Sheerman unsuccessfully contested Taunton in the October 1974 election, and became the MP for Huddersfield East from 1979 to 1983 and for Huddersfield since the 1983 general election. Sheerman has held the Huddersfield seats since, with his majority as low as 3,955 in 1983 and as high as 15,848 in the 1997 general election. In the most recent general election in 2019, Sheerman's majority was decreased to 4,937 with a swing of 7.8% to the Conservatives, in line with many other seats in Yorkshire. From 1983 to 1988, Sheerman was the Labour spokesperson on education and employment; for Home Affairs from 1988 to 1992; and for Disabled People's Rights from 1992 to 1994. He was Chair of the House of Commons Education and Skills select committee from 2001 to 2010, renamed the Children, Schools and Families Committee in 2007. Under his chairmanship, the Committee was often critical of government policy. Sheerman warned the government not to "lose their nerve" over reforming secondary education exam system back in 2005, and in 2006 said it was "naive" to allocate local school places through parental choice, with lottery selection being the best way to avoid "bloody awful" schools existing as a side effect of parents pushing for their children to study elsewhere. During Sheerman's chairmanship, the select committee produced reports on subjects such as home education, education outside the classroom, and young people not in education employment or training. Sheerman consistently voted for the Iraq war, and has nearly always voted to block subsequent independent investigations into the war, with the most recent such vote in 2016. He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel. He is Chair of the Labour Forum for Criminal Justice and of the Cross-Party Advisory Group on Preparation for European Monetary Union. Outside parliament, he is Chair of the National Educational Research and Development Trust, and a trustee of the . His political interests are listed as trade, industry, finance, further education, education, economy, the European Union, South America and the United States. In June 2009, Sheerman called for a secret ballot of the Parliamentary Labour Party on whether Gordon Brown should continue in office as prime minister. This followed widespread criticism of Brown's performance and the resignation of Cabinet member James Purnell. Sheerman later reassured his local party chairman that he had not directly called for Brown's resignation. Sheerman called for a London catering company to employ "English workers" in a Twitter exchange on 23 April 2012. The comments reached the national press. In response Sheerman said the objection to him speaking out was "pernicious political correctness". He is founder and chairman of Policy Connect, a cross-party, not-for-profit based in London, where he regularly chairs seminar events and research inquiries. He is also chair and co-chair of a number of official All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, the All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group, and the Bullying All-Party Group. Since 2012, Sheerman has led the Schools to Work Commission, the Labour Party's policy review on the transition from education to employment. In June 2015, Sheerman caused controversy when he argued that lowering the voting age to 16, by reducing childhood, might raise the risk of sexual abuse. He supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. Sheerman voted for the triggering of Article 50. Kirklees, which his constituency falls within, saw 55% of its residents vote in the 2016 EU referendum to leave the EU. In October 2017, Sheerman appeared on television and announced that he believed that remain vote came mostly from the better educated people in the country. In July 2020 Barry tweeted on twitter that we should have another referendum despite the UK leaving the EU on 31 January 2020.
Personal life
Barry Sheerman married Pamela Elizabeth Brenchley in 1965 in north Surrey, with whom he has one son and three daughters. He lives in a flat in Almondbury, Huddersfield. His recreations include walking, biography and films. In 1993, Sheerman co-wrote, with Isaac Kramnick, a biography of the Labour intellectual Harold Laski.
