Steven Philip Rotheram (born 4 November 1961) is a British
Labour Party politician who is the
Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
The Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region is a combined authority mayor or 'metro mayor', who chairs the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The first, and current, officeholder is Steve Rotheram, who was elected to the post in May 2 ...
. He previously served as the
MP for
Liverpool Walton
Liverpool, Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%. It is t ...
from 2010 to 2017.
Rotheram was born in Liverpool and left school to become a bricklayer, setting up his own company at the age of 22. He started a Masters in Contemporary Urban Renaissance at
Liverpool Hope University
, mottoeng=Hope to all who need it
, established=1844 – Saint Katharine's College (as Warrington Training College)1856 – Notre Dame College (as Our Lady's Training College)1964 – Christ's College1979 – Liverpool Institute of Higher Edu ...
. He worked as a Business Manager for the
Learning and Skills Council
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...
and represented
Fazakerley
Fazakerley is a suburb of north Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is part of the Liverpool Walton Parliamentary constituency. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 16,786.
Description
Fazakerley is in north Liverpool; neighbouring dist ...
as a
councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
on
Liverpool City Council
Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards.
The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor ...
. Rotheram was 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 of ...
for
Liverpool Walton
Liverpool, Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%. It is t ...
from 2010 to 2017.
He also served as the
Lord Mayor of Liverpool
The office of Lord Mayor of Liverpool has existed in one form or another since the foundation of Liverpool as a borough by the Royal Charter of King John in 1207, simply being referred to as the Mayor of Liverpool. The position is now a most ...
from 2008 to 2009 and a
Councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
for
Fazakerley
Fazakerley is a suburb of north Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is part of the Liverpool Walton Parliamentary constituency. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 16,786.
Description
Fazakerley is in north Liverpool; neighbouring dist ...
from
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
to
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
. Rotheram was the Labour leader
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 ...
's
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...
.
Rotheram won a majority vote in the
Liverpool City Region mayoral election 2017 and was re-elected in
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
.
Early life
Rotheram was born in Liverpool in 1961, the son of Harry Rotheram, a
Kirkby
Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...
factory forklift driver and
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 ...
councillor, and Dorothy, née Phillips. He was one of eight children. His parents’ marriage broke up when Rotheram was in his teens, with Rotheram citing his father's absences due to politics as part of the cause. His secondary education was at
Ruffwood School in Kirkby.
Career
Rotheram left school at 16 to become a bricklayer, setting up his own company at the age of 22.
He spent eight months rebuilding war-torn infrastructure in the
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...
in 1983, an experience that Rotheram did not enjoy. On his return, disillusioned by what he saw as exploitation of employees on UK building sites, he was determined not to work for anyone else again, and set up his own company Rotheram Builders.
Alongside his work in the construction industry, he studied part-time in order to gain admittance to
Liverpool John Moores University where he studied full-time before starting a
Masters in Contemporary Urban Renaissance at
Liverpool Hope University
, mottoeng=Hope to all who need it
, established=1844 – Saint Katharine's College (as Warrington Training College)1856 – Notre Dame College (as Our Lady's Training College)1964 – Christ's College1979 – Liverpool Institute of Higher Edu ...
. He worked as a Business Manager for the
Learning and Skills Council
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...
for many years after graduating, and was elected to represent
Fazakerley
Fazakerley is a suburb of north Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is part of the Liverpool Walton Parliamentary constituency. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 16,786.
Description
Fazakerley is in north Liverpool; neighbouring dist ...
as a
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 ...
Councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
on
Liverpool City Council
Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards.
The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor ...
in
the 2002 election. He later served as
Lord Mayor of Liverpool
The office of Lord Mayor of Liverpool has existed in one form or another since the foundation of Liverpool as a borough by the Royal Charter of King John in 1207, simply being referred to as the Mayor of Liverpool. The position is now a most ...
from 2008 to 2009, which coincided with Liverpool's period as
European Capital of Culture.
Member of Parliament
After incumbent Labour MP
Peter Kilfoyle
Peter Kilfoyle (born 9 June 1946) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Walton from 1991 to 2010.
Early life
The eleventh of fourteen children born to an Irish Catholic family on Merseyside, ...
announced that he would be standing down as MP for
Liverpool Walton
Liverpool, Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%. It is t ...
in 2010, Rotheram was overwhelmingly selected to be the Labour candidate securing 101 out of 113 votes cast by the local association. At the
2010 general election, Rotheram retained the seat with a comfortable majority of 19,818.
Shortly after becoming an MP, he was elected to serve on the
Communities and Local Government Committee
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee (formerly the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine ...
. In October 2011, Rotheram joined the
Culture, Media and Sport Committee
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, formerly the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is one of the select committees of the British House of Commons, established in 1997. It oversees the operations of the Department fo ...
where he asked
James Murdoch
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
He was the chairman and CEO fo ...
if he would close ''
The Sun'' newspaper following the
News International phone hacking scandal
The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct ''News of the World'' and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police b ...
in 2011.
He was one of 16 signatories 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 ...
in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements. Rotheram was the Labour leader
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 ...
's
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...
.
