The Right Honourable The Lord Walker of Doncaster PC DL |
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Chairman of Ways and Means | |
In office 11 June 1983 – 6 May 1992 |
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Speaker | Bernard Weatherill |
Preceded by | Bernard Weatherill |
Succeeded by | Michael Morris |
Minister of State for Employment | |
In office 14 April 1976 – 4 May 1979 |
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Prime Minister | James Callaghan |
Preceded by | Albert Booth |
Succeeded by | Grey Ruthven |
Member of Parliament for Doncaster Central Doncaster (1964–1983) |
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In office 15 October 1964 – 1 May 1997 |
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Preceded by | Anthony Barber |
Succeeded by | Rosie Winterton |
Personal details | |
Born |
Audenshaw, Lancashire, England |
17 October 1938
Died | 12 August 2003 | (aged 64)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Harold Walker, Baron Walker of Doncaster, PC, DL (12 July 1927 – 11 November 2003) was an English Labour politician.
Born in Audenshaw, Walker was educated at Manchester College of Technology and became a toolmaker. He served in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and was a lecturer for the National Council of Labour Colleges.
Walker was elected member of Parliament for Doncaster (after 1983 Doncaster Central) at the 1964 general election. He was a junior whip and then junior employment minister in the first Harold Wilson government, and continued being spokesman on employment in opposition, returning to the ministry in 1974. He was Minister of State at the Department of Employment 1976-79 and he became a Privy Counsellor in 1979.
Walker left the employment brief in 1983 following that year's general election, and became Chairman of Ways and Means & Deputy Speaker to Bernard Weatherill. He did not, however, become Speaker when Weatherill retired in 1992, that honour instead going to Betty Boothroyd. He was knighted in 1992 and returned to the backbenches.
Walker retired in 1997 and was made a life peer as Baron Walker of Doncaster. In 1998 he became a Deputy Lieutenant of South Yorkshire and Honorary Freeman of Doncaster.