Richard Caborn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Richard George Caborn, (born October 6, 1943) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central. He is the Minister of Sport with the rank of Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Dick Caborn was born in Sheffield and was educated at the Hurlfield Comprehensive School, Sheffield; Granville College of Further Education; and the Sheffield Polytechnic, where he qualified as an engineer. He began an engineering apprenticeship in 1959, and became a convener of shop stewards at Firth Brown Ltd in 1967. He was elected as the Vice President of the Sheffield Trades Council 1968-1979. He became a governor of the BBC for three years in 1975. In 1979 he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Sheffield where he remained until 1984. He contested the new parliamentary seat of Sheffield Central at the 1983 General Election, following the decision to retire of the Labour MP for Sheffield Park and former Cabinet member Fred Mulley, and was elected somewhat easily with a majority of 16,790, and has remained the MP there since.

Dick Caborn joined the frontbench under Neil Kinnock in 1988 when he became an opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry, becoming a spokesman of Regional Affairs in 1990. After the 1992 General Election he became the chairman of the Trade and Industry Select Committee where he served until 1995 when he became an opposition spokesman on the Lord Chancellor's Department. Following Labour's decisive victory at the 1997 General Election, he entered the government of Tony Blair as the Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, in which role he was closely involved in establishing the English Regional Development Agencies. He was also a strong supporter of English regional government, but after negative responses from referendums in the north of England in 2004 this was dropped by government. He then moved with the same position at the Department of Trade and Industry in 1999. He became a Member of the Privy Council in 1999, and since the 2001 General Election he has served as the Minister of Sport. In relation to the Wembley Stadium rebuilding project, he announced in October 2005: "They say the Cup Final will be there, barring six feet of snow or something like that".

Dick Caborn is seen as a close ally of John Prescott, having ran his campaigns for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 1992 (whilst supporting Bryan Gould for leader). He also ran Prescott's campaign for both deputy and leader in 1994. He is very much one of the more old Labour figures in government and is a former Bennite, and was very active on South Africa issues, being very pro-Mandela and anti-apartheid, and has even run concerts in support of the African National Congress. He was an active supporter of Arthur Scargill during the 1984-1985 miners' strike. Since becoming Minister of Sport he has run in many marathons and fun runs. He has been married to Margaret Hayes since 1966 and they have a son and a daughter and he enjoys a round of golf to relax.

On the 30 December 2005, Caborn publicly announced his support for capped wages in British football.

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by:
(constituency created)		 Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central
1983–present		 Succeeded by:
Current incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by:
Kate Hoey		 Minister for Sport
2001–present		 Succeeded by:
Current incumbent
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/i/c/Richard_Caborn_05b9.html"
In other languages