Allan Rogers, the previous Labour MP for Rhondda who has died aged 91, had, by means of the circumstances of his childhood, a passionate understanding of the tough lives of lots of his constituents within the valleys of south Wales.
The youngest of 12 youngsters of a disabled former miner who was unable to search out work for over a decade after he was injured in a colliery accident, Rogers sought methods to enhance the prospects for these he represented all through his life – first as a councillor in native authorities, then as a member of the European parliament for 5 years and subsequently, from 1983 till 2001, within the Home of Commons.
There, Rogers made an influence as a energetic, enterprising and assertive MP. He was genial and fashionable on the Labour benches, however he was an excessive amount of of a straight-talking class warrior for a lot of in different events. He pursued these accountable for monetary mismanagement and fraud, and as soon as complained bitterly to the general public accounts committee (PAC): “Steal £20 from the DHSS and also you wind up in jail; steal £20m within the Metropolis and also you wind up within the Cayman Islands.”
He was a doughty fighter for his constituency however was against devolution to Wales, arguing as an alternative for extra direct authorities funding – significantly within the valleys because the coal business was closed. He condemned the Conservative authorities’s “Valleys Initiative” for regeneration in 1989 as amounting to little greater than “a number of brass lamps exterior Rhondda’s pubs”.
In addition to the PAC (1986-88), Rogers was a member of the European scrutiny committee (2000) and the Welsh affairs committee (1986-87). Neil Kinnock, as Labour chief, appointed him a junior defence spokesman in 1987 and in 1992, underneath the management of John Smith, he joined the international affairs workforce. That 12 months, he stood unsuccessfully in opposition to Doug Hoyle for the chairmanship of the parliamentary Labour celebration. In 1994 Tony Blair dropped him from the frontbench and he was made a member of the influential intelligence and safety committee. Three years prior, Rogers had notably blown the whistle on British corporations exporting arms to Iraq, when he referred to as for an inquiry into the difficulty claiming it contravened the UN decision on the topic. This could result in the damning Scott report.
He was by no means in sympathy with Blair’s New Labour mission, though he voted for Blair and John Prescott as chief and deputy. He introduced in 1998, a 12 months after Labour’s triumphant election win, that he would retire on the subsequent normal election, citing his disenchantment with authorities coverage on training, well being and welfare reform. “Working-class individuals really feel that the federal government has forgotten them in its need to change into the pal of massive enterprise, the Metropolis and media moguls,” he instructed the Day by day Mirror.
Born in Gelligaer within the Rhymney Valley, the son of Madeleine (nee Smith) and John Rogers – who had been injured in 1926 and didn’t work once more till the second world battle introduced different employment to south Wales – Allan had change into a member of the Labour celebration at 16.
He was a intelligent boy and gained a scholarship from his secondary college in Bargoed to Selwyn Faculty, Cambridge, however was unable to take it up as a result of administrative errors had led to the lack of his software to defer his nationwide service. As an alternative he spent two years with the Royal Welch Fusiliers and in 1953 studied for a level in geology at College Faculty, Swansea. He labored as a geologist within the UK, Canada, the US and Australia from 1956 till 1963, when he took up educating.
He recognised the essential significance of training as a path to self-improvement and spent the subsequent 15 years working as a schoolteacher and in grownup training.
As a tutor with the Employees’ Instructional Affiliation, for 5 years, he was a colleague of Kinnock, then in 1970 he turned the WEA district secretary for mid and south Wales. He was elected to Gelligaer district council, the place he served between 1965 and 1971, and in 1970 to Glamorgan (later Mid Glamorgan) county council.
Though an anti-marketeer – in frequent with many on the Labour left on the time – Rogers stood within the first spherical of direct elections to the European parliament in 1979 and have become the MEP for South East Wales. He gained a repute as an efficient member, securing substantial European funding for his constituency however sought unsuccessfully to determine a register of MEPs’ monetary pursuits. He was a vice-president of the parliament, from 1979 till 1982, however membership didn’t change his views on European politics and he continued to advocate British withdrawal.
He was already seeking to additional his profession at Westminster. He didn’t safe choice because the Labour candidate for Caerphilly in 1982, however the next 12 months was chosen for Rhondda to succeed the shadow Welsh secretary, Alec Jones, whose loss of life that March would have precipitated a byelection had the overall election not been referred to as for early June.
A visiting professor on the College of South Wales from 1997, Rogers continued to work in training after leaving politics as chair of the Earth Science Training Discussion board from 2002 to 2010. He was a board member of the British Geological Survey from 2001 to 2005 and a fellow of the Geological Society, in addition to a member of the Treorchy Workingmen’s Membership and president of Penallta rugby soccer membership. He cherished all sport and had been a boxer in his youth. A jazz fanatic and a eager gardener, he was at completely different occasions a canine breeder and owned a chip store, managed by a member of the family.
In 1955, he married his sweetheart from schooldays, Ceridwen James. She died in 2022. He’s survived by their youngsters, Cerilan, Richard, Alison and Catherine.
