Norman Tebbit: Ex-Tory Cabinet minister under former prime minister Margaret Thatcher dies aged 94

The former Tory Cabinet minister died “peacefully at home”, his son William said.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch paid tribute to Lord Tebbit, saying “his death will cause sadness across the political spectrum”.

The Conservative grandee played a key role in Tory politics for a generation.

As employment secretary, he took on the trade unions, and as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1987 he helped Mrs Thatcher secure her third general election victory.

Lord Tebbit suffered grave injuries in the 1984 Brighton bombing, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down. Five people died in the incident when an IRA bomb ripped Brighton’s Grand Hotel apart. Lord Tebbit and his wife were among those trapped in the rubble.

After the 1987 election success, Lord Tebbit left his post as Tory chairman to help care for Margaret, who died in 2020. He left the Commons in 1992 and became a member of the House of Lords.

Ms Badenoch said of Lord Tebbit: “He was one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism and his unstinting service in the pursuit of improving our country should be held up as an inspiration to all Conservatives.”

She said the “stoicism and courage” he showed following the Brighton bombing and the care he showed for his wife was a reminder that he was “first and foremost a family man who always held true to his principles”.

Mrs Badenoch said: “He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised.”

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak described Lord Tebbit as a “titan of Conservative politics” whose “resilience, conviction and service left a lasting mark on our party and our country”.

Lord Tebbit was a prominent figure in the Thatcher era with a reputation as a political bruiser unafraid of confrontation as he helped drive forward the economic and social reforms that characterised the 1980s.

Following inner city riots in Handsworth, Birmingham, and Brixton, south London, in 1981, he made comments which led to him being dubbed “Onyerbike” by critics, who felt he was a symbol of Conservative indifference to rising unemployment.

Rejecting suggestions that street violence was a natural response to rising unemployment, he retorted: “I grew up in the Thirties with an unemployed father. He didn’t riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.”

He was memorably described by Labour’s Michael Foot as a “semi-house-trained polecat” and was also nicknamed the “Chingford skinhead” in reference to his Essex constituency. His puppet on satirical show Spitting Image was a leather jacket-clad hardman – an image Lord Tebbit enjoyed because “he was always a winner”.

In 1990, in response to concerns over integration of migrants, he set out the “cricket test”, suggesting which side British Asians supported in internationals should be seen as an indicator of whether they were loyal to the UK – leading to accusations of racism.

His Euroscepticism also caused him to be a thorn in the side of Mrs Thatcher’s successor Sir John Major, whose Conservative leadership was marked by a series of battles over the issue.

Former prime minister Lord Cameron said Lord Tebbit would write to him when he was in No 10, with “some letters more ‘constructive’ than others”, but “they certainly always grabbed my attention and I had no doubt that they came with only our country’s best interests in mind”.