Richard Burden (born 1 September 1954) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Northfield since 1992. Together with close friend and fellow ex-Young Liberal Peter Hain MP, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the ill-fated Alternative Vote system in the May 2011 campaign. Burden was born in Liverpool. He attended the Wallasey Technical Grammar School; Bramhall Comprehensive School; St John's College of Further Education, Manchester; the University of York, where he obtained a degree in Politics and was the president of the Students' Union in 1976; and then to the University of Warwick where he received a Master's Degree in Industrial Relations. On leaving university he was appointed a branch officer in North Yorkshire in the National Association of Local Government Officers in 1979, becoming the district officer for the West Midlands in 1981, a position he held until his election to Westminster. He is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union which he joined in 1979.