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Jeffrey Rooker, Baron Rooker, PC (born 5 June 1941) is a British politician. He was the Labour Party member of parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr until the 2001 general election. He was replaced by Khalid Mahmood and became a life peer with the title "Baron Rooker, of Perry Barr in the County of West Midlands".
Rooker has served in a number of junior ministerial posts since 1997, both as an MP and as a member of the House of Lords. These have been in areas as diverse as agriculture, social security, immigration, local government and Northern Ireland. In August 2005 he was appointed as the first Minister for Children in Northern Ireland. He was most recently appointed Minister of State for Sustainable Food and Farming and Animal Health at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on May 6, 2006, also responsible for animal welfare. He remains chief departmental spokesperson in the Lords for Northern Ireland. He is currently deputy leader of the House of Lords.
Rooker is from a working class background, his father was a factory worker. He initially trained as a production engineer, working in various factories in and around Birmingham for 14 years and then became a lecturer on the subject. Lord Rooker is also an alumnus of Aston University in the city of Birmingham, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2001[1]. In 1966 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Birmingham City Council. He was selected as a Parliamentary candidate in October 1971 for his home constituency of Birmingham Perry Barr, which he won in the General Election in February 1974.
Lord Rooker is a Vice President of The Birmingham Civic Society. As of January 2008, he is a lay governor of Aston University. Rooker has proved a controversial choice as Minister for Animal Welfare due to his well known pro hunting views. In 2007 following Rooker's appointment, many emails and letters of complaint from animal welfare campaigners were sent to the Labour Party.
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