Elected MP for Hemel Hempstead, 1974–79
His Private Members’ Bill in 1976 won the right to anonymity for rape victims – and defendants in rape cases unless convicted.
(“The Thatcher government revoked the right of defendants to anonymity.)

Elected MP for Birmingham Erdington, 1983–2001
Chairman of House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, 1999–2001.

Labour front-bench spokesman on broadcasting and media
(led for Labour in Broadcasting Bill,
1989–90) from 1987–94 and disabled people’s rights from 1994–95.

Appointed to House of Lords, June 2001, as a working peer

Elected Chair of Labour Peers, 2005–2012

Chairman of All-Party Parliamentary Penal Affairs Group 
Chairman of British Parliamentary Campaign for Iran Freedom 
Vice chairman of Indo-British Parliamentary Group 
Chairman of Friends of Cyprus 
Vice chairman of All-Party Motor Group 
Member of sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Group
Foremost in dirty blood campaign 
Former member Wilton Park Academic Council 
Vice president Lotteries Council
Treasurer of ANZAC group & All-Party Multiple Sclerosis group 
The Farm Animal Welfare co-ordinating executive
Secretary of Labour’s Civil Liberties group
Council member of The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons 
Save the Children & Rehab UK
Sponsor of The Terrence Higgins Trust;

In Robin’s own words…
“My parents were both political and while my friends were kicking a football around, some of my earliest memories involve standing on street corners handing out leaflets with my twin sister and elder brother. My first political campaign was to picket, with my siblings, for more pocket money. We marched round and round the back yard carrying placards calling for 6d a week more pocket money. And we got it – eventually. My siblings did not go into politics but I had the strong feeling that I wanted to help change the world and you need this attitude because there are days when you wonder why the hell you wanted to do it! As Fred Daly an Australian politician once said: ‘Politics is a funny game. One day you’re a rooster and the next you’re a feather duster.”

‘I came into the Commons in 1974, and I loved the place when I arrived, even the pink tapes hanging from pegs in the Members’ cloakroom. They were there to hang your sword before entering the Chamber. That should have warned me because one of the first things that happened was I got shouted at by the Speaker, Selwyn Lloyd – it’s the things people don’t explain to you, you see. I was speaking in the Chamber one day and I’d drawn my usual crowd, you know, about three, and I was talking to the Speaker. Then all of a sudden Selwyn gets up and shouts, “Order! Order!” and I thought, my God, I’m going to get six months. He barked at me,

“Will the Honourable Member stop staring at me!” ‘The trouble is, when you do finally get elected to the House of Commons, there’s no certificate or illuminated address. At least when you become a Lord, you get sent a Writ of Summons.

‘As a new MP, you just turn up at the Commons and the policeman on the gate ticks your name against the Daily Telegraph election supplement. So if they leave your name out by mistake, you don’t get in!”