Richard Haines Burden (born 1 September 1954) is a UK Labour Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Northfield.
Burden was born in Liverpool. He attended the Wallasey Technical Grammar School; Bramhall Comprehensive School; St John's College of Further Education, Manchester; the University of York, where he obtained a degree in Politics and was the president of the Students' Union in 1976; and then to the University of Warwick where he received a Master's Degree in Industrial Relations.
On leaving university he was appointed a branch officer in North Yorkshire in the National Association of Local Government Officers in 1979, becoming the district officer for the West Midlands in 1981, a position he held until his election to Westminster. He is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union which he joined in 1979.
He contested the parliamentary seat of Meriden at the 1987 general election, where he was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Iain Mills by a margin of 16,820. He was then selected to fight the Conservative-held marginal seat of Birmingham Northfield at the 1992 general election. Burden defeated the sitting Tory MP Roger King by just 630 votes and became a Labour MP. He made his maiden speech on May 19, 1992.
After Labour formed the government following the 1997 General Election, Burden was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and fellow Birmingham MP Jeff Rooker, and he remained Rooker's PPS when he was became the Minister of State at the Department of Social Security.
Following the 2001 general election Burden became a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee, and after the 2005 election moved to the International Development Committee.
Local politics in Birmingham Northfield has long been dominated by the car factory MG Rover, whose factory went into administration after negotiations with Chinese car manufacturer Shanghai Automotive collapsed. The site has since been sold to Chinese car company Nanjing Automotive. Burden has repeatedly raised the issue in Parliament, in relation to the local economy, jobs and skills.
Burden is not a particularly frequent Labour rebel, but has voted against the government on a few occasions, most notably on the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the 2005 anti-terror bill, which included provision to hold terrorist suspects for 90 days without trial.
Burden is Chair of the Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group and frequently asks questions of ministers on issues relating to the Middle East conflict. He is one of the most prominent parliamentary critics of Israeli policy in the region, particularly with regard to its expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
He also speaks French and is an avid motor sports fan. In 2002 he became the special advisor to the Minister of Sport, Richard Caborn on motor sports.