[
]
Mayor
In 2016, Rotheram said he intended to stand for the Labour nomination to become Liverpool region metro mayor in the 2017 mayoral election, and was selected as the Labour candidate in August 2016. He announced that he would not seek re-election as a Member of Parliament if successful in the Mayoral Election. Rotheram was subsequently elected mayor in 2017. In September of the same year, he was named at Number 73 in 'The 100 Most Influential People on the Left' by LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
.
First term
Rotheram’s first months in power were focussed on setting up the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Improving the region’s transport infrastructure and connectivity was a central plank of Rotheram’s mayoral campaign and became the primary focus of his first term in office. In 2019, alongside Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...
, he led a successful campaign to strip Northern Rail
Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated th ...
of their franchise, after services had become blighted by disruption. During his first term, Rotheram oversaw major upgrades to the Merseyrail
Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...
network, including the introduction of a 52-strong fleet of new trains, the result of a £460million investment by the Combined Authority and in June 2018, he opened the first new station on the network in over 20 years at Maghull North station.
In 2019, Rotheram introduced half-price travel for apprentices aged 19-24 and launched Be More, a UCAS-style apprenticeship portal. In his Mayoral campaign, Rotheram pledged to address “the scandal of rough sleeping in Liverpool City Region” and in 2019, he launched the first phase of the Housing First
Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy ...
programme in 2019, an £8 million pilot scheme providing homes and support to homeless people across the region.
In 2019, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority became the first in the country to declare a climate emergency and has set a target to be net zero carbon by 2040 or sooner. Rotheram has said he “wants Liverpool City Region to be at the forefront of the Green Industrial Revolution” by investing environmental projects, improving public transport and exploring the potential for a tidal project in the River Mersey
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...
.
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
In October 2020, Rotheram agreed a deal with the government to place Liverpool City Region under Tier 3 Covid restrictions, following a sharp rise in cases across the North of England. Despite facing strong criticism for agreeing to impose restrictive measures on the region, Rotheram was successful in securing an additional government support for businesses affected by the restrictions. Following his re-election, he announced a £150m COVID Recovery Fund to support the economy and create jobs as the region emerges from the pandemic.
Second term
In the election of 6 May 2021, Rotheram was re-elected with an increased majority. In January 2022, Rotheram, alongside Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...
, renewed calls for a Hillsborough Law to ensure fair treatment for people bereaved in public tragedies. In February 2022, the Combined Authority approved Rotheram's plans introduce a bus franchising model, which would give the authority the power greater control over the region’s bus network and the ability to set bus routes, timetables and fares.
Hillsborough disaster
In a speech whilst Lord Mayor of Liverpool on the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...
, he said, "I'm one of the fortunate ones, as I swapped my Leppings Lane ticket for a stand seat 15 minutes before kick-off...if I can go from being a brickie in Kirkby to the Lord Mayor, who knows what these ninety-six people may have achieved in their lives". In October 2011, he gave an emotional speech 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. ...
where he read out the names of all the then ninety-six victims in the Hillsborough disaster so they would be recorded in ''Hansard
''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...
'', and called for the release of all government papers relating to the disaster. After the papers were released in September 2012, showing widespread corruption from South Yorkshire Police
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England.
The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings.
T ...
, Rotheram called upon Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
to issue an apology on behalf of the government, which he later did.
Rotheram was the chief organiser of a charity single designed to raise funds to cover the legal costs of the Hillsborough families which attracted the attention of the award-winning music producer Guy Chambers
Guy Antony Chambers (born 12 January 1963) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer, best known for his work with Robbie Williams.
Education
Chambers attended Quarry Bank Comprehensive School sixth form in Liverpool. From 18, h ...
. In September 2012, along with members of The Farm, Mick Jones, and former Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
manager Kenny Dalglish
Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic F.C., Celtic and 515 for Liverpoo ...
, Rotheram arranged for a number of artists to record a cover of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" is a ballad written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell. Originally recorded by Kelly Gordon in 1969, the song became a worldwide hit for the Hollies later that year and also a hit for Neil Diamond in 1970. It ...
" as "The Justice Collective", in an attempt to reach the coveted Christmas number one
In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...
. The cover included contributions from artists such as Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
, Robbie Williams
Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...
, Holly Johnson
William Holly Johnson (born 9 February 1960) is an English artist, musician, and writer, best known as the lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s. Prior to that, in the late 1970s he wa ...
and Melanie C
Melanie Jayne Chisholm (12 January 1974 - 25 December 2022), better known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer-songwriter and media personality. She is best known as one of the five members of the Spice Girls, during which time she was ni ...
, as well as featuring Rotheram himself. On 23 December 2012, it was confirmed that the cover had become Christmas number one, which Rotheram called "an honour".
Manchester Arena bombing
Rotheram's two daughters were present at the bombing
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...
in an Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...
concert on 22 May 2017, where a number of people were killed and injured.[Rachel Roberts]
Manchester 'explosions': A 'number of fatalities' reported following Ariana Grande concert
in ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' online dated 22 May 2017, accessed 23 May 2017
Personal life
Rotheram is married to Sandra, a community psychiatric nurse
Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophr ...
; the couple have three children.
References
External links
Official MP website
Metro Mayor website
The full transcript of Rotheram's Hillsborough debate speech, delivered in the House of Commons on 17 October 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotheram, Steve
1961 births
Living people
Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University
Councillors in Liverpool
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies
People from Kirkby