Member of Parliament
What was the position of Steve Rotheram from May 2015 to May 2017?
Steve Rotheram Steven Philip Rotheram ( born 4 November 1961 ) is a British Labour Party politician who is the Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region . He previously served as the MP for Liverpool Walton from 2010 to 2017 . Rotheram was born in Liverpool and left school to become a bricklayer , setting up his own company at the age of 22 . He started a Masters in Contemporary Urban Renaissance at Liverpool Hope University . He worked as a Business Manager for the Learning and Skills Council and represented Fazakerley as a councillor on Liverpool City Council . Rotheram was the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 2010 to 2017 . As an MP , he campaigned for the release of all government papers relating to the Hillsborough disaster . He also served as the Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 2008 to 2009 and a Councillor for Fazakerley from 2002 to 2011 . Rotheram was the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns Parliamentary Private Secretary . Rotheram won a majority vote in the Liverpool City Region mayoral election 2017 . Early life . Rotheram was born in Liverpool in 1961 , the son of Harry Rotheram , a Kirkby factory forklift driver and Labour councillor , and Dorothy , née Phillips . He was one of eight children . His parents’ marriage broke up when Rotheram was in his teens , with Rotheram citing his fathers absences due to politics as part of the cause . His secondary education was at Ruffwood School in Kirkby . Career . Rotheram left school at 16 to become a bricklayer , setting up his own company at the age of 22 . He spent eight months rebuilding war-torn infrastructure in the Falkland Islands in 1983 , an experience that Rotheram did not enjoy . On his return , disillusioned by what he saw as exploitation of employees on UK building sites , he was determined not to work for anyone else again , and set up his own company Rotheram Builders . Alongside his work in the construction industry , he studied part-time in order to gain admittance to Liverpool John Moores University where he studied full-time before starting a Masters in Contemporary Urban Renaissance at Liverpool Hope University . He worked as a Business Manager for the Learning and Skills Council for many years after graduating , and was elected to represent Fazakerley as a Labour Councillor on Liverpool City Council in the 2002 election . He later served as Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 2008 to 2009 , which coincided with Liverpools period as European Capital of Culture . Member of Parliament . After incumbent Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle announced that he would be standing down as MP for Liverpool Walton in 2010 , Rotheram was overwhelmingly selected to be the Labour candidate securing 101 out of 113 votes cast . At the 2010 general election , Rotheram retained the seat with a comfortable majority of 19,818 . Shortly after becoming an MP , he was elected to serve on the Communities and Local Government Committee where he was influential in challenging Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps on a number of key cuts that they were making . In October 2011 , Rotheram joined the Culture , Media and Sport Committee where he asked James Murdoch if he would close The Sun newspaper following the News International phone hacking scandal in 2011 . He was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity , take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements . Rotheram was the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns Parliamentary Private Secretary . Mayor . In 2016 , Rotheram said he intended to stand for the Labour nomination to become Liverpool region metro mayor in the 2017 mayoral election , and was selected as the Labour candidate in August 2016 . He announced that he would not seek re-election as a Member of Parliament if successful in the Mayoral Election . Rotheram was subsequently elected mayor in 2017 . In September of the same year , he was named at Number 73 in The 100 Most Influential People on the Left by LBC . Hillsborough disaster . In a speech whilst Lord Mayor of Liverpool on the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster , he said , Im one of the fortunate ones , as I swapped my Leppings Lane ticket for a stand seat 15 minutes before kick-off...if I can go from being a brickie in Kirkby to the Lord Mayor , who knows what these ninety-six people may have achieved in their lives . In October 2011 , he gave an emotional speech to the House of Commons where he read out the names of all ninety-six victims in the Hillsborough disaster so they would be recorded in Hansard , and called for the release of all government papers relating to the disaster . The speech later won an award as the Parliamentary Speech of the Year . After the papers were released in September 2012 , it became known they showed widespread corruption from South Yorkshire Police , Rotheram called upon Prime Minister David Cameron to issue an apology on behalf of the government , which he later did . Rotheram was the chief organiser of a charity single designed to raise funds to cover the legal costs of the Hillsborough families which attracted the attention of the award-winning music producer Guy Chambers . In September 2012 , along with members of The Farm , Mick Jones , and former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish , Rotheram arranged for a number of artists to record a cover of He Aint Heavy , Hes My Brother as The Justice Collective , in an attempt to reach the coveted Christmas number one . The cover included contributions from artists such as Paul McCartney , Robbie Williams , Holly Johnson and Melanie C , as well as featuring Rotheram himself . On 23 December 2012 , it was confirmed that the cover had become Christmas number one , which Rotheram called an honour . Manchester Arena bombing . Rotherams two daughters were present at the bombing in an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017 , where a number of people were killed and injured . Personal life . Rotheram is married to Sandra , a community psychiatric nurse ; the couple have three children . External links . - Official MP website - Metro Mayor website - The full transcript of Rotherams Hillsborough debate speech , delivered in the House of Commons on 17 October 2011