Liam Byrne

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Liam Byrne MP
Minister of State for immigration at the Home Office
In office
22 May 2006 – present
Preceded by Tony McNulty
Succeeded by Incumbent
Constituency Birmingham Hodge Hill
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Hodge Hill
Incumbent
Assumed office 
15 July 2004
Preceded by Terry Davis
Succeeded by Incumbent
Majority 5,449 (19.2%)
Born 2 October 1970 (1970-10-02) (age 38)
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.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Liam Byrne was born in Warrington and went to a comprehensive then studied Politics and Modern History (1st) at the University of Manchester, becoming the President of the University of Manchester Union. He 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, 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 [1]

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.

[edit] The Muslim veil

Concerning the debate about the immigration of women wearing veils, on 26 October 2006 he stated 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.[2]

[edit] Illegal immigrants

In November 2006 Byrne was responsible for a change to the UK's immigration rules preventing migrants who had entered under the UK's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) having their permission to remain in the UK extended unless they could show both that they had been earning at least £32000 pa while in the UK and that they had a good knowledge of English. This change was controversial because it was applied to migrants who had entered the UK under the older, more liberal HSMP rules and who complained that the UK Government had "moved the goalposts", and applied the changes to them "retrospectively".

Byrne is in-favour of legislation for an Migration Act similar to the 1958 immigration law in Australia which is administered by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

As well as his role in the Home Office, Byrne has been a vocal campaigner for road safety and handed in a petition in to Parliament in 2005 demanding tougher punishments for dangerous drivers.

He sat on the parliamentary committee which shaped the 2006 Road Safety Act, which increased fixed penalty fines for driving while using a mobile. On 2 November 2007 he himself was fined £100 and received a fixed penalty notice for using his own mobile telephone while driving. [3]

[edit] Personal life

He married in June 1998. He and his wife, Sarah, reside in Birmingham, having previously lived in Hertfordshire. They have three children.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Debates for 22 July 2004 - 2:23pm. Hansard (2004). Retrieved on July 22, 2004.
  2. ^ Immigration staff can ask Muslim women to remove veils. 24dash.com (2006). Retrieved on October 26, 2006.
  3. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

[edit] News items

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Terry Davis 		Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill
2004 – present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Liam_Byrne"
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