Roger Godsiff MP |
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Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green |
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Assumed office 6 May 2010 |
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Preceded by | Steve McCabe |
Majority | 3,799 (7.8%) |
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath |
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In office 1 May 1997 – 6 May 2010 |
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Preceded by | Constituency Established |
Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Small Heath |
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In office 9 April 1992 – 1 May 1997 |
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Preceded by | Denis Howell |
Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
Personal details | |
Born |
Lewisham, London, England |
28 June 1946
Nationality | English |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse(s) | Julia Brenda Morris |
Roger Duncan Godsiff (born 28 June 1946) is a British Labour politician, who has served as Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green since 2010 general election, prior to which he was Member of Parliament for Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath from 1992-2010.
Roger Godsiff was born in London and educated at the Catford Comprehensive School. He was a bank clerk for five years from 1965, joining the Labour Party in 1966. He was a political officer from 1970 with the trade union Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) and then from 1990 with its successor the GMB Union until his election to Parliament in 1992. During his time as a trade union official he was a leading member of the St Ermins Group, a secret caucus of moderate trade unionists who moved the Labour Party back towards the political centre by organising slates for elections to the party's National Executive Committee.
Elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Lewisham in 1971, he became the Mayor of Lewisham in 1977, before quitting the council at the 1990 London Borough elections. He unsuccessfully contested Birmingham Yardley at the 1983 general election where he finished in second place behind the sitting Conservative MP David Gilroy Bevan. He was elected to the House of Commons for Birmingham Small Heath at the 1992 general election following the retirement of Denis Howell. Godsiff held Small Heath with a majority of 13,989 votes and has remained an MP since. His constituency was abolished in 1997 and aided by the retirement of Birmingham Sparkbrook MP Roy Hattersley, Godsiff was elected for the newly combined constituency of Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath at the 1997 general election. At the 2001 general election, six of his seven opponents were Asian Muslims.