Roger Godsiff

Roger Godsiff has been the Labour MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath since 1997. He contested Birmingham Yardley in 1983 and from 1992 to 1997 represented Birmingham Small Heath. Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament he served as a member of Lewisham Council from 1971 to 1990 and was Mayor in 1977.

He worked in banking for five years before spending 20 years working for APEX (which later became part of the GMB) as the union's Political Officer.

He is a member of the Parliamentary Labour Party backbench committees on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Treasury. He was a Chairperson of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir from 1992 to 2001 and is currently the Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Japan, a position which he has held for many years. He is also currently Secretary of the All Party South Africa and Botswana Groups and Joint Secretary of the Vietnam Group.

He has strong interest in the whole field of foreign affairs and the European Union and he is a member of the Council for a Social Europe.

Roger Godsiff has a long and abiding interest in sport and apart from being a lifelong supporter of Charlton Athletic Football Club he chairs the Charlton Athletic Charitable Trust which runs multi-million projects amongst disadvantaged and disengaged groups in the South of England.

Roger Godsiff is married with one son and one daughter.