Jeff Rooker, Baron Rooker

Jeff Rooker, Baron Rooker

Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker , PC (born June 5, 1941 ) is a British politician.

Early life

Rooker came from the working class; his father was a factory worker. After attending school, he went to the Handsworth Technical School and College (later City College Birmingham). He spent 14 years as a production engineer in various firms in the Birmingham area before becoming a lecturer at Lanchester Polytechnic . He received an honorary doctorate from Aston University in 2001. He also holds a degree from Warwick University. In 1966 he ran unsuccessfully for the Birmingham City Council.

Parliamentary career

Rooker was nominated as the Labor Party candidate for the Birmingham Perry Barr constituency in October 1971 and won the seat in the February 1974 general election . In 1977 he attracted public attention, although backbencher, when he and Audrey Wise introduced the so-called Rooker-Wise Amendment . As a result, the income tax rates have been adjusted to inflation in order to avoid cold progression . The BBC praised this legislative initiative as one of the rare examples of the direct influence of backbenchers on tax policy.

Rooker made an unsuccessful attempt to bring German General Wilhelm Mohnke to justice for war crimes committed in 1940.

From 1997 he held various junior ministerial posts. These were mainly in the fields of agriculture, social affairs, immigration and local politics, as well as Northern Ireland. In August 2005 he became the First Minister for Children and Youth for Northern Ireland. He became Minister of State in the Ministry of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In 2001 he stopped running and was instead promoted to Life Peer as Baron Rooker , of Perry Barr in the County of the West Midlands, and thereby became a member of the House of Lords . From 2007 to 2008 he was Vice Chairman of the House of Lords. In July 2009, after being appointed chairman of the Food Standards Agency , he resigned as Labor Party Whip , resigned from the Labor Party and has been a crossbencher in the House of Lords ever since .

Lord Rooker is the Vice President of the Birmingham Civic Society . From January 2008 he was director of Aston University. His appointment as Minister for Animal Welfare was outlined because he openly advocated hunting. As a result, many e-mails and letters from animal rights activists with complaints reached the Labor Party.

Views

Jeff Rooker is open to genetically modified food. At a Labor Party conference in September 2008, he accused the opponents of " ignorance ".

Personal

In 1972 he married Angela Edwards. In 2003 he was widowed. In 2010 he married his second wife, Helen. He has two stepchildren.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aston University press release ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , July 10, 2001 
2. ↑ Budget rebellions remain scarce . BBC . April 24, 2008. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
3. ^ Jeff Rooker resigns Labor whip to chair Food Standards Agency . The Times. July 1, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
4. ↑ Alistair Driver: Rooker accuses 'messianic' anti-GM lobby of ignorance . In: Farmers Guardian , September 22, 2008. Archived from the original on May 12, 2010 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  

Web links

• Mr Jeff Rooker at Hansard (English)
• Lord Rooker at parliament.uk
• They Work For You
• Profile on debretts