{{Short description|British Labour politician, life peer (born 1941)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Rooker | honorific_suffix = PC | image = Official portrait of Lord Rooker crop 2, 2022.jpg | caption = Official portrait, 2022 | office1 = Deputy Leader of the House of Lords | term_start1 = 1 June 2005 | term_end1 = 5 October 2008 | prime_minister1 = Tony Blair<br />Gordon Brown | leader1 = The Baroness Amos<br />The Baroness Ashton of Upholland | predecessor1 = The Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean | successor1 = The Lord Hunt of Kings Heath {{collapsed infobox section begin|last=yes|Junior ministerial offices<br />{{nobold|1997–2008}} |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey}}{{Infobox officeholder | embed=yes | office2 = Minister of State for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health | term_start2 = 6 May 2006 | term_end2 = 3 October 2008 | prime_minister2 = Tony Blair<br />Gordon Brown | preceded2 = The Lord Bach | succeeded2 = Jane Kennedy | office3 = Minister of State for Children in Northern Ireland | term_start3 = 9 May 2005 | term_end3 = 6 May 2006 | prime_minister3 = Tony Blair | preceded3 = Barry Gardiner | succeeded3 = Maria Eagle | office4 = Minister of State for Regeneration and Regional Development | prime_minister4 = Tony Blair | term_start4 = 13 June 2003 | term_end4 = 9 May 2005 | predecessor4 = ''Position established'' | successor4 = Yvette Cooper | office5 = Minister of State for Housing and Planning | term_start5 = 29 May 2002 | term_end5 = 13 June 2003 | prime_minister5 = Tony Blair | predecessor5 = The Lord Falconer of Thoroton | successor5 = Keith Hill | office6 = Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration | term_start6 = 11 June 2001 | term_end6 = 29 May 2002 | prime_minister6 = Tony Blair | predecessor6 = Barbara Roche | successor6 = Beverley Hughes | office7 = Minister of State for Pensions | prime_minister7 = Tony Blair | term_start7 = 29 July 1999 | term_end7 = 7 June 2001 | predecessor7 = Stephen Timms | successor7 = Ian McCartney | office8 = Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food | prime_minister8 = Tony Blair | term_start8 = 6 May 1997 | term_end8 = 29 July 1999 | predecessor8 = Tony Baldry | successor8 = Joyce Quin {{collapsed infobox section end}} }} {{collapsed infobox section begin|last=yes|Further offices held |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey}}{{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office = Chair of the Food Standards Agency | term_start = July 2009 | term_end = July 2013 | appointer = Hilary Benn | predecessor = Dame Deirdre Hutton | successor = Heather Hancock | office1 = Member of the House of Lords | status1 = Lord Temporal | term_label1 = Life peerage | term_start1 = 16 June 2001 | office2 = Member of Parliament <br /> for Birmingham Perry Barr | term_start2 = 28 February 1974 | term_end2 = 14 May 2001 | predecessor2 = Joseph Kinsey | successor2 = Khalid Mahmood {{collapsed infobox section end}} }} | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1941|7|5}} | birth_place = | birth_name = Jeffrey William Rooker | death_date = | death_place = | party = Labour (since 2013; before 2009)<br/>Independent (2009–2013) | spouse = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = Aston University }}
'''Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}} (born 5 June 1941) is a British politician and life peer 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 from 1974 to 2001.
Raised and educated in Birmingham, Rooker worked as a production engineer in the city before lecturing in the subject at Lanchester Polytechnic. He studied at Aston University and the University of Warwick; and he eventually gained a postgraduate degree in industrial relations. After an unsuccessful campaign to join the Birmingham City Council in 1966, he was elected to the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election and joined the government after the Labour victory at the 1997 general election as Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
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. 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. 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 Birmingham for 14 years and then became a lecturer on the subject at Lanchester Polytechnic.
Rooker graduated with an undergraduate degree from Aston University in the city of Birmingham and he served as editor of the Birmingham ''Student Union News'' (SUN) from 1963 to 1964.<ref>{{cite press release|title=Aston announces this year's honorary graduates |publisher=Aston University |date=10 July 2001 |url=http://www.aston.ac.uk/about/news/releases/2001/july/010710.jsp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722102618/http://www.aston.ac.uk/about/news/releases/2001/july/010710.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 July 2012 |access-date=5 January 2008 }}</ref> He later received a postgraduate degree from the University of Warwick in industrial relations. In 1966, he was an unsuccessful candidate for membership of Birmingham City Council.
== Early parliamentary career == Rooker was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate in October 1971 for his home constituency of Birmingham Perry Barr, which he won in the February 1974 general election.
