Denis Howell, Baron Howell

Who was Denis Howell, Baron Howell?

Denis Herbert Howell, Baron Howell was a British Labour Party politician.

Born in Birmingham, Howell was educated at Handsworth Grammar School, Birmingham and became a clerk and chairman of the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union standing orders committee. He was a Football League referee and keen cricketer. He served as a councillor on Birmingham City Council 1946–56 and was Labour Group secretary from 1950.

Howell contested Birmingham King's Norton in 1951. He was Member of Parliament for Birmingham All Saints from 1955 to 1959, and for Birmingham Small Heath from the 1961 by-election until his retirement in 1992. He held several ministerial posts under the Wilson and Callaghan governments, including Sport, Education and Science, Housing and Local Government, the Environment and for Sport and Recreation.

On 28 October 1974, his wife and son escaped unharmed when an IRA bomb exploded in their Ford Cortina on the driveway of the family home in Birmingham.

In 1976, during Britain's driest summer in over 200 years, he was made Minister for Drought. Days later, heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding, and he was made Minister of Floods.