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Eric Varley

The Right Honourable
The Lord Varley
PC
Shadow Secretary of State for Employment
In office
14 July 1979 – 31 October 1983
Leader James Callaghan
Michael Foot
Preceded by James Prior
Succeeded by John Smith
Shadow Secretary of State for Industry
In office
4 May 1979 – 14 July 1979
Leader James Callaghan
Preceded by John Biffen
Succeeded by John Silkin
Secretary of State for Industry
In office
10 June 1975 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Preceded by Tony Benn
Succeeded by Sir Keith Joseph, Bt
Secretary of State for Energy
In office
5 March 1974 – 10 June 1975
Prime Minister Harold Wilson
Preceded by The Lord Carrington
Succeeded by Tony Benn
Member of Parliament
for Chesterfield
In office
15 October 1964 – 19 January 1984
Preceded by George Benson
Succeeded by Tony Benn
Personal details
Born Eric Graham Varley
(1932-08-11)11 August 1932
Poolsbrook, England
Died 29 July 2008(2008-07-29) (aged 75)
Political party Labour
Alma mater Ruskin College

Eric Graham Varley, Baron Varley, PC (11 August 1932 – 29 July 2008) was an English politician and former Cabinet Minister on the right wing of the Labour Party.

Varley was born in Poolsbrook near Staveley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire and left school at 15 to become a craftsman, first in the local iron works and then for the local mining industry. 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 government's 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 Party's period of opposition in the early 1970s Varley was Chairman of the Trade Union Group of MPs, and became spokesman on fuel and power.


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