View source for Eric Varley

{{short description|British politician and life peer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name             = The Lord Varley
|honorific_suffix = {{postnom|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}}
|image            = Eric-Graham-Varley-Baron-Varley.jpg
|office           = [[Secretary of State for Industry]]
|primeminister    = {{ubl|[[Harold Wilson]]|[[James Callaghan]]}}
|term_start       = 10 June 1975
|term_end         = 4 May 1979
|predecessor      = [[Tony Benn]]
|successor        = [[Keith Joseph]]
|office2          = [[Secretary of State for Energy]]
|primeminister2   = [[Harold Wilson]]
|term_start2      = 5 March 1974
|term_end2        = 10 June 1975
|predecessor2     = [[Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington|The Lord Carrington]]
|successor2       = [[Tony Benn]]
|office3          = [[Shadow Secretary of State for Employment]]
|leader3          = {{ubl|[[James Callaghan]]|[[Michael Foot]]}}
|term_start3      = 14 July 1979
|term_end3        = 31 October 1983
|predecessor3     = [[Jim Prior]]
|successor3       = [[John Smith (Labour Party leader)|John Smith]]
|office4          = [[Shadow Secretary of State for Industry]]
|leader4          = [[James Callaghan]]
|term_start4      = 4 May 1979
|term_end4        = 14 July 1979
|predecessor4     = [[Keith Joseph]]
|successor4       = [[John Silkin]]
|office5          = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br>for [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]]
|term_start5      = 15 October 1964
|term_end5        = 19 January 1984
|predecessor5     = [[George Benson (British politician)|George Benson]]
|successor5       = [[Tony Benn]]
|birth_name       = Eric Graham Varley
|birth_date       = {{birth date|1932|8|11|df=y}}
|birth_place      = [[Poolsbrook]], Derbyshire, England
|death_date       = {{death date and age|2008|7|29|1932|8|11|df=y}}
|death_place      = [[Chesterfield, Derbyshire]], England
|party            = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
|spouse           = {{marriage|Marjorie Turner|11 June 1955}}
|children         = 1
|alma_mater       = [[Ruskin College]]
}}
'''Eric Graham Varley, Baron Varley''', {{postnom|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}} (11 August 1932 – 29 July 2008) was a [[Labour Party (UK)|British Labour Party]] politician and [[cabinet minister]] on the right-wing of the party. He was the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]] from 1964 to 1984.

==Early life==
Eric Graham Varley was born in [[Poolsbrook]], Derbyshire, to Frank and Eva (née Goring) Varley.<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = Varley, Eric Graham, Baron Varley (1932–2008), politician|last = Kaufman|first = Gerald|authorlink = Gerald Kaufman|date = 2013|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/100192}}</ref> His father was a coalminer.<ref name = ODNB/> He left school at the age of fourteen in 1946.<ref name = ODNB/><ref name = Goodman>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jul/29/lords.labour |title= Labour peer Lord Varley dies at 75|access-date=30 July 2008 |work= The Guardian|date= 29 July 2008 | location=London | first=Geoffrey | last=Goodman}}</ref> His mother did not wish for him to follow his father's line of work, and he began an early career at the iron works before training as an engineer.<ref name = ODNB/> He was an accomplished football player as a young man who played semi-professionally. He initially aspired to play professionally, and it was speculated that he could have done so.<ref name = Dalyell>{{cite news|url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lord-varley-miner-s-son-who-became-a-sensible-and-pragmatic-labour-minister-but-in-1984-quit-politics-for-industry-881245.html|title = Lord Varley: Miner's son who became a 'sensible and pragmatic' Labour minister but in 1984 quit politics for industry|last = Dalyell|first = Tam|authorlink = Tam Dalyell|date = 30 July 2008|accessdate = 24 November 2023|newspaper = [[The Independent]]}}</ref> However, he decided to start a career in politics, partially at the behest of trade unionist [[Bert Wynn]].<ref name = Goodman/>

==Political career==
Varley was active in the [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|National Union of Mineworkers]], and became a branch secretary of the union in 1955, joining the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] the same year.<ref name = Goodman/> 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 (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) [[George Benson (British politician)|George Benson]] was retiring from Parliament.<ref name = Goodman/> He was narrowly selected in June 1963 and duly held the [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield seat]] in the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 election]].<ref name = Goodman/>

