Liam Byrne: Difference between revisions

Liam Dominic Byrne (born 2 October 1970) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Hodge Hill since 2004, and was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2009 to 2010 before being appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 January 2011. On 29 March 2012, several news outlets reported Byrne will announce that if Birmingham approves a 3 May referendum to create the post of Mayor of Birmingham, he will resign to seek the post.^[1][2]

Born in Warrington, Byrne was educated at Burnt Mill School in Harlow and completed his A levels at The Hertfordshire and Essex High School in Bishop's Stortford. He went on to study at the University of Manchester, where he obtained a First class honours in Politics and Modern History and was elected the Communications Officer of the University of Manchester Students' Union. He also holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Before working in Parliament, he worked for the multi-national consulting firm, Accenture and merchant bankers, N M Rothschild & Sons, before co-founding a venture backed technology company, e-Government Solutions Group, in 2000. Between 1996 and 1997 he advised the Labour Party on the re-organisation of its Millbank headquarters, and helped lead Labour's business campaign under the 'New Labour' scheme.

He was selected to contest the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election following the resignation of the veteran Labour MP Terry Davis to become the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. After a very close contest, on 15 July 2004, the same day as Labour lost Leicester South in another by-election, Byrne held on with a majority of just 460. He made his maiden speech on 22 July 2004^[3]

Following his re-election with an increased majority on 5 May 2005, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health, an unusually fast promotion to ministerial rank. He was re-elected at the May 2010 general election.^[4]

Following the 2006 local elections, he was promoted to Minister of State for policing, security and community safety at the Home Office, replacing Hazel Blears, one of the highest-profile roles in the government outside the cabinet. However, just a fortnight later Home Secretary John Reid moved him to the immigration role, switching portfolios with Tony McNulty. McNulty had been connected with the foreign prisoners scandal that caused Tony Blair to sack Charles Clarke in May 2006. Byrne's move was seen as an attempt by Reid to establish an entirely new team to sort out the immigration system. During this period he was also Minister for the West Midlands. Gordon Brown named him Minister for the Cabinet Office in October 2008, replacing the promoted Ed Miliband, and was appointed to the Privy Council as a result.

In November 2006 Byrne was responsible for a change to Britain's immigration rules preventing migrants who had entered under Britain's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) having their permission to remain in Britain extended unless they could show both that they had been earning at least £32,000 pa while in Britain and that they had a good knowledge of English. This change was controversial because it applies retrospectively to immigrants who had entered Britain under the old rules, meaning the British Government had "moved the goalposts" - a degree is effectively now an essential requirement, regardless of the skills or economic contribution that an individual can demonstrate.^[5][6] In their report into the changes, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights said that "The changes to the Rules are so clearly incompatible with Article 8, and so contrary to basic notions of fairness, that the case for immediately revisiting the changes to the Rules in Parliament is in our view overwhelming."^[7] Appeal cases have been won on appeal on the grounds that applicants had a legitimate expectation that the rules would not change to their detriment.^[8] A judicial review has been successfully brought against the government, with their actions when applying the new HSMP rules to those HSMP holders already in Britain as at 7 November 2006 being ruled as unlawful.^[9]

Byrne is in favour of legislation for a Migration Act similar to the 1958 immigration law in Australia which is administered by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

In 2007, Byrne was criticised by London's cab drivers for his remarks that they were "low-skilled". This ignored the fact that the cabbies study the details of London's streets for an average of eighteen months before becoming licensed.^[10]

In June 2008, Byrne suggested the "August bank holiday" to be made a weekend of national celebration (the so-called "British Day") in a speech to a New Labour think tank. However, Scotland's August bank holiday is held on a different date from that in Wales and England. He later retracted this - after pressure from the Scottish National Party - saying he was merely trying to "get the debate started".^[11]

In a cabinet reshuffle on 3 October 2008 he was promoted, becoming Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.^[12]

In November 2008 an 11-page memo written by Byrne entitled "Working With Liam Byrne" was leaked to the press. In the memo, Byrne listed his demands from his staff, memorably including his requirement for a cappuccino on his arrival in the office, an espresso at 3 pm, and soup between 12:30 pm and 1 pm. Byrne also instructed officials to tell him "not what you think I should know, but you expect I will get asked." He warns staff that they should "Never put anything to me unless you understand it and can explain it to me in 60 seconds... If I see things that are not of acceptable quality, I will blame you."^[13] Conservative MP Philip Davies commented that "This is not a briefing note for civil servants, it’s a briefing note for slaves."^[14] Although The Guardian described Liam Byrne as an "eager diva",^[13] a spokesman for Byrne commented that the memo had been written in 2006, and that "He is a highly efficient Minister but has become more flexible since then. Some days, he has his soup at 1:30 pm."^[14]

On leaving his position as Chief secretary to the Treasury following the change of British government in May 2010, Byrne left a note to his successor David Laws saying "Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there's no money left." ^[15] Byrne later claimed that it was just typical humour between politicians, but regretted it since the new government used it to justify the wave of cuts that were introduced.

Byrne has been a vocal campaigner for road safety and handed in a petition in to Parliament in 2005 demanding tougher punishments for dangerous drivers. He sat on the parliamentary committee that shaped the 2006 Road Safety Act, which increased fixed penalty fines for driving while using a mobile. On 2 November 2007 he was fined £100 and received three points on his driving licence for using his mobile telephone while driving.^[16]

• Liam Byrne official site
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• EGS
• Byrne's speech to Labour Party Conference 2011 hosted by YouTube on the party's official channel.

News articles

• Profile: Liam Byrne BBC News, 2 November 2007
• The seat of power?, Nick Watson, The Politics Show, 5 July 2007

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