Barbara Roche

Barbara Maureen Roche (née Margolis; born 13 April 1954) is a British Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornsey and Wood Green from 1992 until 2005, when she lost the seat, despite having previously enjoyed a majority of over 20,000.[1]

The Right Honourable
Barbara Roche
Minister for Social Exclusion
In office
29 May 2002 – 13 June 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byOffice Created
Succeeded byPhil Woolas
Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration
In office
29 July 1999 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byOffice Created
Succeeded byThe Lord Rooker
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office
4 January 1999 – 29 July 1999
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byDawn Primarolo
Succeeded byStephen Timms
Member of Parliament
for Hornsey and Wood Green
In office
9 April 1992 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byHugh Rossi
Succeeded byLynne Featherstone
Personal details
Born
Barbara Maureen Margolis

(1954-04-13) 13 April 1954
Bethnal Green, London, England
Political partyLabour
Spouse(s)
Patrick Roche
​
(m. 1977)​
Alma materLady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Family and education

Born to Polish-Ashkenazi father and a Sephardi Jewish mother,[2] the daughter of Barnet and Hanna Margolis,[3] Roche was educated at the Jews Free School, Camden Town and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).[4] She trained to be a barrister and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1977. She married Patrick Roche in the same year.[5]

Political career

She first stood for Parliament in the 1984 Surrey South-West by-election, before standing in Hornsey and Wood Green in 1987.

First elected to Parliament in 1992, she saw her majority soar to 20,500 in 1997 (including polling 26,000 votes more than the Liberal Democrats' candidate, Lynne Featherstone, who eventually unseated her). However, by 2001 her majority had almost halved to 10,500, and in 2005 she unexpectedly lost her seat on a large 14.6% swing.

Her association with the crucial 26 March 2003 vote on the war on Iraq was cited as a factor in her defeat.[6]

Roche has subsequently been linked to the Blair government's 'mass immigration' policy.[7][8] A local newspaper described her in 2005 as "a fiercely loyal Labour MP, who has only rebelled against the Government in four out of 1,570 votes."[9]

During her time in Government, she held several ministerial offices; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry, 1997–1998; Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1999; Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration, Home Office, 1999–2001; Cabinet Office, 2001–2002; Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2002–2003.

Views and influence on the expansion of the United Kingdom's immigration policy

"I wanted to be the first immigration minister to say immigration is a good thing (...) We have a multiracial, multicultural society; we are a stronger country for it."

Barbara Roche - The New Statesman Interview - Barbara Roche 2000

Roche is a strong supporter of mass migration and of a liberal open borders immigration policy to the United Kingdom[10][2][11] and advocated for increased immigration during her time as Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration. Amongst reasons as to why include a desire to use migration to free up skills shortages, help suppress the so called 'demographic time bomb', for supposed economic growth and a social agenda of multiculturalism.[12] In September 2000, she gave a speech to the British Bankers Association, the Institute for Public Policy and Research and Kingsley Napley outlining her desires to liberalize the United Kingdom's immigration policy calling for what the government termed as 'managed migration'.[13][12][14][15]

In relation to immigration, Roche is also a supporter of multiculturalism[16][2][17] and attached this to her Jewishness and immigrant parents[18][19][20][17] stating; "My being Jewish informs me totally, informs my politics. I understand the otherness of ethnic groups. The Americans are ahead of us on things like multiple identity. I'm Jewish but I'm also a Londoner; I'm English but also British."[20] She believes that the benefits of migration should be shown by emphasizing the ethnic diversity of the United Kingdom and migrants contribution to the country in similar ways to countries like the United States, Australia and Canada for example.[19][21] She has also advocated for 'US style citizenship ceremony to ensure immigrants attached symbolic importance to their acceptance into British society.'[2]

Having been Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration, she has subsequently been linked to the Blair government's 'mass immigration' policy due to her support for mass immigration and promotion of increasing net-migration to the United Kingdom.[7][8][22]

After she quit parliamentary politics, she became chair of the Migration Museum Project,[18] co-founded the Migration Matters Trust and several other organizations in the migration field.

