Denis MacShane - Political Career

Political Career

MacShane first contested a parliamentary seat at the October 1974 general election, where he failed to win Solihull. In 1984, he was on the short list for Labour Party Communications Director, but Peter Mandelson was appointed instead. For the 1992 general election, he attempted to secure a nomination for the Coventry South East constituency, then Neath, and finally Rotherham, though all the attempts were unsuccessful. He was elected to the House of Commons in the 1994 Rotherham by-election. He was a member of the Deregulation Select Committee 1996-1997, and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to a succession of ministers in the 1997-2001 Parliament.

After the 2001 general election, he was made a junior minister at the Foreign Office with responsibility for the Balkans and Latin America. He caused some embarrassment to the government in 2002 by describing President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela as a 'ranting, populist demagogue' and compared him to Benito Mussolini during a failed military coup attempt to depose the democratically elected president. Afterwards, he had to make clear that, as minister with responsibility for Latin America, the government deplored the coup attempt.