Roger Godsiff

Early life

Roger Godsiff was born in London and educated at the Catford Comprehensive School. He was a bank clerk for five years from 1965, joining the Labour Party in 1966. He was a political officer from 1970 with the trade union Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) and then from 1990 with its successor the GMB Union until his election to Parliament in 1992. During his time as a trade union official he was a member of the St Ermins group, a secret caucus of moderate trade unionists who moved the Labour Party back towards the political centre by organising slates for elections to the party's National Executive Committee.

Political career

Elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Lewisham in 1971, he became the Mayor of Lewisham in 1977, before quitting the council at the 1990 London Borough elections. He unsuccessfully contested Birmingham Yardley at the 1983 general election where he finished in second place behind the sitting Conservative MP David Gilroy Bevan. He was elected to the House of Commons for Birmingham Small Heath at the 1992 general election following the retirement of Denis Howell. Godsiff held Small Heath with a majority of 13,989 votes and has remained an MP since. His constituency was abolished in 1997 and aided by the retirement of Birmingham Sparkbrook MP Roy Hattersley, Godsiff was elected for the newly combined constituency of Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath at the 1997 general election. At the 2001 general election, six of his seven opponents were Asian Muslims.

The Sparkbrook and Small Heath seat was abolished at the 2010 election, with its constituent parts moving into neighbouring seats. Godsiff was selected for the redrawn Birmingham Hall Green seat in 2008, which includes some of his existing constituency and wards which were formerly in the two Birmingham constituencies of Hall Green and Selly Oak. He was re-elected at the May 2010 general election with a majority of 3,799.

In Parliament he was a special adviser to the former Minister of Sport Richard Caborn on cricket and is the chairman of the All Party Japan Group. In October 2006, Godsiff was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War. He also rebelled against the government in November 2005 on legislation permitting the detention of terrorist suspects for 90 days without trial.

Godsiff called for economic migration to the UK to be "stopped" in 2005. He was one of seven signatories in 2014 of an open letter to Ed Miliband calling upon him to commit to restricting the ability of workers from low income EU countries to move to the UK.

In the 2016 EU referendum Godsiff supported the Leave campaign, despite his constituency voting 66.4% to remain in the European Union.

During the 2017 election campaign his local campaign leaflet went viral in the UK due to its slogan 'unwanted, unnecessary, opportunistic' which was supposed to be about the snap election called by Theresa May, but appeared to be referring to Godsiff himself.

In the 2017 election he gained 42,143 votes (77.6%), giving him a majority of 33,944 (62.5%), which is the 12th Largest majority of any UK MP by percentage of constituency vote.

Controversy

Andy McSmith's book Faces of Labour (1996), contends that Godsiff obtained selection for his seat in 1992 by dubious means, which although accepted by the Labour Party, were too late to act upon. In 2005, Tribune made similar allegations about his successful bid to stave off deselection, which was only thwarted by the local votes of his former employer, the GMB Union. Godsiff had angered many in his local party by his calls for curbs on immigration.

Godsiff also attracted attention in the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, where he was reported as using office expenses for extensive roofing work, rewiring, replacement guttering and even clock repair at a property he owns. He incurred the second highest expenses of all 647 MPs' for 2008/2009 with claims for £189,338.

Further controversy followed when he used images of convicted child sex offender and nursery worker Vanessa George in campaign material for the 2010 election, claiming the Liberal Democrats were seeking for "convicted murderers, rapists and paedophiles to be given the vote", which the Lib Dems denied was their policy. The local campaign was later scrapped. He refuses to take any part in hustings meetings and has attended less than 50% of parliamentary debates during his time in office.

In 2011, The Guardian newspaper declared that based on his participation in votes, he was "Britain's laziest MP", being absent from 88% of votes at the start of that year. He responded to the Birmingham Mail about his participation, saying "when you are in opposition and the government has a substantial majority, you know perfectly well that you aren't going to be able to have an effect on every vote".

Personal life

Godsiff has been married to Julia Brenda Morris since 1977 and they have a son and a daughter.

He is a lifelong supporter of Charlton Athletic F.C. and is chairman of the Charlton Athletic Community Trust which oversees the club's community work.