Roger Barton (born 6 January 1945) is a British engineer and politician who served for ten years as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP). He was a leading member of the Labour Party in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

and served on the City Council. After losing his seat in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, he set up an organisation that offers

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...

trekking to young people in the city.

Engineering

Barton was born in

and went to Burngreave Secondary Modern School. He went into work as an apprenticed engineering fitter in 1960."Dod's Parliamentary Companion, 1993", p. 1042. In 1965 he obtained an Engineering Technician's Certificate from Granville College. Barton became active in the Labour Party and in 1971 was elected to Sheffield City Council."Who's Who", A & C Black.

Party chairman

In 1974 Barton was chairman of Sheffield Brightside

Constituency Labour Party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...

when the party deselected its Member of Parliament, Edward Griffiths, by 40 votes to 10. When Griffiths claimed he was the victim of a "left-wing coup", Barton gave a list of ten reasons why the constituency association were unhappy with him, including reneging on a promise to move to the constituency."Mr Griffiths replies to his party's reasons for dismissing him", ''The Times'', 16 September 1974, p. 4.

Local party secretary

In 1981 Barton left his job in engineering to be full-time Secretary of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council and Labour Party. During the 1983 leadership election of the Labour Party, Barton outlined the reason why the Sheffield Labour Party had sold cassettes of the four leadership candidates being cross-examined by Sheffield party members. He insisted that "we really do object to the media editing internal debates", and declared that he did not want to conduct debates through the newspapers because it would keep down the party's standing with the public."The Times Diary", ''The Times'', 6 August 1983, p. 6.

European Parliament

Barton offered himself for selection for the Labour nomination for the Sheffield constituency in the

1984 European Parliament election Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, as a left-wing opponent of British membership of the European Communities;Julian Haviland, "Cryer seeks Euro-nomination", ''The Times'', 9 January 1984; p. 2. however he lost out to

Bob Cryer George Robert Cryer (3 December 1934 – 12 April 1994) was an English Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician from Yorkshire. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parlia ...

, who had lost his Parliamentary seat the previous year. When Cryer was returned to 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 ...

in the 1987 general election he stood down from the European Parliament and Barton was selected for the

1989 election The following elections occurred in the year 1989. Africa * 1989 Beninese parliamentary election * 1989 Botswana general election * 1989 Equatorial Guinean presidential election * 1989 People's Republic of the Congo parliamentary election * 19 ...

Political views

After winning the seat easily, Barton became identified with the left-wing in the European Parliament's Labour Group. He led the signatories of a letter calling for support for a

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

rally,"New treaty on nuclear weapons" (Letter), ''The Guardian'', 29 October 1994. and signed an advertisement opposing changes to

Clause IV Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the (UK) Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell a ...

when

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 ...

proposed to drop it.Michael White, Stephen Bates, "MEPs fight Blair reform", ''The Guardian'', 10 January 1995, p. 1. Barton opposed a proposal from German Commissioner

Martin Bangemann Martin Bangemann (15 November 1934 – 28 June 2022) was a German politician and a leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 1985 to 1988. He was German Federal Minister of Economics and European Commissioner. Life and career Bangemann ...

to restrict the sale of

superbike A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...

s, and persuaded the European Parliament to vote against it."Motorbikes and Maastricht" (Letter), ''Independent on Sunday'', 3 April 1994.

Defeat

In the 1999 election, Barton was placed in fourth place on the Labour Party's list for

Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York. It is ...

. As the Labour Party won only three seats, Barton was defeated. For a time he was a Director of Insight Dynamics, an information technology company.

Llama trekking

Barton set up the Sheffield and Peak District Llama Trekking project in 2006, aiming to encourage young people from inner-city Sheffield to venture out into the countryside."Llama trekking and pack pony", ''Yorkshire Post'', 29 August 2006, p. 1. The project is based in the Mayfield Valley, but Barton brought his

s to local festivals; he commented that many local children thought they were sheep. Barton has noted that although llamas are famous for spitting as a sign of aggression, there was only one occasion when he had intervened in a fight between them that he had been spat at.David Walsh,
Mayfest organisers count cost of washout
, ''Sheffield Star'', 29 May 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Roger 1945 births Living people Politicians from Sheffield Labour Party (UK) MEPs Councillors in Sheffield Labour Party (UK) councillors MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999