Barbara Maureen Roche (née Margolis; born 13 April 1954)^[1] is aBritishLabour politician, who was theMember of Parliament (MP) forHornsey and Wood Green from1992 until2005, when she lost her seat to theLiberal Democrats, despite having enjoyed a majority of over 10,000 in the 2001 general election.^[2][3]

Born toPolish-Ashkenazi father and aSephardi Jewish mother,^[4] the daughter of Barnet and Hanna Margolis,^[5] Roche was educated at theJews Free School,Camden Town andLady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she readPhilosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).^[6] She trained to be a barrister and wascalled to the bar at theMiddle Temple in 1977.^[1]

She first stood for Parliament in the1984 Surrey South-West by-election, aConservative-held seat, in which Roche came a distant third as theLabour candidate.^[7] This was followed by an unsuccessful candidacy for themarginal seat ofHornsey and Wood Green at the1987 general election, when she failed to unset the incumbent MPHugh Rossi.^[8][9][10]

Roche ran again in Hornsey and Wood Green at the1992 general election. Rossi was not standing for Parliament, and had been replaced byAndrew Boff as the Conservative candidate. This time, Roche gained the seat for Labour, despite her party losing nationally.^[11] She saw her majority soar to 20,500 in1997, when she polled 25,000 votes more than theLiberal Democrats' candidate,Lynne Featherstone.^[12]

However, by2001, Roche's majority had almost halved to 10,500, with a substantial swing to the Liberal Democrats, who had again selected Featherstone as their candidate.^[3] Alocal newspaper described Roche in January 2005 as "a fiercely loyal Labour MP, who has only rebelled against the Government in four out of 1,570 votes."^[13]

During her time inGovernment, she held several ministerial offices;Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,Department of Trade and Industry, 1997–1998;Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1999;Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration,Home Office, 1999–2001;Cabinet Office, 2001–2002;Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2002–2003.^[1]

At the2005 general election, Roche unexpectedly lost her seat on another large 14.6% swing (14.6%) to the Liberal Democrats, with Featherstone succeeding her as the constituency's MP.^[3][14]

Roche was a strong supporter of a liberal immigration policy to the United Kingdom,^[16] and advocated for increased immigration during her time asMinister of State for Asylum and Immigration. Among her reasons for this, she included using migration to free up skills shortages, respond to the country's ageing demography and for economic growth.^[17]

In September 2000, she gave a speech outlining her desires to liberalize the United Kingdom's immigration policy, calling for what the government termed as 'managed migration'.^[18][17][19] She believed that the benefits of migration should be shown by emphasizing the ethnic diversity of the United Kingdom and migrants' contribution to the country, in similar ways to countries like theUnited States,Australia andCanada, for example.^[20][21] She also advocated for a "US style citizenship ceremony to ensure immigrants attached symbolic importance to their acceptance into British society."^[4]

Similarly, Roche was also a supporter ofmulticulturalism,^[15] and attached this to her Jewishness and immigrant parents,^{[22][20][4][15]} stating; "My being Jewish informs me totally, informs my politics. I understand the otherness of ethnic groups. The Americans are ahead of us on things like multiple identity. I'm Jewish but I'm also a Londoner; I'm English but also British."^[4]

After she quit parliamentary politics, she became chair of theMigration Museum Project,^[22] co-founded theMigration Matters Trust and several other organizations in the migration field.

After her defeat in 2005, and prior to the 2010 general election, Roche attempted to re-enter the Commons, seeking the Labour Party nomination (and being shortlisted) in the 'safe' Labour seats ofStockton North,^[23]Houghton & Sunderland South,^[24]Wigan,^[25] andStalybridge & Hyde,^[26] but was not selected for any of them, despite the support of the Labour-affiliatedUnite union.^[26]

Margolis married Patrick Roche in 1977, and the couple have a daughter. Outside politics, she lists her recreations as theatre and detective fiction.^[1]

• They Work For You - Barbara Roche
• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Barbara Roche

• 1954 births
• Living people
• People educated at JFS (school)
• Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
• Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
• Jewish English politicians
• English barristers
• Members of the Middle Temple
• UK MPs 1992–1997
• UK MPs 1997–2001
• UK MPs 2001–2005
• Jewish women politicians
• 20th-century British women politicians
• 21st-century British women politicians
• 20th-century English women
• 20th-century English people
• 21st-century English women
• 21st-century English politicians

• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2023
• Use British English from November 2014
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English