20 Facts About Kevin Barron

Sir Kevin John Barron was born on 26 October 1946 and is a British Labour Party politician and former coal industry worker.

Kevin Barron was the Member of Parliament for Rother Valley from 1983 until 2019.

On leaving school in 1962, Barron became an electrician at the Maltby colliery.

Kevin Barron spent the next 23 years working in the coal industry.

Kevin Barron was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers, which later expelled him for speaking out against Arthur Scargill.

In 1985, Kevin Barron was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock, a position he held until the 1988 election.

Kevin Barron lost this position when John Smith took over the leadership and he refused another front bench position.

Kevin Barron was returned to the front bench nine months later as a spokesman on Employment by the new leader John Smith, and following Smith's death Tony Blair moved Kevin Barron to speak on Health matters.

Kevin Barron was a leading figure in the campaign to rewrite Clause IV under the new leadership of Tony Blair, and it came as a surprise that there was no job in government for him after the victorious 1997 general election.

Kevin Barron served for eight years on the senior Intelligence and Security Committee and was made a Privy Councillor in 2001.

Kevin Barron was made Chairman of the influential Health Select Committee following the 2005 general election.

Kevin Barron has been a Member of the General Medical Council since 1999, and is passionately anti-smoking.

In May 2010, Kevin Barron was returned to Westminster as the MP for Rother Valley with a severely reduced majority.

Kevin Barron was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for political and public service.

In October 2016, Kevin Barron was found to have broken the parliamentary code in 2011.

Kevin Barron was found to have taken funding from the Japanese Pharmaceutical Group to arrange banquets in the House of Commons, against Commons rules.

Kevin Barron campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum on the UK's EU membership.

Kevin Barron supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

Kevin Barron was one of only three Labour MPs to vote for Theresa May's Brexit deal in the Meaningful vote on 15 January 2019.

Kevin Barron married Carol McGrath in 1969 in Rother Valley; the couple had a son and two daughters.