Roger Godsiff
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Roger Duncan Godsiff (born 28 June 1946) is a British former politician who served as the
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
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(MP) from
1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
to 2019, for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, and
Birmingham Hall Green Birmingham Hall Green is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Tahir Ali of the Labour Party. It has become in recent years a Labour sa ...
. In October 2019, Hall Green
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 ...
members overwhelmingly voted to open selections for their Parliamentary Candidate, with votes of 86 to 6 in Moseley and Kings Heath Branch and 37 to 11 in Hall Green Branch to have the option to choose a candidate other than Roger Godsiff. This followed several years of controversy about the MP's stances, including voting with the
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on key
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
votes, and outspokenly opposing LGBT+ Inclusive Education in Birmingham schools. Godsiff subsequently declared his intention to stand as an independent candidate. He lost the seat to the Labour Party candidate,
Tahir Ali Tahir Ali (born 15 October 1971) is a British Labour politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Hall Green since 2019. Early life Ali has previously worked for Royal Mail after securing an engineering apprentice ...
, coming third behind Labour and the Conservatives.


Early life

Roger Godsiff was born in London and educated at
Catford Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green and Catford South wards. The population of Catford, includ ...
Comprehensive School A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...
. He was a bank clerk for five years from 1965, joining the Labour Party in 1966. He was a political officer from 1970 with the trade union
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and then from 1990 with its successor the GMB until his election to
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in 1992. During his time as a trade union official, he was a member of the St Ermin's group, a secret caucus of moderate trade unionists who moved the Labour Party back towards the political centre by organising
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for elections to the party's
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.


