Political Career
He was first elected to parliament in the 2000 Falkirk West by-election, which was prompted by the resignation of Dennis Canavan. On election he served as a member of the Scottish Affairs and the Procedures Select Committees at Westminster. Joyce retained his seat in the 2001 general election, and was elected to the enlarged Falkirk constituency in the 2005 general election. At each general election, Joyce has increased his majority, although his percentage share of the public vote fell at the 2005 election.
From 2003 Joyce served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to a number of British Government ministers. He resigned as the Parliamentary Aide to Bob Ainsworth on 3 September 2009 citing concerns over the war in Afghanistan. He had previously been PPS to John Hutton during three of Hutton's cabinet posts: when he was the Secretary of State for Defence; Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Prior to that, Joyce served as the parliamentary aide to ministers Mike O'Brien MP, when O'Brien was the Minister for Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry and Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for Industry and the Regions at the Department of Trade and Industry.
Joyce has persuaded the Treasury to change the child benefit regulations to remove a discrepancy that disadvantaged young Scottish FE students relative to their peers in the rest of the UK. In April 2008 Joyce became the first European parliamentarian to be granted an opportunity to address the newly-formed Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when he visited the DRC as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the Great Lakes Region of Africa with other members of the group. In September 2008, Joyce was criticised by local government councillors for describing the name of the new Clackmannanshire Bridge as "unimaginative" and "parochial". The naming of the bridge was reported as a contentious matter. In September 2008 Joyce was banned from driving for six months after clocking up 12 points on his driving licence.
He is also the author of a Fabian pamphlet titled Arms and the Man: renewing the armed services, edited Now's the Hour!: new thinking for Holyrood and has served as Chair of the National Executive of the Fabian Society.
In September 2011 he contributed to the book What next for Labour? Ideas for a new Generation; his piece was entitled "It's a Sin".
Read more about this topic: Eric Joyce
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