Labour Member of Parliament
Eric Varley took which position from Jun 1983 to 1984?
Eric Varley Eric Graham Varley , Baron Varley , ( 11 August 1932 – 29 July 2008 ) was a British Labour politician and cabinet minister on the right-wing of the party . Early life . Varley was born at 15 Poolsbrook Square , Poolsbrook , Staveley , near Chesterfield , Derbyshire , the son of Frank Varley , coalminer , and his wife Eva , née Goring . He attended the local secondary modern school after failing his eleven-plus but left at the age of fourteen in 1946 . His mother was determined that he should not go down the pit , and he began his working life as an apprentice turner at Staveley iron works , before qualifying as an engineers turner in 1952 . If it had not been for his political predilections his career could have gone in an entirely different direction , since in his youth he was regarded as a first-rate soccer player , became a semi-professional , and was believed by experts to have the makings of a leading professional footballer . Political career . He was active in the National Union of Mineworkers , and became a branch secretary of the union in 1955 , joining the Labour Party the same year . After a period at Ruskin College , Varley won the NUM nomination to be the Labour candidate for his home town , where the sitting Labour Member of Parliament ( MP ) George Benson was retiring from Parliament . He was narrowly selected in June 1963 and duly held the Chesterfield seat in the 1964 election . Despite rebelling against the governments application to join the Common Market in 1967 , Varley became an Assistant Whip later that year , and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Harold Wilson in November 1968 . He served briefly as a junior minister under Tony Benn at the Ministry of Technology from 1969 . During the Labour Partys period of opposition in the early 1970s Varley was Chairman of the Trade Union Group of MPs , and became spokesman on fuel and power . Varley was appointed Secretary of State for Energy in March 1974 when Labour returned to power . The appointment of an NUM-sponsored MP helped the government end the NUM strike which had led the previous government to ration electricity to three days a week . Varley subsidised the National Coal Board and chose a British design for new nuclear power stations over an American rival . He also began the procedure to nationalise North Sea oil . During the Common Market referendum he advocated a No vote but was not prominent in the campaign . Immediately afterwards Wilson swapped Varleys and Benns posts , so that Varley was effectively promoted to Secretary of State for Industry . In November 1976 Varley suffered an embarrassing public defeat when he determined to shut down the loss-making Chrysler car factory : the Cabinet forced him to increase its subsidy to keep it open . He continued the governments slow nationalisation programme by appointing Michael Edwardes to take over at British Leyland . When Labour went into opposition in 1979 Varley was elected to the Shadow Cabinet in fifth place . He led Denis Healeys campaign for the party leadership in 1980 and defeated the left-winger Norman Atkinson for the post of party Treasurer ( an office he had coveted for some years ) in 1981 . He served as opposition spokesman on employment , and resisted an attempt by Michael Foot to replace him with Neil Kinnock ( whom he disliked ) in 1982 . After Kinnocks election as party leader in 1983 , Varley announced that he would retire from Parliament at the next general election . However , he was appointed as Chairman of Coalite plc , a private company manufacturing coal-based products including a coke-like smokeless fuel of the same name , and resigned his seat in January 1984 . Ironically , this opened the way for Tony Benn to return to the House of Commons as Varleys successor in the seat . Varley served five years at Coalite , and later held other directorships , including a regional director for Lloyds Bank from 1987 to 1991 . Ashgate Hospice Ltd , 1987–96 ; Cathelco Ltd , 1989–99 when he retired ; Laxgate Ltd , 1991–92 . Following a Labour Party nomination , he was created a life peer on 30 May 1990 taking the title Baron Varley , of Chesterfield in the County of Derbyshire . Personal life . An observant Methodist all his life , on 11 June 1955 he married Marjorie Turner , a 21-year-old shop assistant , at Middle Duckmanton Methodist Church . She was the daughter of Alfred Turner , a coal miner . They had one son , Roger . Death . Eric Varley died on 29 July 2008 of cancer at his home .