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

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

who served as a government minister from 1997 to 2008. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for

Birmingham Perry Barr Birmingham Perry Barr is a constituency in the West Midlands, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by independent Ayoub Khan since July 2024. It had previously been held since 2001 by Khalid Mahmood of the Labour Party. B ...

from

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. Raised and educated in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, Rooker worked as a production engineer in the city before lecturing in the subject at

Lanchester Polytechnic Coventry University is a public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lanchester Polytechnic from 1970 until 1987, and then as Coven ...

. He studied at

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston'' for post-nominals) is a public university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first College of a ...

and the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

; and he eventually gained a postgraduate degree in

industrial relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor union, labor/trade unions, employer organ ...

. After unsuccessfully attempting to be elected to

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...

in 1966, he was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

at the February 1974 general election and joined the government after the Labour victory at the 1997 general election as

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

at the

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

. Rooker did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2001 general election and was immediately created a life peer where he continued to serve in the government under several ministerial portfolios until 2008, including as Deputy Leader of the House of Lords and Minister of State for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health from 2005 to 2008. He resigned the Labour whip in 2009 after being appointed chair of the

Food Standards Agency The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is led by a board appoin ...

. He sat as an independent member in the House of Lords until 2013 when, standing down as chair of the FSA, he took up the Labour whip once again.

Early life and career

The son of a factory worker, Jeff Rooker attended Aldridge Road Secondary Modern Boys School, Aldridge Road,

Great Barr Great Barr is a large and loosely defined area to the north-west of Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The area was historically in Staffordshire, and the parts now in Birmingham were once known as ...

. He later attended Handsworth Technical School and College, Goldshill Road, Handsworth. He initially trained as a production engineer, working in various factories in and around

for 14 years and then became a lecturer on the subject at

. Rooker graduated with an undergraduate degree from

in the city of Birmingham and he served as editor of the Birmingham ''Student Union News'' (SUN) from 1963 to 1964. He later received a postgraduate degree from the

. In 1966, he was an unsuccessful candidate for membership of

Early parliamentary career

Rooker was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate in October 1971 for his home constituency of

, which he won in the February 1974 general election. Rooker achieved a measure of national prominence in June 1977 while still a

backbencher In Westminster system, Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no Minister (government), governmental office and is not a Frontbencher, frontbench spokesperson ...

. With fellow MP

Audrey Wise Audrey Wise (''née'' Brown; 4 January 1932 – 2 September 2000) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Coventry South West from 1974 to 1979, and for Prest ...

, he introduced the so-called ''Rooker–Wise Amendment'' to the

Budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...

. This linked personal tax allowances to the rate of inflation, thereby preventing the erosion of non-taxable income. The BBC has described the amendment as "a rare example of direct backbench influence on the Budget". Beginning in 1998, Rooker led an unsuccessful attempt to prosecute

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

German general

Wilhelm Mohnke Wilhelm Mohnke (15 March 1911 – 6 August 2001) was a German military officer who was one of the original members of the ''Schutzstaffel'' ''SS-Stabswache'' Berlin (Staff Guard Berlin) formed in March 1933. Mohnke, who had joined the Nazi Party ...

for his alleged role in war crimes inflicted on British troops at

Wormhoudt Wormhout (; before 1975: ''Wormhoudt''; ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Several people in Wormhout still speak West Flemish, a local dialect of Dutch and the traditional language of the region, while French-speaker ...

in 1940.

Ministerial career

After

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

led Labour to power in the 1997 general election, Rooker served as Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. In July 1999, he was moved to the

Department of Social Security A ministry of social security or department of social security is a government entity responsible for social security affairs. It may be a ministry office, a department, or, as in the United States, a nominally independent agency. Notable ones ar ...

where he served as Minister of State for Pensions. He was made a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former ...

in 1999. Rooker did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2001 general election and was created a

on 16 June 2001 with the title Baron Rooker, ''of

Perry Barr Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is also the name of a Government of Birmingham, England#Council constituencies, council constituency, managed by its own ...

in the

County A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of West Midlands''. As a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, he was re-appointed to the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

as the Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration and remained in the post for a year. He then was moved to the

Department for Communities and Local Government The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for housing, communities, and local government in England. It was established in May 200 ...

, where he served as

Minister of State for Housing and Planning The Minister of State for Housing and Planning is a mid-level position in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in the British government. The position has been held by Matthew Pennycook since 6 July 2024. The position was f ...

, then subsequently Minister of State for Regeneration and Regional Development. Following the 2005 general election, Rooker was named the Minister of State at the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

, with responsibility for children in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. On 6 May 2006, Rooker was appointed Minister of State for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health at the

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for environmental quality, environmenta ...

. He was a controversial choice as minister responsible for animal welfare due to his well-known pro-hunting views. In 2007, following Rooker's appointment, numerous complaints from animal welfare campaigners were sent to the Labour Party. He later also became deputy leader of the

. He retained both these roles when

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

became

Labour leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of th ...

and

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

in 2007 and showed himself to be outspokenly in favour of

genetically modified Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including th ...

(GM) foods at the September 2008 Labour Party Conference, when he accused people opposed to GM foods of "ignorance". Rooker's ministerial appointed ended at a reshuffle in October 2008.

Later career

Rooker is a vice president of

The Birmingham Civic Society Birmingham Civic Society is a voluntary body in Birmingham, England, and is registered with the Civic Trust. History The society was founded at an inaugural meeting on 10 June 1918 in the Birmingham Council House. The first president of th ...

. As of January 2008, he is a lay governor of Aston University. In July 2009, he was appointed as chair of the

and resigned the Labour party whip for the duration until he ceased to be chair in 2013. In December 2015, Rooker called for

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

to be removed as Labour Party leader before 2020. Rooker is a member of

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that advocates a strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party (UK), Labour ...

Personal life

Rooker married Angela Edwards in 1972 in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

, London. He was widowed in January 2003. He married second wife Helen Hughes on 5 February 2010 in a private ceremony in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aston University of which he is an alumnus.

References

* *

External links

*
Lord Rooker profile on the Defra official website

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rooker, Jeff Rooker, Baron 1941 births Living people Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) life peers Politicians from Birmingham, West Midlands Labour Friends of Israel UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Northern Ireland Office junior ministers Academics of Coventry University Alumni of Aston University Ministers of state for housing of the United Kingdom Life peers created by Elizabeth II