John Roper, Baron Roper

Who is John Roper, Baron Roper?

John Francis Hodgess Roper, Baron Roper, is a British politician.

John Roper was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School, Reading School, Magdalen College, Oxford, and the University of Chicago.

Roper started his career as an economics lecturer at the University of Manchester. He then went into politics and was elected Member of Parliament for Farnworth. He sat as a Labour Co-operative MP and for the Social Democratic Party from 1981 to 1983, when he was also the party's Chief Whip. His Farnworth seat was subsequently abolished, and he contested Worsley at the 1983 general election, finishing third in a three-way marginal.

Since 2000 he has been a Life peer as Baron Roper, of Thorney Island in the City of Westminster. He was the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords until 2005. He was subsequently appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. In 2008, he was elected Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees.

He has controversially been accused by Anthony Glees of being a Stasi "agent of some influence" during his time at Chatham House. Lord Roper rejects the charge indignantly. He says he was engaged in building bridges with East Germany in the 1980s as part of a Foreign Office-approved policy of thawing relations.