Norman Tebbit, key Thatcher ally, dies aged 94

Norman Tebbit, who served as a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, has died aged 94.

Throughout the 1980s he worked as the chairman of the Conservative Party and led the departments of trade and industry and employment.

A loyal ally of Thatcher, Lord Tebbit backed her agenda, bringing in laws designed to curb union power - including making them liable for damages if they did illegal acts.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Lord Tebbit as "the leading exponent of the philosophy known as Thatcherism" and praised his "stoicism and courage" after he and his wife were severely injured by an IRA bomb in 1984.

The explosion at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Tory Party's annual conference killed five people and seriously injured 31.

Lord Tebbit suffered a broken shoulder blade, fractured vertebrae and a cracked collarbone, while Margaret Tebbit, was left permanently disabled.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Lord Tebbit's son William said: "At 11.15pm on 7 July 2025 Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94.

"His family ask that their privacy is respected at this time and a further statement regarding funeral arrangements will be made in due course."

Badenoch said Lord Tebbit "was an icon in British politics" and praised his "unstinting service in the pursuit of improving our country".

"To many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb," she said.

"He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised."

Lord Michael Dobbs, the author of House of Cards who worked as Lord Tebbit's chief of staff, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was "a man of great humour, of great political insight and a man of tremendous courage too."

"Not only political courage because he was willing to pursue policies he thought were fundamentally right even though at the time they might have been unpopular but he was also a man of great personal courage – the way he dealt with the aftermath of the Brighton bombing," he said.

"Politics misses tremendously people of that character who believe so deeply in what they are pursuing that they risk everything for it."

Thatcher's biographer Lord Charles Moore said he was the "first important personal example of Thatcherism in action because he was the self-made man from the working class and he was unapologetic about that".

Former Conservative leader Lord David Cameron described Lord Tebbit as "a man of great conviction, profound self-belief and with a direct and sometimes abrasive tone".

"I was sometimes on the hard end of that, but there is no doubting the tremendous impact he had on our country and my party," he said.

"For all his caustic tongue and sharp wit, he was also privately a kind and thoughtful man."

Another ex-party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who took over Lord Tebbit's Chingford seat after he stood down in 1992, said he was "critical to Margaret's Thatcher's success".

"Sometimes she didn't own that as much as she should have."

A spokesperson for Sir Keir Starmer said: "The prime minister's thoughts are with Norman Tebbit's children at this difficult time."

He described Lord Tebbit as "a major figure in politics during the 1980s" and said: "Many will remember the great strength he showed in the face of the atrocious IRA bombing at the Grand Hotel in Brighton."

Born in 1931 in the north London suburb of Ponders End, he left school at 16 and joined the Financial Times as a trainee journalist.

He learnt to fly planes during his National Service with the RAF and later worked for the British Overseas Airways Corporation.

In the mid 1960s, he became increasingly involved in politics and in 1970 won the seat of Epping for the Conservatives.

The constituency was later redrawn and renamed Chingford, which he represented until 1992, when he left the Commons for the House of Lords.

As a politician he gained a reputation for his forthright approach.

Labour's Michael Foot likened him to a "semi-house trained polecat" and the satirical puppet show Spitting Image depicted him as a knuckle-duster-wielding thug.

In 1981, he made his famous "get on your bike" speech to the Conservative Party conference in which he criticised riots over unemployment, telling the audience that in the 1930s his father had not rioted but had "got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it".

In 1990, he provoked anger when he posed a "cricket test" to help determine whether a person was truly British.

"A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass the cricket test," he said.

"Which side do they cheer for? It's an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?"

As party chairman he ran the Conservatives' 1987 general election campaign, securing a third successive victory for Thatcher.

However, after the election he left government in order to care for his wife.

He continued to prioritise his caring duties over a return to front-line politics, declining an offer from Thatcher to re-join her cabinet and deciding against running in the leadership election to replace her in 1990.