Kevin Barron
Encyclopedia
Kevin John Barron is a British
Labour Party
politician
who has been the Member of Parliament
(MP) for Rother Valley
since 1983
.
in Tadcaster
, Yorkshire
. He was educated at the Maltby Hall Secondary Modern School
(same school as Fred Trueman
, and now known as Maltby Comprehensive School) on Braithwell Road in Maltby
; the University of Sheffield
, and at Ruskin College where he gained a Diploma in Labour Studies in 1977, where he was a Militant tendency
supporter.
On leaving school in 1962, Barron became an electrician at the local Maltby Colliery. He spent the next 23 years working in the coal industry. In 1982 he became president of the Rotherham
Trades Union Congress
. He was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), who later expelled him for disloyalty. Once, on picketing duty outside Maltby colliery he was struck on the head by a police
baton. He was a political ally of Arthur Scargill
.
. With NUM backing Kevin Barron secured the nomination and was duly elected as the Labour MP for Rother Valley at the 1983 general election
.
In 1985 Kevin Barron was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary
to the Leader of the Opposition
Neil Kinnock
, a position he held until the 1987 general election
. Kinnock gave Barron a frontbench job in 1988 as an opposition spokesman on Energy but he was dropped following the 1992 general election
. Barron was returned to the front bench as a spokesman on Employment by the new leader John Smith
, and after Smith's death Tony Blair
moved Barron to speak on Health matters.
Kevin Barron was a leading figure in the campaign to rewrite Clause IV
under the new leadership of Tony Blair and it came as a surprise that there was no job in government for him after the victorious 1997 general election
.
Barron served for eight years on the senior Intelligence and Security Committee
and was made a Privy Councillor
in 2001. He was made Chairman of the influential Health Select Committee
after the 2005 general election
.
Barron has been a Member of the General Medical Council
since 1999, and is passionately anti smoking
.
Following the MP's expenses row, Barron placed his expenses claims cover sheets in the window of his constituency office in Laughton Road, Dinnington. This information was already in the public domain, however, and provided no further illumination on what his line-level expenses were. There remain some unanswered questions about Kevin Barron's expenses such as why his mortgage payments increased to over £2,000 per month - more than the interest rate rise detailed in his expenses suggested it should.
In May 2010, Barron was returned to Westminster as the MP for Rother Valley with a severely reduced majority.
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...
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...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
who has been the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Rother Valley
Rother Valley (UK Parliament constituency)
- Elections in the 2000s :- Elections in the 1990s :- Elections in the 1980s :- Elections in the 1970s :- Elections in the 1960s :...
since 1983
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...
.
Early life
Kevin Barron, the son of Richard and Edna Barron, was born at Hazlewood CastleHazlewood Castle
Hazlewood Castle is a country residence situated in North Yorkshire, England by the A1 and A64 between Aberford and Tadcaster.The first records of the house are to be found in the Domesday Book...
in Tadcaster
Tadcaster
Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England. Lying on the Great North Road approximately east of Leeds and west of York. It is the last town on the River Wharfe before it joins the River Ouse about downstream...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. He was educated at the Maltby Hall Secondary Modern School
Secondary modern school
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...
(same school as Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
, and now known as Maltby Comprehensive School) on Braithwell Road in Maltby
Maltby, South Yorkshire
Maltby is a town and civil parish of 17,247 inhabitants in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, situated in a rural area about 7 miles east of Rotherham and 12 miles north-east of Sheffield...
; the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
, and at Ruskin College where he gained a Diploma in Labour Studies in 1977, where he was a 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...
supporter.
On leaving school in 1962, Barron became an electrician at the local Maltby Colliery. He spent the next 23 years working in the coal industry. In 1982 he became president of the Rotherham
Rotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
Trades Union Congress
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...
. He was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), who later expelled him for disloyalty. Once, on picketing duty outside Maltby colliery he was struck on the head by a police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
baton. He was a political ally of Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill is a British politician who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002, leading the union through the 1984–85 miners' strike, a key event in British labour and political history...
.
Parliamentary career
In 1983 Peter Hardy, the Labour MP for Rother Valley, decided to switch consistuencies and chose to fight the equally safe neighbouring new seat of WentworthWentworth (UK Parliament constituency)
Wentworth was a parliamentary constituency in South Yorkshire. Originally created in 1918 and was abolished in 1950, the name was revived when a new constituency was created from 1983 to 2010. Throughout its history, Wentworth was a safe seat for the Labour Party.-Boundaries:Wentworth constituency...
. With NUM backing Kevin Barron secured the nomination and was duly elected as the Labour MP for Rother Valley at the 1983 general 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 1985 Kevin Barron was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
to the Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (UK)
The Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in the United Kingdom is the politician who leads the Official Opposition in the United Kingdom. There is also a Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords...
Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
, a position he held until the 1987 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
. Kinnock gave Barron a frontbench job in 1988 as an opposition spokesman on Energy but he was dropped following the 1992 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
. Barron was returned to the front bench as a spokesman on Employment by the new leader John Smith
John Smith (UK politician)
John Smith was a British Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his sudden death from a heart attack in May 1994...
, and after Smith's death Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
moved Barron to speak on Health matters.
Kevin Barron was a leading figure in the campaign to rewrite Clause IV
Clause IV
Clause IV historically refers to part of the 1918 text of the British Labour Party constitution which set out the aims and values of the party. Before its revision in 1995, its application was the subject of considerable dispute.-Text:...
under the new leadership of Tony Blair and it came as a surprise that there was no job in government for him after the victorious 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
.
Barron served for eight years on the senior Intelligence and Security Committee
Intelligence and Security Committee
The Intelligence and Security Committee is a committee of parliamentarians appointed by the Prime Minister to oversee the work of the Intelligence machinery of the United Kingdom...
and was made a Privy Councillor
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in 2001. He was made Chairman of the influential Health Select Committee
Health Select Committee
The Health Select Committee is one of the Select Committees of the British House of Commons. It oversees the operations of the Department of Health and its associated bodies.-Membership:...
after the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
Barron has been a Member of the General Medical Council
General Medical Council
The General Medical Council registers and regulates doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It has the power to revoke or restrict a doctor's registration if it deems them unfit to practise...
since 1999, and is passionately anti smoking
World No Tobacco Day
World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on May 31. It is meant to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption across the globe. The day is further intended to draw global attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative...
.
Following the MP's expenses row, Barron placed his expenses claims cover sheets in the window of his constituency office in Laughton Road, Dinnington. This information was already in the public domain, however, and provided no further illumination on what his line-level expenses were. There remain some unanswered questions about Kevin Barron's expenses such as why his mortgage payments increased to over £2,000 per month - more than the interest rate rise detailed in his expenses suggested it should.
In May 2010, Barron was returned to Westminster as the MP for Rother Valley with a severely reduced majority.