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from 2010 to 2019. Shuker was a Labour and Co-operative Party MP before defecting to form Change UK. He then left Change UK to become an Independent politician and was defeated at the 2019 election,coming third with 9.3% of the vote.
Lilian Rachel Greenwood is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham South since 2010,and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Future of Roads since July 2024.
Yvonne Helen Fovargue is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield from 2010 to 2024.
Sarah Deborah Champion is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham since 2012.
Richard Burgon is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 to 2020. A Labour Party MP,on 23 July 2024 he had the whip withdrawn and was suspended from the party for six months as a result of voting for a Scottish National Party amendment to scrap the two child benefit cap. He now sits as an Independent MP until the whip is re-established,subject to a review.
Jessica Rose Phillips is a British politician,who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party,she has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls since July 2024.
Ruth Margaret Cadbury is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Isleworth since 2015. She was Shadow Minister for Prisons,Parole and Probation from 2023 but was replaced by James Timpson after the 2024 general election. A former planning consultant,Cadbury previously served on the opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Housing from 2016 to 2017,Shadow Minister for Planning in 2021 and Shadow Minister for International Trade from 2021 to 2023.
Gary William Sambrook is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Northfield from 2019 until 2024. He has served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 Committee since 2021.