Despite rebelling against the government's application to join the [[European Union|Common Market]] in 1967, Varley became an Assistant [[Whip (politics)|Whip]] later that year, and [[Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister]] [[Harold Wilson]] in November 1968.<ref name = Goodman/> 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.<ref name = ODNB/>

Varley was appointed [[Secretary of State for Energy]] when Labour returned to power in 1974, and was the cabinet's youngest member.<ref name = ODNB/> The appointment of an NUM-sponsored MP helped the government end the NUM strike which had led the previous government to ration electricity to three days a week. Varley subsidised the [[National Coal Board]] and chose a British design for new nuclear power stations over an American rival. He also began the procedure to nationalise [[North Sea oil]].<ref name = Goodman/> 

During the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|Common Market referendum]] he advocated a 'No' vote but was not prominent in the campaign.<ref name = ODNB/> Immediately afterwards Wilson swapped Varley's and Benn's posts, so that Varley was effectively promoted to [[Secretary of State for Industry]]. In November 1976 Varley suffered an embarrassing public defeat when he determined to shut down the loss-making Chrysler car factory: the Cabinet forced him to increase its subsidy to keep it open. He continued the government's slow nationalisation programme by appointing [[Michael Edwardes]] to take over at British Leyland.<ref name = Goodman/>

When Labour went into opposition in 1979, Varley was elected to the Shadow Cabinet in fifth place.<ref name = ODNB/> He led [[Denis Healey]]'s campaign for the party leadership in 1980 and defeated the left-winger [[Norman Atkinson]] for the post of party Treasurer (an office he had coveted for some years) in 1981.<ref name = Goodman/> He served as opposition spokesman on employment, and resisted an attempt by [[Michael Foot]] to replace him with [[Neil Kinnock]] (whom he disliked) in 1982.<ref name = Goodman/>

After Kinnock's election as party leader in 1983, Varley announced that he would retire from Parliament at the next general election.<ref name = Goodman/> However, he ended up leaving before then, as he was appointed as Chairman of [[Coalite]] plc, a private company manufacturing coal-based products including a coke-like smokeless fuel of the same name.<ref name = ODNB/> He [[Resignation from the British House of Commons|resigned]] his seat in January 1984. Ironically, this opened the way for Tony Benn to return to the House of Commons as Varley's successor in the seat. Varley served five years at Coalite, until the company was acquired in 1989, and subsequently held other directorships, including as a regional director for [[Lloyds Bank]].<ref name = ODNB/><ref name = Goodman/> Following a Labour Party nomination, he was created a [[life peer]] on 30 May 1990 taking the title '''Baron Varley''', of [[Chesterfield, Derbyshire|Chesterfield]] in the [[Derbyshire|County of Derbyshire]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=52157 |date=4 June 1990 |page=10067}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1955, Varley married Marjorie Turner, and they had one son.<ref name = ODNB/> 

Varley was a Methodist.<ref name = ODNB/> He lived in [[Walton, Chesterfield]], and was known for maintaining an elaborate garden at his home.<ref name = ODNB/><ref name = Dalyell/> He died from cancer at his residence on 29 July 2008, at the age of 75.<ref name = ODNB/><ref name = Goodman/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-eric-varley | Eric Varley }}

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]]|years=[[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964]]–[[1984 Chesterfield by-election|1984]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Norman Atkinson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Treasurer of the Labour Party]]|years= 1981–1983}}
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{{Presidents of the Board of Trade}}
{{Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change}}
{{Second Wilson Ministry}}
{{Callaghan Ministry}}
{{Labour Party (UK)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varley, Eric}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
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[[Category:20th-century Methodists]]
[[Category:21st-century Methodists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Ruskin College]]
[[Category:British secretaries of state]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:British Methodists]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Derbyshire]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970]]
[[Category:National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs]]
[[Category:Parliamentary private secretaries to the prime minister]]
[[Category:People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1964–1966]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1966–1970]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1970–1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974–1979]]
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[[Category:British Eurosceptics]]