Liam Dominic Byrne (born 2 October 1970) is a British politician serving as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Birmingham Hodge Hill
Birmingham Hodge Hill is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons since 2004 by Liam Byrne, a member of the Labour Party (UK), Lab ...
since
2004. A member of the
Labour Party, he served in Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...
’s
Cabinet from 2008 to 2010.
Byrne served in the
Home Office under Prime Minister
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
as
Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism (2006) and
Minister for Borders and Immigration (2006–08). He served in Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...
’s
Cabinet as
Minister for the Cabinet Office and
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...
from 2008 to 2009. He deputised for Chancellor
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member ...
at
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ...
as
Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2009 to 2010. Upon his departure as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he notoriously left a note for his successor which read "I'm afraid there is no money".
In opposition, he attended
Ed Miliband's
Shadow Cabinet as
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the most junior member of the Shadow Cabinet, and is the deputy to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury acts as the primary opposition to the equivalent G ...
(2010),
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office is a position in the British Shadow Cabinet, appointed by the Leader of the Opposition. The post involves holding the Cabinet Office and the Minister for the Cabinet Office to account.
The position is ...
(2010–11) and
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secretary of State for W ...
(2011–13). Following his demotion in 2013, Byrne continued to serve in junior shadow ministerial roles under Miliband and later
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
.
Byrne was the Labour candidate for the
Mayor of the West Midlands
The Mayor of the West Midlands is a directly elected political post who chairs the West Midlands Combined Authority, covering the Birmingham metropolitan area and Coventry.
The first election took place on Thursday 4 May 2017. Andy Street, ...
in the
2021 mayoral election, where he lost to the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
incumbent
Andy Street
Andrew John Street (born 11 June 1963) is a British businessman and Conservative Party politician who was the managing director of John Lewis from 2007 to 2016, when he resigned to run for Mayor of the West Midlands. Street won the May 2017 ma ...
.
Early life
Byrne was born in
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
, and was state-educated at
Burnt Mill School in
Harlow. He completed his
A levels at
The Hertfordshire and Essex High School in
Bishop's Stortford. He then went on to study at the
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...
, where he obtained a first-class honours degree in Politics and Modern History, and was elected Communications Officer of the
University of Manchester Students' Union. He also holds an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from the
Harvard Business School at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, where he was a
Fulbright Scholar, graduating with honours.
Before being elected to Parliament, he worked for
Accenture and
Rothschild & Co
Rothschild & Co is a multinational investment bank and financial services company, and the flagship of the Rothschild banking group controlled by the French and British branches of the Rothschild family.
The banking business of the firm covers th ...
, before co-founding a venture-backed technology company, e-Government Solutions Group, in 2000. In 1996/7, he advised the Labour Party on the re-organisation of its
Millbank headquarters, and helped lead Labour's business campaign.
Parliamentary career
Early career
He was selected to contest the
Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election following the resignation of the veteran Labour MP
Terry Davis to become the
Secretary General
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the
Council of Europe. On 15 July 2004, the same day as Labour lost
Leicester South in
another by-election, Byrne squeaked home with a majority of just 460. The campaign, led by
Tom Watson MP, drew criticism from antiracists for its tactics, particularly a Labour leaflet proclaiming "Labour is on your side – the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers". Byrne himself said, "I know that people here are worried about fraudulent asylum claims and illegal immigration. Yet the Lib Dems ignore what people say. They ignore what local people really want. The Lib Dems want to keep giving welfare benefits to failed asylum seekers. They voted for this in Parliament on 1 March 2004. They want your money – and mine – to go to failed asylum seekers."
Upon election, he made his
maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.
Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...
on 22 July 2004 in which he condemned racial hatred.
2005–2010
Following his re-election in
2005, he was appointed
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...
for Care Services at the
Department of Health
A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...
led by Secretary of State
Patricia Hewitt.
Byrne had been a vocal campaigner for road safety; in 2005, he handed a petition in to Parliament demanding tougher punishments for dangerous drivers. He sat on the parliamentary committee that shaped the
Road Safety Act 2006
The Road Safety Act 2006 (c 49) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The provisions contained in the Act are designed to improve road safety and help achieve casualty reduction targets. The Government’s strategy for improving ro ...
