Mike O'Brien (British politician)

Michael O'Brien KC (born 19 June 1954) is a British lawyer and former Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Warwickshire from 1992 to 2010, serving in a number of ministerial posts.

Mike O'Brien attended state schools, a Roman Catholic primary school, St George's and then later Blessed Edward Oldcorne School in Worcester.

He studied for a BA in History and Politics at North Staffordshire Polytechnic, then gained a PGCE.

From 1977 to 1980, he was a trainee solicitor, then trained as a teacher from 1980 to 1981.

He lectured on business law at Colchester College of Further and Higher Education from 1981 to 1987.

O'Brien contested Ruislip Northwood in 1983, and North Warwickshire in 1987.

From 1987 to 1992, he practised as a solicitor specialising in criminal law, including cases of murder and City fraud, and acted for a major defendant in the Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery.

This sought to amend the Criminal Justice Act 1991.

The Government then accepted the principle and later amended the law.

He was elected as the Member of Parliament for the West Midlands constituency of North Warwickshire at the 1992 general election, defeating the Conservative incumbent Francis Maude.

He served on the Home Affairs Select Committee from November 1992 to May 1993 focusing on reports on Youth Justice and the defence of provocation in murder cases involving a spouse.

He was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee which opened up scrutiny of the intelligence services by Parliament.

This led to the first meeting of MPs and the head of MI5, then Stella Remington, and this later led to wider parliamentary scrutiny of the intelligence services.

The Home Affairs Committee also did a report on Domestic Violence, which focused on the extent of the problem.

One of the strongest recommendations of the report was: "The first priority for government action on domestic violence should be the establishment of a central, co-ordinated policy for refuge provision throughout the country. We believe that this could well be the single greatest cost-saving measure that could be taken".

This led to an expansion in the number of refuges in the following decade.

The report also focused on the effect of immigration law on victims of domestic violence and has been credited with supporting a feminist perspective on domestic violence.

Influenced by evidence from Southall Black Sisters the report also raised awareness of the problems of domestic servants who faced deportation if they complained about being abused and this later led to changes in the immigration rules when Mike O'Brien became Immigration Minister.

Mike O'Brien introduced a Private Members Bill on 21 April 1993, the Criminal Justice Amendment (No.2) Bill, to allow previous convictions to be taken into account when sentencing a convicted person.

In May 1993 he became the first Labour Parliamentary Adviser to the Police Federation of England and Wales in 20 years.

He opposed cuts in Police Funding, criticising the then Home Secretary Michael Howard saying, "I am appalled at how badly the Home Secretary …has handicapped the police and the fight against crime".

O'Brien subsequently transferred to the Treasury Select Committee where he worked on a report into the collapse of Barings Bank and other reports on City Fraud and Independence of the Bank of England

He clashed with Sir Robin Butler when the Treasury Select Committee investigated the impartiality of the civil service.

He criticised the cabinet secretary for allowing himself to be used to investigate whether a Minister Secretary Jonathan Aitken had stayed at a Paris Hotel.

"Sir Robin was, at best, ill qualified to undertake any such investigation, as he did not in any previous incarnation have experience of being a policeman, a private investigator or a barrister trained in interrogation. He had none of the qualifications for playing the detective… Sir Robin Butler should not allow himself to be dragged into the gutter of partisan politics, nor should any civil servant. Some members of the Select Committee fear that impartiality has been undermined, and that should never happen again."

Mike O'Brien raised concerns in Parliament after the Matrix Churchill manufacturing plant in Coventry closed, calling on the government to "ensure that those workers and their families are compensated for the loss of their livelihood".

As a member of Treasury Select Committee, he called for the director of the Serious Fraud Office "to go" and for an inquiry into the case of Roger Levitt.

Mike O'Brien served as Parliamentary Under Secretary Minister of State for Immigration in the Home Office from 1997 till May 1999.

Mike O'Brien, said that the last Conservative government left the immigration system in "a complete shambles" and it could take two years or more to process an application for asylum and "we need to speed up the system. The deportation system is manifestly slow and cumbersome and produces inequity."

O'Brien described to a colleague the chaos he discovered in the department on being appointed as Immigration Minister: "Once, on a visit to IND, he opened a cupboard and found it full of unanswered mail, having just been assured there were no more outstanding letters. A hapless junior official was summoned. His explanation? 'We put them there so that the Minister wouldn't see them'".

In October 1997, after consulting with lawyers from Stonewall, Mike O'Brien announced a change in UK immigration law allowing citizens to sponsor unmarried partners in 1997, including same-sex couples in this group.

"Under this concession, a couple must show that they have been living together for four years or more and intend to continue to live together permanently. Once admitted they will have to show that the relationship has subsisted for a further year before being granted settlement".

In 1999, again consulting with Stonewall, he announced this was improved by reducing the required length of relationship to two years.

This was the first step taken by the New Labour government toward equality for the LGBTQ community.

As a Home Office Minister responsible for race relations, Mike O'Brien worked with Jack Straw to set up the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, meeting with the Lawrence family and their lawyers.

He later endorsed the Macpherson Report in a book called "Institutional Racism and the Police: Fact or Fiction?"

saying that, "The Report is about securing the commitment of all of us to tackling racism, whether open or unwitting throughout our society, not just in the police force.... The important thing for all of us is that Britain is a multiracial society. We have a choice whether to succeed as one or not. Racism in all its guises endangers and undermines the future success of our society; that is why to be racist in today's multi-racial Britain is to be 'un-British'."

He became a Queen's Counsel in 2007.

He now practises as a barrister at No5 Chambers in Birmingham.

In the May 2010 general election, O'Brien lost his North Warwickshire constituency to Dan Byles, the Conservative Party candidate by 54 votes.