Bob Wareing - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

Wareing was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1983 general election, having previously stood (unsuccessfully) in Liverpool Edge Hill at the by-election in March 1979 and at the 1979 general election. He also contested Berwick upon Tweed in 1970.

In 1995, Wareing, who was Chairman of the All-Party British-Yugoslav Parliamentary Group, was criticised by his party for holding talks with the Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladić. In July 1997, the House of Commons Select Committee on Standards and Privileges reprimanded and suspended Wareing from the Commons for a week over the non-declaration of the interests of his consultancy firm. Known in some quarters as "Serbian Bob" or the "member for Belgrade" as a result of his pro-Serb views, he was one of the few Labour MPs to vote against the NATO intervention over Kosovo in 1999.

Wareing was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, and an affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee, frequently rebelling against the government. On 31 October 2006, Wareing was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War. In August 2007 Wareing failed to gain sufficient support from grassroots Labour Party and trade union members to avoid facing a challenge in his reselection as the Labour candidate for the next general election. On 16 September 2007, Wareing was defeated in a selection contest by Stephen Twigg, a former MP. He denounced his deselection as the work of a "New Labour Mafia", announcing his intention to seek re-election as an independent, and resigned the Labour whip. However, on 4 March 2010, Wareing announced he would not be standing at the general election.