Ernie Roberts

For other people with similar names, see Ernest Roberts.

Ernest Alfred Cecil Roberts (20 April 1912 – 28 August 1994) was a British Labour Party politician.

Early life

Ernie Roberts left elementary school in Shrewsbury at the age of thirteen, having declined a scholarship to the Shrewsbury School of Art, to work in a coal mine to help support ultimately ten siblings. He was an engineering worker for many years, much blacklisted and dismissed for union activities, until he became Assistant General Secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers in 1957. He was very much on the left wing of the Labour Party.[1]

Political career

After unsuccessfully fighting Stockport South in United Kingdom general election, 1955, Roberts was elected Member of Parliament for the inner London constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington at age 67, according to his obituary writer Frank Allaun the oldest new entrant MP since the Second World War,[1] (although John McQuade who also took his only Westminster seat at the same election was eight months his senior). He served from 1979 general election until 1987 general election, when he was deselected in favour of Diane Abbott.[2]

Family

He married Joyce Longley in 1953, and had a son and two daughters.[3]

Books

References

  1. 1 2 Frank Allaun (31 August 1994). "Obituary: Ernest Roberts". The Independent. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "Ernie Roberts". Working Class Movement Library. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Who's Who 1987

External links

Trade union offices
Preceded by
Cecil Hallett		 Assistant General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union
1957 – 1977 		Succeeded by
Bob Wright
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
David Weitzman		 Hackney North and Stoke Newington
1979–1987 		Succeeded by
Diane Abbott


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.