, which increased fixed penalty fines for
driving while using a mobile. In November 2007, he was
fined £100 and received three
points on his driving licence for using his mobile phone while driving.
Following the
2006 local elections, he was promoted to replace
Hazel Blears
Hazel Anne Blears (born 14 May 1956) is a former British Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles, previously Salford, from 1997 to 2015.
One of 101 female Labour MPs elected at the 1997 g ...
as
Minister of State for Policing and Counter-terrorism at the
Home Office.
However, just a fortnight later
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
John Reid moved him to the immigration role, switching portfolios with
Tony McNulty
Anthony James "Tony" McNulty (born 3 November 1958) is a British politician who was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010. During his ministerial career, which began in 2003, he was Minister for London and la ...
. Byrne's move was seen as an attempt by Reid to reorganise a dysfunctional immigrations system which Byrne completed, as well as establishing UK Border Agency, introduced a points system and developed the idea of earned citizenship. During this period he was also Minister for the West Midlands.
In May 2007, Byrne announced a consultation document which he said was about "trying to create a much more hostile environment in this country if you are here illegally". This eventually led to the controversial Conservative
Home Office hostile environment policy
The UK Home Office hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may " voluntarily ...
. Byrne was promoted in a cabinet reshuffle on 3 October 2008, becoming
Minister for the Cabinet Office and
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...
.
Immigration rules
In November 2006, Byrne was responsible for a change to
Immigration Rules preventing migrants who had entered under Britain's
Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) having their permission to remain in Britain extended, unless they could show both that they had been earning at least £32,000 pa while in Britain and also that they had a good knowledge of English. This change was controversial because it applied retrospectively to immigrants who had entered Britain under the old rules, meaning the British Government had "moved the goalposts"–a degree became effectively an essential requirement, regardless of the skills or economic contribution that an individual could demonstrate.
In their report into the changes, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights said that "The changes to the Rules are so clearly incompatible with Article 8, and so contrary to basic notions of fairness, that the case for immediately revisiting the changes to the Rules in Parliament is in our view overwhelming." Appeal cases have been won on appeal on the grounds that applicants had a legitimate expectation that the rules would not change to their detriment. A
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
was successfully brought against the government, with their actions when applying the new HSMP rules to those HSMP holders already in Britain as at 7 November 2006 being ruled as unlawful.
Byrne is in favour of legislation for a Migration Act, similar to the 1958 immigration law in Australia which is administered by the
Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).
"British Day"
In June 2008, Byrne suggested the "
August bank holiday" to be made a weekend of national celebration (a "
British Day") in a speech to a
New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
. However, Scotland's August bank holiday is held on a different date from that in Wales and England. He later retracted this – after pressure from the
Scottish National Party – saying he was merely trying to "get the debate started".
Since this suggestion, the concept of a British national holiday was raised again by the coalition government, with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties suggesting the May Day bank holiday may be moved to October and renamed "UK Day" or associated with the existing Trafalgar Day.
Leaked staffing requirements memo
In November 2008, an 11-page memo written by Byrne entitled "Working With Liam Byrne" was leaked to the press. In the memo, Byrne listed his demands from his staff, memorably including his requirement for a
cappuccino
A cappuccino (; ; Italian plural: ''cappuccini'') is an espresso-based coffee drink that originated in Austria and was later popularized in Italy and is prepared with steamed milk foam ( microfoam).
Variations of the drink involve the use of ...
on his arrival in the office, soup between 12:30 pm and 1 pm and an
espresso at 3 pm. Byrne also instructed officials to tell him "not what you think I should know, but you expect I will get asked." He warns staff that they should "Never put anything to me unless you understand it and can explain it to me in 60 seconds... If I see things that are not of acceptable quality, I will blame you."
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described Byrne as an "eager diva".
Departure from the Treasury
On leaving his position as
Chief Secretary to the Treasury following the
change of British government in May 2010, Byrne left a note to his successor
David Laws saying: "Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam." Byrne later claimed that it was just typical humour between politicians but regretted it since the new government used it to justify the wave of cuts that were introduced. The note echoed Chancellor
Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...
's note to
James Callaghan: "Good luck, old cock ... Sorry to leave it in such a mess." after the Conservatives' defeat at the
1964 election.
