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Jeff Rooker, Baron Rooker

The Right Honourable
The Lord Rooker
PC
Lord Rooker.jpg
Chair of the Food Standards Agency
In office
July 2009 – July 2013
Appointed by Hilary Benn
Preceded by Dame Deirdre Hutton
Succeeded by Heather Hancock
Minister of State for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health
In office
6 May 2006 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Gordon Brown
Preceded by Lord Bach (as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sustainable Farming and Food)
Succeeded by Jane Kennedy (as Minister of State for Farming and the Environment)
Minister of State for Children in Northern Ireland
In office
9 May 2005 – 6 May 2006
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by Barry Gardiner (as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Education)
Succeeded by Maria Eagle (as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Education)
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
In office
29 May 2002 – 13 June 2003
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by Charles Falconer
Succeeded by Keith Hill
Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration
In office
11 June 2001 – 29 May 2002
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by Barbara Roche
Succeeded by Beverley Hughes (Immigration, Citizenship and Counter-Terrorism)
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Perry Barr
In office
28 February 1974 – 7 June 2001
Preceded by Joseph Kinsey
Succeeded by Khalid Mahmood
Personal details
Born Jeffrey William Rooker
(1941-07-05) 5 July 1941 (age 75)
Nationality British
Political party Labour (Commons); Independent (Lords 2009–2013); Labour (Lords 2013–)
Alma mater Aston University

Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker, PC (born 5 June 1941) is a British politician, who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Perry Barr from 1974 until 2001. He was later appointed to the House of Lords, being created a life peer on 16 June 2001 with the title Baron Rooker, of Perry Barr in the County of the West Midlands, where he was appointed to the Government for a year as the Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration. He resigned the Labour whip in 2009 after being appointed Chairman of the Food Standards Agency and sat as an Independent member in the House of Lords until 2013 when, standing down as FSA Chairman, he took up the Labour whip once again.

The son of a factory worker, Jeff Rooker attended Aldridge Road Secondary Modern Boys School (now called Great Barr School), Aldridge Road, Great Barr. He later attended Handsworth Technical School and College (later known as City College Handsworth), 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. Lord Rooker is an alumnus of Aston University in the city of Birmingham, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2001, he served as Editor of the Birmingham Student Union News (SUN) 1963/64. He also has a post-graduate degree from Warwick University in Industrial Relations. In 1966 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Birmingham City Council.


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