After Parliament

After her defeat in 2005, and prior to the 2010 general election, she attempted to re-enter the Commons, seeking the Labour Party nomination (and being shortlisted) in the 'safe' Labour seats of Stockton North,[23] Houghton & Sunderland South,[24] Wigan,[25] and Stalybridge & Hyde[26] but was not selected for any of them, despite the support of the Labour-affiliated Unite union.[26]

Personal life

Roche is an avid theatre-goer and reader of detective fiction.

References
  1. "What happens to ex-MPs? | Politics". The Guardian. 1 June 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  2. "Roche urges Labour to promote the benefits of legal migration". The Independent. 23 June 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  3. Dodd's Parliamentary Companion 2005, 173rd edition, London 2004, p.291.
  4. "LMH, Oxford - Prominent Alumni". Lmh.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  5. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  6. "Commons vote on war - 26 March". Igreens.org.uk. 26 September 2006. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  7. Green, Lord Andrew. "Was Mass Immigration a Conspiracy?". Migration Watch UK. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  8. Mendick, Robert (27 February 2016). "Tony Blair accused of conspiracy over mass immigration". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  9. Martyn Kent (19 January 2005). "Majority rules (From Times Series)". Times-series.co.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  10. Somerville, Will (26 September 2007). Immigration Under New Labour. Policy Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-86134-967-5. Barbara Roche (as Minister for Immigration) and Alan Johnson (as Minister for Competitiveness) stand out as strong supporters of the liberal immigration regime.
  11. "Why are the British so reluctant to recognise our migration history? | Barbara Roche". the Guardian. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  12. "BBC News | UK POLITICS | Call for immigration rethink". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  13. Somerville, Will (26 September 2007). Immigration Under New Labour. Policy Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-86134-967-5.
  14. Wright, Chris F. (1 July 2012). "Policy Legacies, Visa Reform and the Resilience of Immigration Politics". West European Politics. 35 (4): 726–755. doi:10.1080/01402382.2012.682343. ISSN 0140-2382. S2CID 155079396. In 2000, the Immigration Minister Barbara Roche foreshadowed a change in government strategy by calling for an ‘imaginative rethink’ on immigration policy, in which its various subcomponents (such as asylum and work visas) would be integrated, rather than treated as separate policies
  15. "Draft Speech by Barbara Roche MP, Immigration Minister: London, 11 September 2000". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  16. "Hideously Diverse Britain: The immigration 'conspiracy'". the Guardian. 2 March 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  17. "The New Statesman Interview - Barbara Roche". 13 May 2017. Archived from the original on 13 May 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  18. "Barbara Roche: Why I founded the Migration Museum". Migration Museum. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  19. TEDxEastEnd - Barbara Roche - the British story of migration, retrieved 6 January 2022
  20. "Roche urges Labour to promote the benefits of legal migration". The Independent. 23 June 2003. Archived from the original on 10 February 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2022. The child of a Polish-Russian Ashkenazi father and a Sephardic Spanish-Portuguese mother, Ms Roche has reason for her feelings on immigration. "My being Jewish informs me totally, informs my politics. I understand the otherness of ethnic groups. The Americans are ahead of us on things like multiple identity. I'm Jewish but I'm also a Londoner; I'm English but also British."
  21. "Barbara Roche: The vital history of immigration - and our failure to". The Independent. 19 November 2003. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022. Our history as a nation is fundamentally entwined with migration. Yet whereas the United States and Canada have grasped that reality and celebrate it as part of their history, there is no equivalent in Britain. We talk about dates and battles, kings and queens, but rarely does immigration through the ages merit a mention in our popular history.
  22. "Don't listen to the whingers - London needs immigrants". www.standard.co.uk. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  23. Passant, Andy (14 January 2008). "Veteran Stockton MP loses selection battle". Gazette Live. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  24. "Bridget Phillipson set to become one of Britain's youngest MPs - The Journal". Journallive.co.uk. 20 April 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  25. "Labour unveils its election candidate". Wigan Today. 4 February 2010. Archived from the original on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  26. "Powerbrokers fight for heart and soul of Labour Party as union row escalates". The Times. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
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