Prior to his election to Parliament, he worked for Accenture and Rothschild & Co, before co-founding a venture-backed technology company, e-Government Solutions Group, in 2000. In 1996/97, he advised the Labour Party on the re-organisation of its Millbankheadquarters, and helped lead Labour's business campaign.
Parliamentary career
1st term (2004–2005)
Byrne was selected to contest the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election following the resignation of the veteran Labour MP Terry Davis to become the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. At the by-election, Byrne was elected to Parliament as MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill with 36.5% of the vote and a majority of 460.[6] The campaign, led by MP Tom Watson, drew criticism from antiracists for its tactics, particularly a Labour leaflet proclaiming "Labour is on your side – the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers".[7] Byrne himself said, "I know that people here are worried about fraudulent asylum claims and illegal immigration. Yet the Lib Dems ignore what people say. They ignore what local people really want. The Lib Dems want to keep giving welfare benefits to failed asylum seekers. They voted for this in Parliament on 1 March 2004. They want your money – and mine – to go to failed asylum seekers".[8]
Upon election, Byrne made his maiden speech on 22 July 2004 in which he condemned racial hatred.[9]
A vocal campaigner for Road Safety, Byrne handed a petition in to Parliament in 2005 demanding tougher punishments for dangerous drivers. He sat on the parliamentary committee that shaped the Road Safety Act 2006, which increased fixed penalty fines for driving while using a mobile. In November 2007, he was fined £100 and received three points on his driving licence for using his mobile phone while driving.[13]
Following the 2006 local elections, he was promoted in place of Hazel Blears as Minister of State for Policing and Counter-terrorism at the Home Office.[14][12] However, just a fortnight later Home SecretaryJohn Reid transferred him to the Immigration role, switching portfolios with Tony McNulty. Byrne's move was seen as an attempt by Reid to reorganise a dysfunctional immigrations system[15] which Byrne completed, as well as establishing UK Border Agency,[16] introduced a points system and developed the idea of earned citizenship. During this period he was also Minister for the West Midlands.
In November 2006, Byrne was responsible for a change to Immigration Rules preventing migrants who had entered under Britain's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) having permission to remain in Britain extended, unless they could show both that they had been earning at least £32,000 pa while in Britain and also that they had a good knowledge of English. This change was controversial because it applied retrospectively to immigrants who had entered Britain under the old rules, meaning the British Government had "moved the goalposts"–a degree became effectively an essential requirement, regardless of the skills or economic contribution that an individual could demonstrate.[17][18]
In its report into the changes, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights said that "The changes to the Rules are so clearly incompatible with Article 8, and so contrary to basic notions of fairness, that the case for immediately revisiting the changes to the Rules in Parliament is in our view overwhelming".[19] Appeal cases have been won on appeal on the grounds that applicants had a legitimate expectation that the rules would not change to their detriment.[20] A judicial review was successfully brought against the Government, with their actions when applying the new HSMP rules to those HSMP holders already in Britain as at 7 November 2006 being ruled as unlawful.[21]
In June 2008, Byrne suggested the "August bank holiday" be made a weekend of national celebration in a speech to a New Labourthink tank. Scotland's August bank holiday being held on a different date from that in Wales and England, he later retracted his suggestion – after pressure from the Scottish National Party – saying he was merely trying to "get the debate started".[24]
In November 2008, an 11-page memo written by Byrne entitled "Working With Liam Byrne" was leaked to the press. In the memo, Byrne listed his demands from his staff, memorably including his requirement for a cappuccino on his arrival in the office, soup between 12:30 pm and 1 pm and an espresso at 3 pm. Byrne also instructed officials to tell him "not what you think I should know, but you expect I will get asked". He warns staff that they should "Never put anything to me unless you understand it and can explain it to me in 60 seconds... If I see things that are not of acceptable quality, I will blame you".[25]The Guardian described Byrne as an "eager diva".[25]
At the 2010 general election, Byrne was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 52% and an increased majority of 10,302.[33][34] Following the election, Byrne was appointed by Ed Miliband to lead Labour's policy review for two years.[35][36]
He was Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from January 2011 to October 2013. Byrne was sacked after increasing criticism from Labour members and having "badly lost the confidence of the PLP", particularly after allegedly describing the Conservative-led coalition's benefits cap as "too soft",[37] saying that "Ministers have bodged the rules so the cap won't affect Britain's 4,000 largest families and it does nothing to stop people living a life on welfare".[38]
He is the Chairman of the APPG on Inclusive Growth, formed in July 2014 upon the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury,[39] with the aim of finding a new consensus on inclusive growth to ensure the benefits of growth are enjoyed by all sectors of society.[40]
4th term (2015–2017)
Byrne was again re-elected at the 2015 general election with an increased vote share of 68.4% and an increased majority of 23,362.[41][42]
He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 78.7% and a decreased majority of 28,655.[48]
In April 2022, Byrne was found to have bullied a staff member; he was suspended from the House of Commons for two days after a 22-month investigation. The investigation began when a complaint was lodged with the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS); the Independent Expert Panel found that Byrne ostracised a former assistant, David Barker, after a minor office dispute, specifically ignoring Barker for three months, including when Barker alerted Byrne as having COVID-19. Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, decreed Byrne's behaviour as being a "significant misuse of power"; and also found Byrne's decision to disable Barker's access to his parliamentary IT account as having a "punitive" effect, stating that this was "disproportionate and amounted to malicious behaviour".[49][50] Following the publication of the ICGS report, Byrne apologised stating that he was "profoundly sorry".[49]
In May 2023, Byrne was found to have misused public expenses. Byrne denied wrongdoing, but the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) found there was "overwhelming evidence" that a member of Byrne's staff had worked on his failed mayoral election campaign during office hours, conservatively estimating that at least around 1,000 hours of public-funded time had been spent on the campaign.[51] MPs may not use taxpayer-funded allowances for political campaigns; Byrne was not asked to repay the funds because the total hours worked by the staff member could not be established with some evidence in the report suggesting the hours could be in the thousands.[52] Byrne stated subsequently he accepted the findings but refused to apologise.[53]
7th term (2024–)
Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Byrne's constituency of Birmingham Hodge Hill was abolished, and replaced with Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North. Byrne was elected to Parliament as MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North at the 2024 general election with 31.2% of the vote and a majority of 1,566.[54] On the Chancellor Address to the Kings Speech Byrne called on the Reeves to encourage further measures including promotion of business the help civic society, review of all investments and shares held by the government[55]
In his campaign he called for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to be the "greenest games ever",[58] and pledged to be the first West Midlands Mayor to fill the role of Deputy Mayor with a woman[59] and to revitalise the West Midlands' ailing car industry by positioning it at the heart of British electric vehicle manufacturing.[60] His official campaign slogan was 'A new future for the heart of Britain',[61] although he said that his unofficial slogan was 'let's just get shit done'.[62]
Personal life
Byrne married Sarah Harnett in 1998; the couple have three children.[63]
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