The note was frequently referenced by the following
coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to criticise the financial record of the previous Labour government, and used as a visual prop by
David Cameron in the
''Question Time'' debate preceding the 2015 general election.
After the party's election defeat, Byrne stated he had been "burnt with shame" since 2010 over the note which had harmed the
2015 election campaign.
2010–2016
Following his re-election at the
2010 general election, Byrne was appointed by new Labour leader
Ed Miliband to lead Labour's policy review for two years. He was
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secretary of State for W ...
from January 2011 to October 2013. He was sacked after increasing criticism from Labour members and having "badly lost the confidence of the PLP", particularly after allegedly describing the Conservative-led coalition's benefits cap as "too soft, saying that "Ministers have bodged the rules so the cap won't affect Britain's 4,000 largest families and it does nothing to stop people living a life on welfare".
Alongside
Chuka Umunna
Chuka Harrison Umunna (; born 17 October 1978) is a British retired politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to ...
, Byrne made an official visit to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
in October 2012 as part of the LFI's UK-Israel Economic Dialogue group. Byrne is a member of the
Labour Friends of Israel
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...
.
Byrne is the chair of the APPG on Inclusive Growth, formed in July 2014 upon the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the aim of finding a new consensus on
inclusive growth to ensure the benefits of growth are enjoyed by all sectors of society. He is also chair of the APPG on Children of Alcoholics, which has produced a manifesto in support of the estimated 2.5 million children of alcoholics who live in the UK. Byrne himself was one of these children and set up the APPG after speaking publicly about his father's condition in 2015.
Byrne was shortlisted for the
Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for his work on raising money for charities and remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.
He supported
Owen Smith
Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
in the
2016 Labour Party leadership election.
Candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands
In February 2020, Byrne won the selection contest as the Labour candidate for the
2021 West Midlands mayoral election
The 2021 West Midlands Mayoral Election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of the West Midlands, on the same day as other local elections across England and Wales, including councillors in six of its seven boroughs and the police and ...
.
As part of his campaign he called for the
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...
to be the "greenest games ever", and pledged to be the first West Midlands Mayor to fill the role of Deputy Mayor with a woman and to revitalise the West Midlands' ailing car industry by positioning it at the heart of British electric vehicle manufacturing.
His official campaign slogan was 'A new future for the heart of Britain', although he said that his unofficial slogan was 'let's just get shit done'. Byrne campaigned on pledges such as "Protect Our Safety".
Despite saying to
Sky News'
Sophy Ridge that he would "beat
Andy Street
Andrew John Street (born 11 June 1963) is a British businessman and Conservative Party politician who was the managing director of John Lewis from 2007 to 2016, when he resigned to run for Mayor of the West Midlands. Street won the May 2017 ma ...
easily" on 18 April 2021, Byrne lost the election by over 8 percentage points as Street increased his majority.
Bullying
In April 2022, Byrne was found to have bullied a former member of staff and was suspended from the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
for two days after a 22-month investigation. The investigation began when a complaint was lodged with the
Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS); the
Independent Expert Panel found that Byrne ostracised a former assistant, David Barker, after a minor office dispute, specifically ignoring Barker for three months, including when Barker alerted Byrne that they had Covid-19.
Kathryn Stone, the
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, described Byrne's behaviour as a "significant misuse of power"; and also found Byrne's decision to disable Barker's access to his parliamentary IT account had a "punitive" effect, stating that this was "disproportionate and amounted to malicious behaviour".
Following the publication of the panel's report, Byrne apologised and said that he was "profoundly sorry".
Personal life
He married Sarah in 1998, with whom he has two sons and a daughter.
References
External links
Liam Byrneofficial website
*
Byrne's speech to Labour Party Conference 2011hosted by
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
on the party's official channel
Profile: Liam Byrne''
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
'', 2 November 2007
The seat of power? Nick Watson, ''The Politics Show'', 5 July 2007
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Liam
1970 births
Living people
Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester
English businesspeople
English people of Irish descent
Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster
Harvard Business School alumni
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Labour Friends of Israel
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
People from Hertfordshire
People from Warrington
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Alumni of the Manchester Business School
N M Rothschild & Sons people
Chief Secretaries to the Treasury
Fulbright alumni