Born in Enfield. He was a journalist on the Financial Times, before serving with the RAF during four years of National Service. On leaving the RAF he joined BOAC in 1953 as a pilot. he entered politics in 1970.
He was a close ally of Margaret Thatcher and served as her Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry[?] and President of the Board of Trade (October 1983 - September 1985), as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and as party chairman (1985 - 1987). During the 1984 IRA attack on the Grand Hotel Brighton he was injured and his wife, Margaret, was permanently disabled. He decided not to stand in the 1992 election, his Chingford seat being inherited by his protégé Iain Duncan Smith, and was granted a peerage and entered the House of Lords.
He is a extreme Eurosceptic and his outspoken views on race and immigration have brought him both support and opprobrium (he was nicknamed the "Chingford skinhead").
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