Liam Byrne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liam Byrne MP
Minister of State for immigration at the Home Office
In office 15 July 2004 – present
Preceded by	Terry Davis
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Constituency	Birmingham Hodge Hill

Born	2 October 1970
Political party	Labour
Website	LiamByrne.co.uk

Liam Dominic Byrne (born 2 October 1970) is a British Labour Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Minister of State for immigration at the Home Office.

[edit] Early life

Liam Byrne was born in Warrington and was educated at the University of Manchester and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He has acted as an advisor to Tony Blair. He is founder of the computer company e-Government Solutions Ltd [1], a provider of e-commerce solutions to government, and is an associate research fellow at the Social Market Foundation.

[edit] Parliamentary Career

He was selected to contest the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election following the resignation of the veteran Labour MP Terry Davis to become the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. After a very close contest, on 15 July 2004, the same day as Labour lost Leicester South in another by-election, Byrne held on with a majority of just 460. He made his maiden speech on 22 July 2004 [2] Following his re-election with an increased majority on 5 May 2005, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health, an unusually fast promotion to ministerial rank. Just a year later, following the 2006 local elections, he was promoted to Minister of State for policing, security and community safety at the Home Office, replacing Hazel Blears, one of the highest-profile roles in the government outside the cabinet. However, just a fortnight later Home Secretary John Reid moved him to the immigration role, switching portfolios with Tony McNulty. McNulty had been connected with the foreign prisoners scandal that caused Tony Blair to sack Charles Clarke in May 2006. Byrne's move was seen as an attempt by Reid to establish an entirely new team to sort out the immigration system.

On 26 October 2006 he stated concerning the debate about the immigration of women wearing veils that in accordance with the Immigration Act 1971 all persons arriving in the United Kingdom must satisfy an immigration officer as to their nationality and identity. Where there are sensitive or cultural reasons why it is not possible for a person to remove a veil or other garment at the immigration control, they will be taken to a private area where, in the case of a woman, a female officer will ask them to lift their veil so that their identity can be verified. Most people are usually content to do this but there are powers to refuse entry to persons who cannot be satisfactorily identified.[3]

In November 2006 Byrne was responsible for a retroactive law excluding highly skilled legal migrants who are tax payers from obtaining any benefits from the government.[4]