Allan Roberts
Encyclopedia
Allan Roberts was a British
politician
who was a Labour
Member of Parliament from 1979 until his death. A teacher and social worker before his election, he was a member of the left-wing of the party.
on the eastern side of Manchester
, and went to Little Moss Boys' County Secondary School. He first trained as a teacher at Ashton-under-Lyne College of Education and Didsbury College of Education. He joined the Labour Party
while still a teenager in 1959, and the next year also joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
.
From 1967, Roberts worked as a teacher. However in 1970 he decided to retrain as a social worker, and spent the 1970s working for Lancashire Social Services and then as Principal Officer for Child Care for Salford
Social Services. In 1971 he was elected to Manchester City Council
and served as Chairman of the Housing Committee (a senior post, which placed him in charge of the city's council housing). He was the Labour candidate in Hazel Grove
in the February
and October 1974
elections, but came third in a seat that was marginal between the Conservatives
and Liberals
.
who was retiring as Member of Parliament for Bootle
, a constituency in which he had no local roots. Mahon and Roberts were almost polar opposites: Mahon was born in Bootle, a right-winger, a Roman Catholic with traditional views on morality, while Roberts was from the rival city of Manchester
, a member of the new left who was also gay
. His experience with council housing issues was a considerable asset in winning selection, and he made a speech to the Labour Party conference in 1978 arguing that public authorities needed a surplus of council housing in order to solve the housing crisis.
Roberts easily won in Bootle, and joined the Tribune Group of left-wing Labour MPs. His early policy speeches marked him out as a leftwinger as he called for rates
to increase rather than cut services and made allegations of fraud in council housing maintenance contracts. When the Thatcher government introduced council house sales, Roberts urged that multiple fraudulent applications be made in order to clog up the system. When James Callaghan
resigned to force a leadership election by Labour MPs only, Roberts and Jack Straw
put down a motion calling for a wider franchise.
The News of the World
and Private Eye
magazine revealed in 1981 that Roberts had been injured, requiring hospital treatment, in a sadomasochistic gay sex club in Berlin
during a Parliamentary visit at Easter 1980. Roberts accepted the story was true but refused to speak to the press about it; he received a unanimously vote of confidence from Bootle Constituency Labour Party
. Shortly afterwards he paid a visit to Afghanistan
, and returned describing the Soviet
occupation as the lesser evil (although he did call for an eventual withdrawal). He disrupted Parliamentary proceedings in order to protest at the use of corporal punishment at Litherland School in his constituency in February 1981.
He continued to work on council housing issues, introducing a Bill to require councils to repair derelict council homes or otherwise hand them over to housing associations, another to promote short term lets of council homes, and a third to allow councils to set themselves up as estate agents and building societies. None of these Bills were enacted but they allowed Roberts to raise issues and ask for changes from the Government.
in the Deputy Leadership election of 1981, Roberts was unopposed for reselection that June. He opposed the Falklands War
, and joined the Socialist Campaign Group
in December 1982. The Militant Tendency
were strong in his constituency which neighboured their Walton
base in Liverpool
, and Roberts denounced attempts to expel members of the Tendency as a "witch hunt". Following the 1983 election
(in which he was re-elected with a 15,139 majority), Roberts nominated his constituency neighbour Eric Heffer
for the Labour leadership and Michael Meacher
for the Deputy Leadership.
Seeking to make a political point, Roberts brought forward a Bill to give private tenants the right to buy their flats in November 1983. Roberts had made enough of a name for himself to become a columnist in the Labour Herald (a newspaper set up by the Labour left, including Ken Livingstone
) in 1983. He was also noticed in Parliament for his habit of dressing casually, and was rumoured to be the first MP to wear jeans to work. In November 1984, he won a libel action against the News of the World
which had linked him to gay sex offences in Liverpool.
died only a month after winning the by-election.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
who was a Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament from 1979 until his death. A teacher and social worker before his election, he was a member of the left-wing of the party.
Early life
Roberts was from a working class background, the son of a baker and a machinist. He was born in DroylsdenDroylsden
Droylsden is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is to the east of Manchester city centre, and west-southwest of Ashton-under-Lyne, it has a population of 23,172....
on the eastern side of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, and went to Little Moss Boys' County Secondary School. He first trained as a teacher at Ashton-under-Lyne College of Education and Didsbury College of Education. He joined the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
while still a teenager in 1959, and the next year also joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
.
From 1967, Roberts worked as a teacher. However in 1970 he decided to retrain as a social worker, and spent the 1970s working for Lancashire Social Services and then as Principal Officer for Child Care for Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
Social Services. In 1971 he was elected to Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council is the local government authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. It is composed of 96 councillors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester. Currently the council is controlled by the Labour Party and is led by...
and served as Chairman of the Housing Committee (a senior post, which placed him in charge of the city's council housing). He was the Labour candidate in Hazel Grove
Hazel Grove (UK Parliament constituency)
Hazel Grove is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
in the February
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
and October 1974
United Kingdom general election, October 1974
The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of...
elections, but came third in a seat that was marginal between the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
and Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
.
