Stephen Byers - Early Career

Early Career

Stephen Byers was born in Wolverhampton. He was educated at Wymondham College, a state-run day and boarding school; the City of Chester Grammar School; and the Chester College of Further Education. He then gained a law degree at Liverpool John Moores University and became a law teacher at Northumbria University from 1977 until his election to Parliament in 1992.

Byers was elected as a councillor to the North Tyneside District Council in 1980 and was its deputy leader from 1985 until he became an Member of Parliament in 1992. Said to be a one-time supporter of the Entrist and Trotskyist group "Militant" within the Labour Party – which he denies – Byers publicly rejected the group's approach by 1986. In the 1983 general election, he contested the Conservative stronghold seat of Hexham, finishing in third place and some 14,000 votes behind the former Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon. He was first elected to Parliament in the 1992 general election in Wallsend, a Labour stronghold, following the retirement of Ted Garrett, and secured a majority of 19,470.

In 1993, Byers joined the influential Home Affairs Select Committee. He became an ally of Tony Blair, a fellow northeastern Labour MP, who was also in favour of 'modernising' the Labour Party. Blair gave him a job as soon as he became the Leader of the Opposition, placing Byers in the Whips Office. He became a spokesman for the Department for Education and Employment in 1995, and he identified himself as an "outrider" for the New Labour project, regularly floating radical ideas on Blair's behalf to test reaction. An instance of this is when Byers briefed journalists in 1996 saying that the party might sever its links with the trade unions. Byers was swiftly appointed to Shadow ministerial posts and became the Minister for School Standards with the title of Minister of State at the Department of Education and Employment following the victorious 1997 general election. While at this post, Byers drew attention to himself when he said 8 times 7 was 54 in a BBC interview promoting a Government numeracy drive.

His Wallsend constituency was abolished in 1997 and he was elected for the equally safe North Tyneside constituency with a 26,643 vote majority.