Rooker achieved a measure of national prominence in June 1977 while still a backbencher. With fellow MP Audrey Wise, he introduced the so-called ''Rooker–Wise Amendment'' to the Budget. 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".<ref>{{cite web|title=Budget rebellions remain scarce|publisher=BBC|date=24 April 2008|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/7363665.stm|access-date=23 June 2010}}</ref>
Beginning in 1998, Rooker led an unsuccessful attempt to prosecute World War II German general Wilhelm Mohnke for his alleged role in war crimes inflicted on British troops at Wormhoudt in 1940.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/mp-seeks-release-of-more-details-1401147.html|title=MP seeks release of more details|date=1994-01-20|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2020-04-05}}</ref>
== Ministerial career == left|thumb|Rooker as a government minister After Tony Blair 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 where he served as Minister of State for Pensions. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1999.
Rooker did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2001 general election and was created a life peer on 16 June 2001 with the title '''Baron Rooker''', ''of Perry Barr in the County of West Midlands''.<ref>{{London Gazette | issue = 56252 | date = 21 June 2001 | page = 7343 }}</ref> As a member of the House of Lords, he was re-appointed to the government 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, where he served as Minister of State for Housing and Planning, 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, with responsibility for children in Northern Ireland.
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. 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 House of Lords. He retained both these roles when Gordon Brown became Labour leader and Prime Minister in 2007 and showed himself to be outspokenly in favour of genetically modified (GM) foods at the September 2008 Labour Party Conference, when he accused people opposed to GM foods of "ignorance".<ref>{{cite news|last=Driver|first=Alistair|date=22 September 2008|title=Rooker accuses 'messianic' anti-GM lobby of ignorance|work=Farmers Guardian|url=http://www.farmersguardian.com/rooker-accuses-messianic-anti-gm-lobby-of-ignorance/20610.article|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100512182829/http://www.farmersguardian.com/rooker-accuses-messianic-anti-gm-lobby-of-ignorance/20610.article|archive-date=12 May 2010}}</ref> Rooker's ministerial appointed ended at a reshuffle in October 2008.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7651229.stm |title=In full: Reshuffle changes |work=BBC News |date=6 October 2008}}</ref>
== Later career == Rooker is a vice president of The Birmingham Civic Society. As of January 2008, he is a lay governor of Aston University. In July 2009, he was appointed as chair of the Food Standards Agency and resigned the Labour party whip for the duration until he ceased to be chair in 2013.<ref>{{cite news|date=1 July 2009|title=Jeff Rooker resigns Labour whip to chair Food Standards Agency|newspaper=The Times|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6613557.ece|access-date=20 January 2011}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
In December 2015, Rooker called for Jeremy Corbyn to be removed as Labour Party leader before 2020.<ref>{{cite web |last=Whale |first=Sebastian |date=3 December 2015 |title=Labour peer: We need to get rid of Corbyn |url=https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/labour-peer-we-need-get-rid-corbyn |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193805/https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/labour-peer-we-need-get-rid-corbyn |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=30 December 2022 |website=PoliticsHome}}</ref>
Rooker is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.<ref>{{cite web|title=LFI Supporters in Parliament|url=https://www.lfi.org.uk/in-parliament/|access-date=8 September 2019|work=Labour Friends of Israel}}</ref>
==Personal life== Rooker married Angela Edwards in 1972 in Paddington, London, who died in January 2003; he married second wife Helen Hughes on 5 February 2010 in a private ceremony in Christchurch, New Zealand.<ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OX8ZN5qFKZgC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22Angela+Edwards%22 ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage''], Debrett's Peerage Limited, 2011, page 1341</ref> In 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aston University of which he is an alumnus.
==References== *{{Rayment|date=February 2012}} *{{Rayment-hc|date=February 2012}} {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Hansard-contribs|mr-jeff-rooker|Jeff Rooker}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070705094913/http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/ministers/rooker.htm Lord Rooker profile on the Defra official website] * [https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/lord_rooker They Work For You]
{{S-start}} {{S-par|uk}} {{Succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr | years = Feb 1974–2001 | before = Joseph Kinsey | after = Khalid Mahmood }}
{{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=The Lord Falconer of Thoroton}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister of State for Housing and Planning|years=2002–2003}} {{s-aft|after=Keith Hill}} {{s-bef|before=The Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean}} {{s-ttl|title=Deputy Leader of the House of Lords|years=2005–2008}} {{s-aft|after=The Lord Hunt of Kings Heath}} {{s-prec|uk}} {{s-bef|before=The Lord Best}} {{s-ttl|title=Gentlemen'''<br />''Baron Rooker'' '''}} {{s-fol|after=The Lord Hannay of Chiswick}} {{s-end}}
{{Minister of State for Borders and Immigration}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rooker, Jeff Rooker, Baron}} Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers Category:Politicians from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Labour Friends of Israel Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:UK MPs 1974–1979 Category:UK MPs 1979–1983 Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 1997–2001 Category:Northern Ireland Office junior ministers Category:Academics of Coventry University Category:Alumni of Aston University Category:Ministers of state for housing of the United Kingdom Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II