Selection
In May 1978, Roberts was a surprising choice to replace Simon MahonSimon Mahon
Simon Mahon was a British Labour Party politician.Simon Mahon was born into an Irish Roman Catholic family in Bootle that was immersed in Liverpool Labour politics. His father, Alderman Simon Mahon , was a well-known local politician, who also stood unsuccessfully for Parliament...
who was retiring as Member of Parliament for Bootle
Bootle (UK Parliament constituency)
Bootle is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. Since 1990 the MP has been Joe Benton of the Labour Party...
, a constituency in which he had no local roots. Mahon and Roberts were almost polar opposites: Mahon was born in Bootle, a right-winger, a Roman Catholic with traditional views on morality, while Roberts was from the rival city of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, a member of the new left who was also gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
. His experience with council housing issues was a considerable asset in winning selection, and he made a speech to the Labour Party conference in 1978 arguing that public authorities needed a surplus of council housing in order to solve the housing crisis.
Parliament
At the 1979 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
Roberts easily won in Bootle, and joined the Tribune Group of left-wing Labour MPs. His early policy speeches marked him out as a leftwinger as he called for rates
Rates (tax)
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government...
to increase rather than cut services and made allegations of fraud in council housing maintenance contracts. When the Thatcher government introduced council house sales, Roberts urged that multiple fraudulent applications be made in order to clog up the system. When James Callaghan
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was a British Labour politician, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
resigned to force a leadership election by Labour MPs only, Roberts and Jack Straw
Jack Straw (politician)
John Whitaker Straw is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Blackburn since 1979. He served as Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001, Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006 and Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons from 2006 to 2007 under Tony Blair...
put down a motion calling for a wider franchise.
The News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
and Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
magazine revealed in 1981 that Roberts had been injured, requiring hospital treatment, in a sadomasochistic gay sex club in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
during a Parliamentary visit at Easter 1980. Roberts accepted the story was true but refused to speak to the press about it; he received a unanimously vote of confidence from Bootle Constituency Labour Party
Constituency Labour Party
A Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland has, since February 2009, been organised as a province-wide Constituency Labour Party...
. Shortly afterwards he paid a visit to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, and returned describing the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
occupation as the lesser evil (although he did call for an eventual withdrawal). He disrupted Parliamentary proceedings in order to protest at the use of corporal punishment at Litherland School in his constituency in February 1981.
He continued to work on council housing issues, introducing a Bill to require councils to repair derelict council homes or otherwise hand them over to housing associations, another to promote short term lets of council homes, and a third to allow councils to set themselves up as estate agents and building societies. None of these Bills were enacted but they allowed Roberts to raise issues and ask for changes from the Government.
Labour politics
As a supporter of Tony BennTony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
in the Deputy Leadership election of 1981, Roberts was unopposed for reselection that June. He opposed the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, and joined the Socialist Campaign Group
Socialist Campaign Group
The Socialist Campaign Group is a left-wing democratic socialist grouping of Labour Party Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It was formed in December 1982 as an alternative Parliamentary left-wing group to the Tribune Group...
in December 1982. The Militant Tendency
Militant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
were strong in his constituency which neighboured their Walton
Liverpool Walton (UK Parliament constituency)
Liverpool, Walton is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election.-Boundaries:...
base in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, and Roberts denounced attempts to expel members of the Tendency as a "witch hunt". Following the 1983 election
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
(in which he was re-elected with a 15,139 majority), Roberts nominated his constituency neighbour Eric Heffer
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. His working-class background and consciousness fed in to his left-wing politics, but to an extent disguised the depth of his knowledge: with 12,000 books in...
for the Labour leadership and Michael Meacher
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton since 1997. Previously he had been the MP for Oldham West, first elected in 1970. On 22 February 2007 he declared that he would be standing for the Labour Leadership, challenging...
for the Deputy Leadership.
Seeking to make a political point, Roberts brought forward a Bill to give private tenants the right to buy their flats in November 1983. Roberts had made enough of a name for himself to become a columnist in the Labour Herald (a newspaper set up by the Labour left, including Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
) in 1983. He was also noticed in Parliament for his habit of dressing casually, and was rumoured to be the first MP to wear jeans to work. In November 1984, he won a libel action against the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
which had linked him to gay sex offences in Liverpool.
Death
Roberts was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1980s and after a long time fighting the disease, died at the early age of 46. He was the first of three MPs for Bootle in the year 1990, as his successor Michael CarrMichael Carr (Labour politician)
Michael Carr was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Bootle for 57 days in 1990 from his election until his death. He was a dockworker who later became a trade union official, but his political rise was assisted by the help he gave the Labour Party leadership...
died only a month after winning the by-election.