17 Facts About Barry Sheerman

Barry Sheerman graduated from the London School of Economics and from the University of London.

Barry Sheerman became a lecturer at the University of Wales, Swansea, in 1966 and remained there until his election to parliament in 1979.

Barry Sheerman became the MP for Huddersfield East from 1979 to 1983 and for Huddersfield since the 1983 general election, holding the seat since then, with a majority as low as 3,955 in 1983 and as high as 15,848 at the 1997 general election.

Barry Sheerman served as a shadow Home Affairs minister from 1988 to 1992, focusing on police, prisons and probation as the deputy to Roy Hattersley, the Shadow Home Secretary.

Barry Sheerman chaired the House of Commons Education and Skills select committee from 2001 to 2007, and remained chair of the renamed Children, Schools and Families Select Committee from 2007 to 2010.

Barry Sheerman is Chair of the Labour Forum for Criminal Justice and of the Cross-Party Advisory Group on Preparation for European Monetary Union.

In June 2009, Barry Sheerman called for a secret ballot of the Parliamentary Labour Party on whether Gordon Brown should continue in office as prime minister.

Barry Sheerman later reassured his local party chairman that he had not directly called for Brown's resignation.

Barry Sheerman called for a London catering company to employ "English workers" in a Twitter exchange on 23 April 2012.

Barry Sheerman is founder and chairman of Policy Connect, a cross-party, not-for-profit based in London, where he regularly chairs seminar events and research inquiries.

Barry Sheerman is chair and co-chair of a number of official All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, the All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group, and the Bullying All-Party Group.

On 5 December 2021, Barry Sheerman announced his intention to stand down at the next election; at the time of the announcement he was the longest-serving Labour MP.

Barry Sheerman consistently voted for the Iraq War, and has nearly always voted to block subsequent independent investigations into the war, with the most recent such vote in 2016.

Barry Sheerman is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

Barry Sheerman supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

Barry Sheerman supported the UK remaining within the EU in the 2016 membership referendum.

In 1993, Barry Sheerman co-wrote, with Isaac Kramnick, a biography of the Labour intellectual Harold Laski.