Political career

Elected as a councillor in the
London Borough of Lewisham Lewisham () is a London boroughs, London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Merid ...
in 1971, he became the Mayor of Lewisham for 1977–78, before quitting the council at the 1990 London Borough elections. He unsuccessfully contested Birmingham Yardley at the 1983 general election, where he finished in second place behind the sitting
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 i ...
MP
David Gilroy Bevan Andrew David Gilroy Bevan (10 April 1928 – 12 October 1996) was a British Conservative politician. He was Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley from 1979, until he lost the seat by 162 votes to future Labour minister Estelle Morris ...
. He was elected to the
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for Birmingham
Small Heath Small Heath is an area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre. History Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman times, sits on top of a small hill. ...
at the 1992 general election following the retirement of
Denis Howell Denis Herbert Howell, Baron Howell (4 September 1923 – 19 April 1998) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a councillor on Birmingham City Council between 1946 and 1956. He was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham All Saints fro ...
. Godsiff held Small Heath with a majority of 13,989 votes and remained an MP from that point. His constituency was abolished in 1997 and, aided by the retirement of Birmingham Sparkbrook MP
Roy Hattersley Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...
, Godsiff was elected for the newly combined constituency of Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath at the 1997 general election. The Sparkbrook and Small Heath seat was abolished at the 2010 election, with its constituent parts moving into neighbouring seats. Godsiff was selected for the redrawn
Birmingham Hall Green Birmingham Hall Green is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Tahir Ali of the Labour Party. It has become in recent years a Labour sa ...
seat in 2008, which includes some of his existing constituency and wards which were formerly in the two Birmingham constituencies of Hall Green and Selly Oak. He was re-elected at the May 2010 general election with a majority of 3,799. In Parliament he was a special adviser to the former Minister of Sport
Richard Caborn Richard George Caborn (born 6 October 1943) is a British politician who served as Minister of Sport from 2001 to 2007 and later as the prime minister's ambassador for England's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid. He previously served as a junior minist ...
on
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and was the chairman of the All Party Japan Group. In October 2006, Godsiff was one of 12 Labour MPs to back
Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...
and the
Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
's call for an inquiry into the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
. He also rebelled against the government in November 2005 on legislation permitting the detention of terrorist suspects for 90 days without trial. In January 2005, Godsiff called for economic migration to the UK to be "stopped". He said that economic migration was unnecessary and it posed a danger to race relations within the UK. In the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, Godsiff was reported as using office expenses for extensive roofing work, rewiring, replacement guttering and even clock repair at a property he owns. He incurred the second highest expenses of all 647 MPs' for 2008/2009 with claims for £189,338. During the 2010 general election campaign, Godsiff issued leaflets suggesting the Liberal Democrats were in favour of "convicted murderers, rapists and paedophiles to be given the vote", which the Lib Dems denied was their policy. The leaflets contained images of various high-profile criminals, including child sex offender and nursery worker
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and serial killer
Steven Wright Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and film producer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jok ...
. Labour's general secretary Ray Collins said the leaflet was not approved at a national level and the local campaign was later scrapped. In 2011, ''
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 ...
'' declared that, based on his participation in votes, Godsiff was "Britain's laziest MP", being absent from 88% of votes at the start of that year. He had attended less than 50% of parliamentary debates during his whole time in office and refused to take any part in hustings meetings. He responded to the ''Birmingham Mail'' about his participation, saying, "when you are in opposition and the government has a substantial majority, you know perfectly well that you aren't going to be able to have an effect on every vote". Godsiff opposed
same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
in 2013, saying that he did not want to " edefinethe current definition of marriage." Godsiff was one of seven signatories in 2014 of an open letter to
Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...
calling upon him to commit to restricting the ability of workers from low income EU countries to move to the UK. In the
2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
, Godsiff supported the
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, although his constituency voted by 66.4% to remain in the European Union. Unusually for a pro-Brexit MP, he abstained from the vote to invoke Article 50, which would commence the UK's process of withdrawal from the EU, on the grounds that he was respecting his constituents' pro-Remain vote. Godsiff 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 latter's failed attempt to replace
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 ...
in the 2016 Labour leadership election. During the 2017 election campaign, his local campaign leaflet went viral in the UK due to its slogan "unwanted, unnecessary, opportunistic", which was supposed to be about the snap election called by
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
, but appeared, due to the format, to be referring to Godsiff himself. At the election he gained 42,143 votes (77.6%), giving him a majority of 33,944 (62.5%), which was the twelfth largest majority of any UK MP by percentage of constituency vote. In May 2019, in the wake of protests in Birmingham over
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
-inclusive education in primary schools, Godsiff sided with the protestors: "I have concerns about the age appropriateness of children of four and five being introduced to these ideas", he said, later admitting that he had not read the books. Anderton Park Primary School in
Sparkhill Sparkhill is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, situated between Springfield, Hall Green and Sparkbrook. Historically part of Worcestershire, Sparkhill once existed as a rural area with its main industry being agriculture until the 1 ...
, which has been at the centre of the row, is in Godsiff's former constituency. He defended his voting record on equality legislation, stating, "I am supportive of the LGBT community. I have consistently voted for all laws pertaining to equality and to defend the rights of everyone to live the lifestyle they choose." In October 2019, Labour Party members in all four branches of his Hall Green constituency opted to trigger a re-selection process to choose the Labour candidate at the next general election. As a sitting Member of Parliament, Godsiff was automatically entitled to be shortlisted as a potential candidate. Godsiff had indicated that he intended to stand for re-selection. However, the process was paused due to the election being called that month, resulting in the decision being made by the NEC to not endorse Godsiff and select a new candidate with a local panel. He stood as an
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
at the 2019 general election and came third. He was succeeded in the seat by
Tahir Ali Tahir Ali (born 15 October 1971) is a British Labour politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Hall Green since 2019. Early life Ali has previously worked for Royal Mail after securing an engineering apprentice ...
.


Personal life

Godsiff has been married to Julia Brenda Morris since 1977 and they have a son and a daughter. He is a lifelong supporter of Charlton Athletic F.C. He was previously the chairman of the Charlton Athletic Community Trust, which oversees the club's community work. He resigned from this position on 26 June 2019 following the controversy surrounding his support for the anti-LGBT protesters in Birmingham.


References


External links

*
Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Roger Godsiff MP
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Godsiff, Roger 1946 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in the London Borough of Lewisham UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 People from Lewisham British Eurosceptics British republicans Labour Party (UK) mayors Politicians affected by a party expulsion process