Steve Rotheram

Steve Rotheram
Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
Assumed office
8 May 2017
Preceded by Office created
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition
In office
12 September 2015 – 3 May 2017
Leader Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by Karen Buck
Succeeded by Kate Hollern
Member of Parliament
for Liverpool Walton
In office
6 May 2010 – 3 May 2017
Preceded by Peter Kilfoyle
Succeeded by Dan Carden
Lord Mayor of Liverpool
In office
1 May 2008 – 7 May 2009
Preceded by Paul Clark
Succeeded by Mike Storey
Personal details
Born Steven Philip Rotheram
(1961-11-04) 4 November 1961[1]
Anfield, Liverpool, England, UK
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Sandra Rotheram
Alma mater John Moores University
Liverpool Hope University
Website www.steverotherammp.org.uk
www.steverotheram.com

Steven Philip "Steve" Rotheram (born 4 November 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who is the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region. He previously served as the MP for Liverpool Walton from 2010 to 2017.

Rotheram was born in Liverpool and left school to become a bricklayer, setting up his own company at the age of 22. He started a Masters in Contemporary Urban Renaissance at Liverpool Hope University. He worked as a Business Manager for the Learning and Skills Council and represented Fazakerley as a councillor on Liverpool City Council. Rotheram has been the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton since the 2010 election. As an MP, he campaigned for the release of all government papers relating to the Hillsborough disaster.

He also served as the Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 2008 to 2009 and a Councillor for Fazakerley from 2002 to 2011.[2] Rotheram was the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Rotheram won a majority vote in the Liverpool City Region mayoral election 2017.

Early life

Rotheram was born in Liverpool in 1961, the son of Harry Rotheram, a Kirkby factory forklift driver and Labour councillor, and Dorothy, née Phillips. He was one of eight children. His parent's marriage broke up when Rotheram was in his teens, with Rotheram citing his father's absences due to politics as part of the cause. His secondary education was at Ruffwood School in Kirkby.[3]

Career

Rotheram left school at 16 to become a bricklayer, setting up his own company at the age of 22.[4] He spent eight months rebuilding war-torn infrastructure in the Falkland Islands in 1983, an experience that Rotheram did not enjoy. On his return, disillusioned by what he saw as exploitation of employees on UK building sites, he was determined not to work for anyone else again, and set up his own company Rotheram Builders.[3] Alongside his work in the construction industry, he studied part-time in order to gain admittance to John Moores University where he studied full-time before starting a Masters in Contemporary Urban Renaissance at Liverpool Hope University. He worked as a Business Manager for the Learning and Skills Council for many years after graduating, and was elected to represent Fazakerley as a Labour Councillor on Liverpool City Council in the 2002 election. He later served as Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 2008 to 2009, which coincided with Liverpool's period as European Capital of Culture.[4]

Member of Parliament

After incumbent Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle announced that he would be standing down as MP for Liverpool Walton in 2010, Rotheram was overwhelmingly selected to be the Labour candidate securing 101 out of 113 votes cast. At the 2010 general election, Rotheram retained the seat with a comfortable majority of 19,818.[5] Shortly after becoming an MP, he was elected to serve on the Communities and Local Government Committee where he was influential in challenging Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps on a number of key cuts that they were making. In October 2011, Rotheram joined the Culture, Media and Sport Committee where he asked James Murdoch if he would close The Sun newspaper following the News International phone hacking scandal in 2011.

He was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.[6] Rotheram was the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's Parliamentary Private Secretary.[7]

Mayor

In 2016, Rotheram said he intended to stand for the Labour nomination to become Liverpool region metro mayor in the 2017 mayoral election, and was selected as the Labour candidate in August 2016.[7][8]

Rotheram was subsequently elected Mayor in 2017.

Hillsborough disaster

In a speech whilst Lord Mayor of Liverpool on the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, he said, "I'm one of the fortunate ones, as I swapped my Leppings Lane ticket for a stand seat 15 minutes before kick-off...if I can go from being a brickie in Kirkby to the Lord Mayor, who knows what these ninety-six people may have achieved in their lives".[9] In October 2011, he gave an emotional speech to the House of Commons where he read out the names of all ninety-six victims in the Hillsborough disaster so they would be recorded in Hansard, and called for the release of all government papers relating to the disaster. The speech later won an award as the Parliamentary Speech of the Year.[3] After the papers were released in September 2012, it became known they showed widespread corruption from South Yorkshire Police, Rotheram called upon Prime Minister David Cameron to issue an apology on behalf of the government, which he later did.[10][11]

Rotheram was the chief organiser of a charity single designed to raise funds to cover the legal costs of the Hillsborough families which attracted the attention of the award-winning music producer Guy Chambers. In September 2012, along with members of The Farm, Mick Jones, and former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, Rotheram arranged for a number of artists to record a cover of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" as "The Justice Collective", in an attempt to reach the coveted Christmas number one.[12] The cover included contributions from artists such as Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Holly Johnson and Melanie C, as well as featuring Rotheram himself. On 23 December 2012, it was confirmed that the cover had become Christmas number one, which Rotheram called "an honour".[13]

Manchester Arena disaster

Rotheram's two daughters were present at the 2017 Manchester explosion, in an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017, when a number of people were killed and injured.[14]

Personal life

Rotheram is married to Sandra, a community psychiatric nurse; the couple have three children.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Steve Rotheram MP". BBC News. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
  2. ↑ Stewart, Gary (26 March 2010). "Cllr Steve Rotheram chosen to fight Liverpool Walton constituency for Labour". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Big Interview: Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram 'My plan was not to become overinvolved in politics'". Liverpool Post. 25 January 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 "About Steve". Steve Rotheram MP: Liverpool Walton. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  5. ↑ "Election 2010: Liverpool Walton". BBC News. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Eaton, George (26 January 2015). "The Labour left demand a change of direction - why their intervention matters". New Statesman. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  7. 1 2 Liam Murphy (23 May 2016). "Steve Rotheram 'doesn't want to fall out' with Joe Anderson over metro mayor job". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  8. ↑ https://www.ft.com/content/aae7a917-56d7-3c79-84c5-3be899edb792
  9. ↑ "3.06pm - a time to remember: Hillsborough 20 years on". Liverpool Echo. 15 April 2009. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
  10. ↑ "Hillsborough papers should be released - MPs". BBC News. 17 October 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  11. ↑ Quinn, Ben (17 October 2011). "Hillsborough disaster: MPs debate disclosure of secret documents - as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  12. ↑ "Interview with Steve Mullin". Blue Kipper. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  13. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100: 23 December 2012 - 29 December 2012". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  14. ↑ Rachel Roberts, Manchester 'explosions': A 'number of fatalities' reported following Ariana Grande concert in The Independent online dated 22 May 2017, accessed 23 May 2017
Political offices
Preceded by
Paul Clark		 Lord Mayor of Liverpool
2008–2009 		Succeeded by
Mike Storey
New office Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
2017–present 		Incumbent
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Peter Kilfoyle		 Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton
2010–2017 		Succeeded by
Dan Carden
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