FORMER UK MINISTER Norman Tebbit has died aged 94, his son said.

The Conservative grandee, who is survived by two sons and a daughter, was one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political allies and played a key role in Tory Party politics.

He suffered grave injuries in the IRA’s 1984 Brighton bombing, and it took four hours for fire crews to extricate him and his wife, Margaret, from the wreckage.

Margaret was left paralysed from the neck down, and needed round-the-clock care for the rest of her life. Few would also forget the grim TV pictures of Mr Tebbit being eased out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel.

This ordeal did nothing to diminish his appetite for political combat, and he returned to Westminster as abrasive as ever. However, after masterminding Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped down to care for his wife. 

Born on 29 March 1931 in Ponders End, Middlesex, Norman Beresford Tebbit was the son of Leonard Tebbit, a pawnbroker, and his wife, Edith. He took a job aged 16 as a trainee journalist at The Financial Times, before completing his RAF national service.

He entered Parliament in 1970 as Conservative MP for Epping. When Thatcher became party leader in 1975, he strongly backed her agenda of free market reforms and curbing the power of unions.

Tebbit (L) strongly backed Thatcher's agenda of free market reforms and curbing the power of unions, when she became party leader in 1975. Alamy, file Alamy, file

She encouraged him to harass Labour ministers from the backbenches, making headlines after accusing a political opponent of “pure undiluted fascism” during a heated exchange over closed shops.

Following the Tories’ general election victory of 1979, she made him a junior trade minister, promoting him to the cabinet as employment secretary two years later. Thatcher said she “bitterly regretted” losing him from the cabinet after he stepped away.

Having once been seen as her natural successor, he later acknowledged it was a source of regret for him also. He remained politically active however – particularly on Europe – in the upper house of lords.

Tebbit continued to attract controversy with outspoken remarks on a range of issues, from immigration to homosexuality. He warned that legislation to allow same-sex marriage passed under David Cameron was alienating the Tory faithful.

His wife Margaret died in 2020, aged 86. He never forgave the former IRA member responsible for her injuries.