Clive Betts

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Clive James Charles Betts (January 13, 1950) is a British politician, and the the Labour Member of Parliament for Sheffield Attercliffe.

Born in 1950 in Sheffield, Betts was educated at the Longley School in Sheffield and King Edward VII School, Sheffield (photo); and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a degree in economics and politics.

He joined the Labour Party in 1969 and joined the Trades Union Congress in 1971 as an economist. In 1973 he was appointed as an economist with Derbyshire County Council, and moved to the South Yorkshire County Council in 1974. At the 1979 general election he stood for election to the House of Commons in Louth against the Conservative MP Michael Brotherton and lost.

Betts had been elected as a councillor to Sheffield City Council in 1976. He was the Council's deputy leader under David Blunkett for a year in 1986, and succeeded Blunkett as the council leader in 1987. He left the council on his election to Westminster. In 1986 he was appointed as an economist with Rotherham Borough Council.

He was selected to contest the safe Labour seat of Sheffield Attercliffe following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Patrick Duffy. At the 1992 general election, Betts was elected with a large majority, and made his maiden speech on 6 May 1992.

Betts was made an opposition whip under Tony Blair in 1996, and after the 1997 general election, he entered the government as an Assistant Whip. He was promoted in 1998 to full Whip, with the title of Lord Commissioner to the Treasury, but like the majority of whips at that time was dropped from the government after the 2001 general election.

Since 2002, Betts has been a Member of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Select Committee. Since the 2005 general election he has also been a member of the Finance and Services Committee.

In 2003 he was outed by the Sun newspaper.

He plays cricket and supports Sheffield Wednesday F.C.